Story of the Pope

Encouraged by the positive response to a similarly-themed "March of Time" entry, producer Bernard B. Brandt prepared THE STORY OF THE POPE for nationwide theatrical release. Narrated with characteristic objectivity by Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen (four years before his celebrated entree into television), this 63-minute documentary affords the viewer rare glimpses inside the Vatican. Much of the film is devoted to a "typical" day in the life of Pope Pius XII, complementing the contemporary footage with a short history of the Pope's previous life as Father Pacelli. Also presented in detail is the installation of 32 new Cardinals, a sequence that even the most pious found to be a shade overlong. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York introduces the film, which premiered in New York during Christmas week, 1946.