This weekend will be so busy, as local Akron churches are altering their service times to accomodate the desire to be with their familes, and of course, the upcoming holiday being this Sunday. All the shopping is getting done, all the decorations being completed, and all the ovens getting their marathon run. But, this coming Sunday, may just be a day to relax after all that hard work. As accustommed to the holiday, there is time after dinner to watch a holiday movie. The author has written about a few of those, but there is one that barely gets any credit but says a lot- 1949's Come To The Stable.
Though Christmas is not in the forefront of this movie, the spirit is there. The movie stars Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Elsa Lanchester, Hugh Marlowe, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. The story is about two nuns who arrive in New England from France with the intentions of building a children's hospital. Sister Margaret ( Young) and Sister Scholastica ( Holm) meet Amelia Potts ( Lanchester), who paints religious paintings, of whom they tell her why they want to build a children's hospital. Sister Margaret wants to build it due to an experience she had in Normandy during World War II where she defended for the lives of children she had helped in a makeshift hospital to a German general who intended to bomb the area. Sister Margaret decided on Bethlemen, Connecticut (where the film takes place) due to a postcard she got with one of Amelia's paintings. Sister Margaret and Sister Scholastica decide for a place for their hospital on one of the hills Amelia painted, and Amelia points the nuns to the landlord, Bob Mason (Marlowe) who is also a songwriter. He tells them that a Luigi Rossi in New York owns the land. The nuns decide to go to the Bishop (Basil Ruysdael), who cannot completely help them, but give them money to hold them over. When they return, they get a ride back to their house from Anthony James ( Anderson), Mason's servant. Anthony teaches Sister Margaret how to drive, of which she drives to New York to ask Mr. Rossi for the land. He originally planned to use that for retirement, but changes his mind after the nuns say that they will pray for his deceased son, who died in the war. Will the children's hospital be built? Will the community support these nuns? Watch the movie and find out.
This coming Christmas, what needs are seen in the community that should be solved? What of the people helping to better community? This movie will make you think about that.
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