Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles.First of all, Vincent Price is the third credited actor on this film. How did that happen? In the well over two hours of movie, he gets less than ten minutes of screen time. Of course, for Price fans, it is ten very good minutes, but still...What is so great about this film is that it simultaneously promotes religion and calls out those who use it for their own ends. Father Chisholm hopes to spread the message of Christ, but he wants to do it by example. He refuses to accept converts who do not truly believe or those who have been paid to "believe". I love this. Being Christian is a good thing, but only if done for the right reasons. It seems far too many people forget this.

The trailer for "The Keys of the Kingdom" compares the 1944 film to the prior classics "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and "How Green Was My Valley," and the comparisons are apt. Like the two earlier films, "The Keys of the Kingdom" is the narrated story of a man's life with present-day scenes as bookends. All three films follow ordinary men who leave indelible legacies, but fail to grasp the worth of their own accomplishments. While Mr. Chips is an English teacher and young Huw Morgan is a Welsh miner's son, Father Francis Chisholm is a Scottish missionary priest in China.In this well written adaptation of the A. J. Cronin novel by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Nunnally Johnson, Gregory Peck underplays the role of Francis Chisholm effectively and with the solid dignity that distinguished Peck's long career. In only his second screen role, Peck is a Christ-like figure who accepts people as they are, which puts him at odds with the dogmatic bureaucrats that run his church. Vincent Price is colorful as Angus Mealy, an ambitious fellow priest who puts personal advancement above godliness, and Thomas Mitchell is equally fine as Willie Tulloch, a doctor who puts his service to humanity above religion. Besides Price and Mitchell, the film has a rich cast of such other outstanding character players as Edmund Gwen, Anne Revere, Cedric Hardwick, Sara Allgood, Benson Fong, and Roddy McDowall. Each of these fine performers makes even the smallest role memorable. While Rose Stradner is fine as the Reverend Mother, the film treads a delicate line with its subtle hint at a love story between her and Father Chisholm. Perhaps there was an underlying attraction between the two that went beyond mere friendship, but, if so, that was daring territory to explore during the 1940's.While "Keys of the Kingdom" runs more than two hours, the engrossing story should hold the attention of viewers who loved "How Green Was My Valley" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips." The film provides an emotional payoff that equals those in the earlier films, and damp eyes and a sniffle or two will likely affect even the hardest hearts. While at times sentimental in the best sense of the word, "The Keys of the Kingdom" also has an important message of acceptance that is particularly relevant today. Father Chisholm does not criticize "heathens" or "atheists," but rather respects their points of view and loves them for their good deeds regardless of their philosophies. When one of Chisholm's non-believer friends lays dying, the priest does not pressure him to convert on his deathbed, and the dying man thanks his friend for his respect and for allowing him to die as he had lived. The film certainly makes a strong point when the kindest, most generous works were those done by the non-believers, the doctor and Mr. Chia, the Chinese landowner, while the most selfish individual was the self-serving social-climbing priest played by Vincent Price. Peck's acceptance of and offer of friendship to the Protestant missionaries was yet another example of the man's Christianity, which placed him at odds with his own church and did more to illustrate Christ's message than the bureaucratic church hierarchy that would not even send money to fund the mission and told him to convert people of means. Although there are a few slow stretches and the finished film is not the classic that its creators intended, "The Keys of the Kingdom" is rewarding and a showcase for a young Gregory Peck, who was poised at the dawn of his stardom.

I've always loved this movie. My mother introduced me to it and its remained one of my favorites over the years. I find the character of Father Chisholm to be my ideal of what a priest should be. Kind, loving, humble and unpretentious. I don't think Peck ever surpassed himself. He is tremendous in the part. Ably written and directed, I think it is a superb film

This is the story of a man who has to try twice as hard to be half as good as others in college. After he becomes a priest, he butts heads with the mainstream, stuck-up parishioners. His bishop has the idea: send him to China, set up a mission, and doctor their bodies and souls.This spans his 40 years in the mission field. Things do not go well, though at times they do. He stays true to his values, and does not sell out to the vulgar rich, or the vulgar greedy. This is the gleaming quality: keep trying to do the right thing. He does.I have watched this one at least 12 times over the years. It still holds up well.