

The death of his parents, his days at school and entry into the Priesthood,30 years in China as a missionary during the great upheavals of the 1920's and 30's through the 40's Long March of Mao. The whole story emerges in a flashback of the Bishop reading while Father Francis is sleeping downstairs and dreaming of all the things that made up his life. The Bishop enters Father Francis' spartanly furnished room and discovers the Priest's journal,staying up all night to read it. Though this is the last thing that Father Francis wants, as a Priest, he is part fatalist and so the Bishop retires to Father Francis' room for the night while Father Francis is left by the doorway in a chair where he doses off. The story opens with the Priest Father Francis being informed by his Bishop that he is to retire to the old Priest home and lose his parish as a reward for his long and faithful service to the Church. Remember this act of Faith- it comes into play later.) Mankiewicz had great faith in Gregory Peck, so in spite of those recent failures, cast him as the lead. The boy (played by Roddy McDowell) grows to be a Priest (played by Gregory Peck) (Gotta stop right here and let you know that this was his first film! Star billing! Above Thomas Mitchell! He had just come off a fourth Broadway flop when he was asked to do this film! The Producer, Joeseph L. The book (my first edition is pictured above)is a tightly woven story of the life of a Scottish boy who loses both parents to religous persecution- his Father was Catholic and the Mother a Protestant. But if I am going to do it at all, I must begin with one of the greatest and probably least known of all screen adaptations- "The Keys of The Kingdom" by A.J.


When I first started this blog I was going to compare books and movies.
