The Keys of the Kingdom: Gregory Peck: An Agreeable Gentleman

Film - Feature | June 13 | 7 p.m. |  PFA Theater

Sponsor: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

John M. Stahl (U.S., 1944)

A Scottish priest spurns careerism for a life’s work in rural China in this grand Hollywood spectacle, which offered a breakthrough role (and an Oscar nomination) for a young Gregory Peck. After butting heads with his superiors in Scotland, Father Chisholm (Peck) heads to China, where his humility and selfless devotion to local villagers soon earn him a devoted following, and where a committed medical doctor (and atheist) and a smug, upwardly mobile fellow Catholic (Vincent Price) provide dissenting voices on “salvation.” Rarely offscreen, the then virtually unknown Peck embodies the quiet, forceful dignity that would mark nearly all his future roles. Jason Sanders

Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Nunnally Johnson, based on the novel by A.J. Cronin. Photographed by Arthur Miller. With Vincent Price, Rosa Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Thomas Mitchell. (137 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Criterion Pictures/Twentieth Century-Fox)

Tickets: $5.50 BAM/PFA Members and UC Berkeley, staff, students, and faculty,  $6.50 UC Berkeley faculty and staff, non-UC Berkeley students, senior citizens (65 & over), disabled persons, and youth (17 & under),  $9.50 Adults (18-64)

Event Contact: bampfa@berkeley.edu, (510) 642-1412