The Cardinal

The Cardinal is a 1963 American drama film which was produced independently and directed by Otto Preminger, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was written by Robert Dozier, based on the novel of the same name by Henry Morton Robinson. Its cast featured Tom Tryon, Romy Schneider and John Huston and the film was nominated for six Academy Awards. The film was shot on location in Boston, Rome and Vienna; the music score was written by Jerome Moross. The Cardinal featured the final appearance by veteran film star Dorothy Gish. Robinson's novel was based on the life of Cardinal... Francis Spellman, who was then Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The Vatican's liaison officer for the film was Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI. The film shows the life of a fictional Irish Catholic priest, Stephen Fermoyle, played by Tom Tryon, from his ordination in 1917 to his appointment as a cardinal on the eve of World War II. Fermoyle goes through one crisis after another, first in his own family and then as he climbs up the ladder of the church hierarchy back in his Boston parish and later in Rome within the Vatican.
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