Lent Reviews Week 5: The Reluctant Saint (1962)

Out of the mouth of babes and infants thou hast perfected praise.- Psalm 8:2

     The Reluctant Saint was released on December 3rd, 1962. Directed by Edward Dmytryk and written by John Fante and Joseph Petracca it tells the story of Saint Joseph (Giuseppe) of Cupertino (Maximilian Schell), a 17th-century Italian saint and mystic who was reported to have experienced miraculous levitation and ecstatic visions.

     When we first meet Giuseppe he releases a small bird he had been hiding in his jacket during school. Throughout the film, he shows a special love for God's creatures, especially the small and innocent. Having been held back for many years because of his slow-wittedness, he returns home from school and happily presents his mother (Lea Padovani) with a diploma, which she sees as a sham.  His mother is a force to be reckoned with. She is afraid that Giuseppe, who seems to fail at everything he tries, will end up like his drunken, shiftless father (Arnoldo Foa'). Her portrayal is true to life, as the saint's mother was said to have been harsh toward her son, who she saw as a nuisance. On the other hand Giuseppe's father, who is shown to have a loving relationship with his son in the film, in reality died before he was born.

     When Giuseppe's uncle, Father Giovanni, the prior of the local Franciscan Friary, comes to visit, his mother sees this as an opportunity for Giuseppe, and uses her influence with the priest to get her son admitted into the friary. Later, when he is removed from the Friary for inadvertently breaking an old, precious statue of the Virgin Mary, she intervenes to get him reinstated, interrupting Mass and embarrassing Father Giovanni, and her persistence wins out.

     Giuseppe, in his simple humility and his attachment to his mother, is at first afraid to enter religious life but she convinces him. Later, when he is given the opportunity to become a priest, he is again reluctant, preferring to remain in the stables with his animals. The priests and brothers of the Friary all see Giuseppe as a hopeless simpleton, someone who seems to attract trouble and bad fortune. Only Bishop Durso (Akim Tamiroff), who comes to the friary for a routine inspection, sees past the simple man's rough exterior to the humble saint within. He encourages Giuseppe to pursue the priesthood and eventually, through the grace of God and a little extra help from the Bishop, he succeeds.

     It is then that his fellow priests discover an astounding secret: Giuseppe is prone to fall into heavenly ecstasies, where he is miraculously lifted from the ground. The film shows this to first occur when Giuseppe is studying for the priesthood. Filled with anguish that he is stuck in his cell with his studies, which he can't seem to apply himself to, he seeks solace from the very statue of the Madonna which he broke, the broken head of which he preserved inside the stables where he used to work. Praying in front of this statue he is frightened to find himself lifted from the ground in ecstasy. Giuseppe has a special devotion to the Blessed Mother but also enters into ecstasy in prayer and at Mass, where his brothers first witness this miraculous event.

     In any case this discovery leads to an inquest, and the local inquisitors are more then happy to leave Giuseppe's levitation as a local matter. Father Raspi (Ricardo Montalban), who has never liked Giuseppe, is not satisfied with this. He insists that Rome be brought into the investigation or else Giuseppe must be exorcised. The real Joseph was moved around from one convent to another by the inquisition, and kept in seclusion for many years. Here things are simplified a little. Fr. Raspi is turned into the sole villain of the story. He convinces the superiors to have Giuseppe exorcised and chains Giuseppe to the floor to prevent his levitation while the rite is performed. When it is finished and the saint once again rises from the floor, his chains broken by the power of God, even Raspi becomes convinced, and Giuseppe lives the rest of his days in peace within the Friary.

     With all of Giuseppe's mishaps, and the way he is often saved from them at the last minute, the film plays as a comedy much of the time, though it's never disrespectful. The writers, John Fante and Joseph Petracca, who were both Italian Americans and good friends, imbue the film with a sense of pious Italian Catholicism. The score, by acclaimed Italian composer Nina Rota (8½, The Godfather) with it's folksy instrumentation and use of chant and organ, adds to this feeling as does the location shooting by C.M. Pennington-Richards (The Reluctant Saint was shot in the Lazio region of Italy). Edward Dmytryk's gentle direction and classical composition allow the story to play out without a lot of expressionistic fanfare.

     An experienced character actor on stage and in film, Maximilian Schell is magnificent in the lead role. With his ever hunched shoulders and foolish grin, Schell's Giuseppe is a holy fool who's simple understanding and love of God take him to heights reached by only a select few. Ricardo Montalban is also great as the severe, skeptical Father Raspi, the only one who is as reluctant as the saint himself to accept God's special favor for Giuseppe. Lea Padovani steals every scene she's in as Giuseppe's overbearing but also kind and discerning mother. Carlo Croccolo provides a good contrast to Giuseppe as the resentful hunchback Gobbo. Finally, Akim Tamiroff brings Bishop Durso, who would rather spend time with Giuseppe in the stables then listen to lofty theological sermons with the other monks, to life.

     According to IMDB this is Maximilien Schell's favorite film. Though this seems a little incredulous (not the least because their is no source cited for this claim) I'd liked to think it is true and that the Academy Award winning actor who was once praised for playing "one of the greatest Hamlets ever", in his heart, preferred his performance as the simple saint.

Score: 10/10