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The Cardinal (1963)

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Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 10
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 4

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 854

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Movie Info

Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Austria, and so on. The film boasts cameo appearances by Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston, Robert Morse, Burgess Meredith, Raf Vallone, Ossie Davis. Incidentally, Tryon eventually quit

Unrated, 3 hr.

Drama, Classics

Directed By: Otto Preminger

Written By: Henry Morton Robinson, Robert Dozier

In Theaters: Dec 12, 1963 Wide

On DVD: Feb 25, 2003

Cast

Tom Tryon
Stephen Fermoyle
Carol Lynley
Mona/Regina Fermoyle
Dorothy Gish
Celia
Romy Schneider
Annemarie
Maggie McNamara
Florrie
John Huston
Cardinal Glennon
Raf Vallone
Cardinal Quarenghi
John Saxon
Benny Rampell
Cameron Prud'Homme
Din
Cecil Kellaway
Monsignor Monaghan
Loring Smith
Cornelius J. Deegan
Jose Duvall
Ramon Gongaro
Peter MacLean
Father Callahan
Robert Morse
Bobby and His Adora-Bel...
Pat Henning
Hercule Menton
Burgess Meredith
Father Ned Halley
Jill Haworth
Lalage Menton
Russ Brown
Dr. Heller
Ossie Davis
Father Gillis
Donald Hayne
Father Eberling
Chill Wills
Monsignor Whittle
Arthur Hunnicutt
Sheriff Dubrow
Doro Merande
Woman Picket
Patrick O'Neal
Cecil Turner
Murray Hamilton
Lafe
Peter Weck
Kurt von Hartman
Tullio Carminatti
Cardinal Giacobbi
Vilma Degischer
Sister Wilhelmina
Rudolph Foster
Drunk Man at the Ball
Matthias Fuchs
Father Neidermoser
Billie Hayes
Frank
Joseph Meinrad
Cardinal Innitzer
Wolfgang Preiss
S.S. Major
Dino DiLuca
Italian Monsignor
Eric Frey
Seyss-Inquart
Bill Hayes
Berenice Gahm
James Hickman

Critic Reviews for The Cardinal

All Critics (11) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (4) | DVD (7)

This is an extremely well constructed film, made with a balance that keeps its overflowing plot line in perfect control.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

he end is a great letdown from what Mr. Preminger might have accomplished with the 1950 novel of Henry Morton Robinson. There is no strong flow of spirit through it. Even the melodrama is perfunctory and weak.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

It's nothing more than a kitsch take on the good and bad of the Catholic Church, but it has the chutzpah to pose as a work of art.

January 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

With an hour cut out of it, this might have been a landmark picture.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Risible script based on a doorstop novel by Henry Morton Robinson, but handled by Preminger with tremendous panache; worth seeing just for the incredible skill and flair with which he stages the action and moves the camera.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Tom Milne

Time Out

Thematically, Preminger's drama about internal church politics is most intriguing; too bad that the lead, Tom Tryon, is miscast.

June 15, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

Implausible epic telling of Tom Tryon as courageous priest has great Moross score.

June 8, 2005 Comment

Steve Crum

Video-Reviewmaster.com

I lasted a little over halfway through before figuring that it wasn't going to get any better...

July 15, 2003 Comment

John A. Nesbit

ToxicUniverse.com

A compulsively watchable if distorted history lesson

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

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Audience Reviews for The Cardinal

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This film was pretty much a complete and utter disappointment to me. Having read the novel, which being about the life and rise of a Catholic priest through the early 20th century, is not only fascinating but very well written, I came away just flattened by the very poor adaptation for the film. The film is wholly

February 15, 2011

Jack Waldron

a great deal of work went into this film but really was it worth the effort? I dont think so.

May 21, 2011

Gerald Doherty

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