Starring: Rosie

Directed by: Leo McCarey

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Father Chuck O’Malley (Bing Crosby) arrives as the new parrish priest of St. Mary’s and works with Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) to expand and improve the school, even though they approach the matter in different ways.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): When Father O’Malley first arrives at the school he is shown inside by one of the nuns. She asks him to take a seat and he does, not realizing there is a tabby kitten on the chair. The kitten just manages to squeeze out from beneath him and a squeal is dubbed in. The nun explains that their cat had kittens which are running all over the place.

Moments later Father O’Malley addresses the nuns collectively. As he speaks he doesn’t realize that a different tabby kitten has climbed onto the shelf behind him and is sniffing inside his straw hat. It is clear that some kind of food has been placed inside the hat to lure the kitten to nose around inside.

As the kitten continues to play with the hat and almost falls off the shelf the nuns laugh harder, leaving O’Malley wondering what he is doing that is so funny.

Eventually Father O’Malley catches on and the kitten climbs down on his shoulder.

Sister Benedict asks if O’Malley would like to talk to the students. He is still holding the kitten, which mews. Sister Benedict pets the kitten and then leads O’Malley outside. “I wanna speak to you, too!” O’Malley says to the kitten. After this no cats or kittens are seen again.

Behind the Scenes

Audiences and film critics alike were taken by the scene in which the adorable kitten upstaged Bing Crosby. The identity of the tiny cat actress was revealed in an article written by Hedda Hopper and published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram on September 9, 1945, which introduced readers to several animal actors:

    One of the big laughs in “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” which Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, and Leo McCarey have recently finished, comes when a turtle ambles across the floor. It’s no ordinary turtle, because Bing’s straw hat takes the place of its shell. This neatest animal trick of the year is pulled by Rosie, a red tom kitten which Animal Trainer Harry East considers one of his most promising feline stars.

And Jimmy Fidler shared this story from the set of the film with his readers on March 28, 1945:

    On the “Bells of St. Mary’s” (RKO-Pathe), I found Bing Crosby before the cameras. “Action!” ordered Director Leo McCarey and, as though on signal, a 10-weeks-old kitten whch had been asleep on a chair got up, stretched, and began to roughhouse with the tassels of a lamp shade. Within five seconds everyone, with the possible exception of the cameraman, was concentrating his attention on the kitten. Whereupon Bing stopped the scenes. “As a man who has worked with Bob Hope and Barry Fitzgerald, I may claim to be courageous without any undue boasting,” he said. “But honestly, folks, competing with both Ingrid Bergman and that kitten is too much!”

Final Mewsings: Kittens know how to slay a roomful of nuns.

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