Come to the Stable

Come to the Stable is a 1949 American comedy drama film that tells how two French religious sisters come to a small New England town and involve the townsfolk in helping them to build a children's hospital. It features Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Elsa Lanchester, Thomas Gomez, Dooley Wilson and Regis Toomey. The movie was based on a story by Clare Boothe Luce, and the screenplay was written by Oscar Millard and Sally Benson. It was directed by Henry Koster. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Loretta Young), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Celeste Holm and Elsa Lanchester), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Lyle R. Wheeler, Joseph C. Wright, Thomas Little, and Paul S. Fox), Best Cinematography, Best Music, Song (Alfred Newman and Mack Gordon for "Through a Long and Sleepless Night") and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. Plot One winter's night, two French sisters, Chicago-born Sister Margaret (Loretta Young) and Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm), arrive at the small New England town of Bethlehem where they meet Amelia Potts (Elsa Lanchester), a painter of religious pictures. The sisters announce that they have come to build a hospital, and Sister Margaret explains that she was in charge of a children's hospital in Normandy during the war when it became a potential target during a military campaign. As many of the children could not be evacuated, Sister Margaret made a personal plea to an American general not to shell the hospital, which the Germans were using as an observation post. The hospital was spared but at the cost of American lives, and Sister Margaret made a promise to God that, in gratitude for saving the children, she would return to America to build a children's hospital. Miss Potts wonders why they chose Bethlehem, and Sister Margaret says that they had received a postcard with a reproduction of a nativity scene painted by Miss Potts, titled "Come to the Stable," with information about the Bethlehem area. The sisters then decide that a local hill depicted in another of Miss Potts' paintings would be a good site for the hospital.