Top 10 Priest Movies

Posted by Tom Hoopes

Sunday, June 14, 2009 9:40 AM

For the Year of the Priest, here are the “Top 10 Priest Movies” from our Top 100 Catholic Movies List (the full list, the result of an online poll of 1,000 people, is always under “Resources” above):

1. The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
2. The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
3. The Mission (1986), mature audiences
4. Going My Way (1944)
5. The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
6. On the Waterfront (1954)
7. I Confess (1953)
8. Boys Town (1938)
9. Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999), mature audiences
10. The Exorcist (1973) mature audiences
*11. Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

(This list represents U.S. movies in which a main character is a priest. It omits movies focused on a bishop or a pope. The French films “Monsieur Vincent” [1948] and “Diary of a Country Priest” [1951] would come before “Angels With Dirty Faces” if foreign films counted.)

* UPDATED: Other sites have argued that “On the Waterfront” doesn’t count as a priest movie. I think it does. At any rate, I added an 11th movie so that there are 10 no-doubt-about-it priest movies in the list. Our Top 100 Catholic Movies List also includes two Jesuit priest movies whose votes didn’t rate the top 10:

97. The Hoodlum Saint (1946) which I personally would have put higher on the list
100. Padre On Horseback (1977) which I personally would not have included on the list

Filed under movies, top 10, year for priests resources