&quot;The Miracle of the Bells&quot; is a gem of a movie. It is Fred MacMurray&#39;s best role and best movie. He plays a burned-out publicist, who helps an aspiring actress attain (Alida Valli) a movie role, watches her die, then travels with her body to her hometown. He covers all the emotions in this movie: toughness, worldliness, anger, kindness, love, contempt, and deceit.<br/><br/>This is Ms. Valli&#39;s second best role and movie. The first was &quot;The Third Man&quot;. Frank Sinatra plays the priest and this is his first dramatic part. He is very good in the role. He even sings a little. <br/><br/>It is a lovely movie about dreams and miracles.

Maltin&#39;s &quot;guide&quot;, which should be called a &quot;MIS-Guide&quot;, oh so generously bestows this film with a whopping star and a half. The truth is this is a fine piece of film-making, a tad unwieldy at times and perhaps 20 minutes overlong, but made with a high level of care and craft. There are many moving, poignant scenes, particularly one set early on at Christmas time. MacMurray and Valli unexpectedly run into each other and proceed to share a relaxed and blissfully unrehearsed Christmas Eve dinner at a Chinese restaurant that they have all to themselves (not unlike in the more recent A Christmas Story). The chemistry between the two and the restaurant&#39;s benevolent Asian owner is nearly heavenly.<br/><br/>The film has that irresistible Citizen Kane-ish structure where a character is gradually revealed and only truly understood AFTER their death. It also is refreshing in its positive depiction of religion and the important role it plays in so many people&#39;s lives. And it does so without insulting those in the audience who may not happen to be a member of that faith (Catholicism) or suggest that because they are not, that they&#39;re going to hell. If only more of today&#39;s film-makers had such courage and insight.<br/><br/>Performance-wise I was most impressed with Fred MacMurray who clearly invested a lot emotionally in his character. Valli is fine as the angelic aspiring actress and Lee J. Cobb is commanding as always as a studio mogul with more integrity than one might expect. Frank Sinatra as a devout small town priest? He&#39;s not bad but he hadn&#39;t yet been influenced by Montgomery Clift&#39;s method acting style in From Here To Eternity, and he comes across as a mite green for the part.<br/><br/>Quality work. Maltin&#39;s off by a star or two once again.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS &amp; REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION &amp; THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE FOR THIS FILM! NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE<br/><br/>In this film a publicity man is escorting a woman body back to her hometown. In flashbacks we see who this woman was. In a nutshell she is an actress who just finished her 1st starring role. The day after the film is completed she passes away. The man escorting her body however is very sad. See not only did he never tell her how he felt about her he found out the studio is going to not release film. They are going to remake it. <br/><br/>The film today is dated. Most people will get hired of hearing Fred MacMurray ending almost every sentence with &quot;Baby&quot;. Putting that aside the film is still very good. It is a winner!