On Easter Sunday I elected to watch "The Shoes Of The Fisherman"
This was adapted from the 1963 book and was filmed in Rome. I am pretty sure I read the book as a youngster because Mom decided that we should have a prescription of Reader's Digest Condensed books.
I should probably read the original for the sake of authenticity.
The cast is quite wonderful. Anthony Quinn starred as Archbishop Kiril something Russian.
He had been in the Gulag in Siberia as part of the Communist purge. He was unexpectedly released by the Chairman. They met and he was told that he could be very useful to Russia when he went to the Vatican.
Basically the political crisis in the book was that China was facing famine in three large areas and was poised to send the army to South East Asia for food. And Russia was going to help but they would not be able to help enough.
So Kiril goes to the Vatican. The Pope offers him a cardinals red robes and cap. He refused because after 20 years he just wanted a little church somewhere. Not so fast says the Pope. God put you here for a reason and this where you begin.
No sooner does he don the red robes that the Pope collapses. He dies and we see the full panoply of a funeral and all the ceremonies.
So the ceremony where all the cardinals march into seclusion is very interesting. They vote and vote and vote. Nuthin.
Eventually the wonderful qualities of Cardnal Kiril gets noticed and one of the Cardinals goes to his feet and nominates him. He is horrified. But ultimately accepts.
There is one scene where he dons a black robe and hat and sneaks out to see Rome. He stumbles onto a situation where he assist sa doctor help a dying patient. The patient is Jewish and Kiril recites a pray in Hebrew.
Eventually he is summoned to a sort of summit meeting between Russia, China and Rome. He promises to help as much as he can.
On the day he is to be crowned. There is a point in the ceremony where one of the Cardinals is about to put this ridiculous crown hat thing on his head. Kiril motions it back and speaks into the microphone.
He pledged the entire wealth of the Roman Catholic church to help feed his brothers. And the crowd went wild. The End.
From what I understand the church currently isn't exactly sure how much it is worth.
Now remember 1968 was a rugged year in America that was the year of then notorious political convention and a couple assassinations and they were in no mood to send aid or food to the fictional China. Timing is everything in Hollywood. So, no Glory.
This was adapted from the 1963 book and was filmed in Rome. I am pretty sure I read the book as a youngster because Mom decided that we should have a prescription of Reader's Digest Condensed books.
I should probably read the original for the sake of authenticity.
The cast is quite wonderful. Anthony Quinn starred as Archbishop Kiril something Russian.
He had been in the Gulag in Siberia as part of the Communist purge. He was unexpectedly released by the Chairman. They met and he was told that he could be very useful to Russia when he went to the Vatican.
Basically the political crisis in the book was that China was facing famine in three large areas and was poised to send the army to South East Asia for food. And Russia was going to help but they would not be able to help enough.
So Kiril goes to the Vatican. The Pope offers him a cardinals red robes and cap. He refused because after 20 years he just wanted a little church somewhere. Not so fast says the Pope. God put you here for a reason and this where you begin.
No sooner does he don the red robes that the Pope collapses. He dies and we see the full panoply of a funeral and all the ceremonies.
So the ceremony where all the cardinals march into seclusion is very interesting. They vote and vote and vote. Nuthin.
Eventually the wonderful qualities of Cardnal Kiril gets noticed and one of the Cardinals goes to his feet and nominates him. He is horrified. But ultimately accepts.
There is one scene where he dons a black robe and hat and sneaks out to see Rome. He stumbles onto a situation where he assist sa doctor help a dying patient. The patient is Jewish and Kiril recites a pray in Hebrew.
Eventually he is summoned to a sort of summit meeting between Russia, China and Rome. He promises to help as much as he can.
On the day he is to be crowned. There is a point in the ceremony where one of the Cardinals is about to put this ridiculous crown hat thing on his head. Kiril motions it back and speaks into the microphone.
He pledged the entire wealth of the Roman Catholic church to help feed his brothers. And the crowd went wild. The End.
From what I understand the church currently isn't exactly sure how much it is worth.
Now remember 1968 was a rugged year in America that was the year of then notorious political convention and a couple assassinations and they were in no mood to send aid or food to the fictional China. Timing is everything in Hollywood. So, no Glory.
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