Many of the classic films I have seen of late star Loretta Young.  She is of particular note for The Legionnaire because she was a practicing Catholic.  I discovered this by doing a little extra reading about her life.  Over the years, there have been many famous people who were born Catholic, but drifted away from the Faith in their adult years.  Of course, you do not have to be famous to experience that phenomenon, unfortunately.  If you look closely at her life outside of being onscreen, you will see that she was married three times and divorced twice.  One would not call that Catholic behavior given the Church’s stance on these matters.  Yet, there is her relationship with Clark Gable to consider.  During their filming of The Call of the Wild (1935), she became pregnant by him.  He was married to someone else and the studio did not want a scandal for their star, so they urged her to get an abortion.  She refused because of her Catholic beliefs, and instead went to Switzerland to have the baby.  Months after the birth and back in Hollywood, she adopted the child, a daughter.  This was Judy Lewis, named after St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.  Years later, Young admitted that Gable had raped her, or at least their intercourse was not consensual.  Because of my knowledge of these events, I ultimately chose not to watch the movie during which this took place, though I may come back to it.  Instead, as a token of my admiration for a Catholic film star, I watched Three Blind Mice (1938).

Our Three Blind Mice are actually a trio of sisters, Elizabeth (Pauline Moore), Moira (Marjorie Weaver), and Pamela Charters (Loretta Young).  They run a poultry farm in Kansas, though none of them are fond of their work, particularly Pamela.  When we are introduced to them, they are pretending that Pamela is a rich heiress, Elizabeth is her secretary, and Moira is the maid.  They are putting on this pantomime because they expect an inheritance check from a well-off relative who has left them some money.  Upon its arrival, they have agreed to set Pamela up with a wealthy husband using these roles.  So focused are they on their performance that that they do not notice the entrance of Hendricks (Spencer Charters), their lawyer.  He has come to deliver the news they have been expecting.  The check they receive for $5,872 is not the haul they hoped, but Pamela proclaims it enough to get them to California where rich husbands are to be found, apparently.  Elizabeth and Moira eventually agree to play their part, though they do voice their misgivings.  As they are checking into their Santa Barbara hotel, Pamela is noticed at the front desk by Steve Harrington (David Niven).  Pamela eyes him too, but elects to go straight to her room in order to keep him wanting more.  As they are getting settled, a noisy party commences next door.  As part of the celebrations, the barman, Mike Brophy (Stuart Erwin), is sent to the Charters’ suite with a bottle of champagne.  Pamela inquires about the ruckus and learns that it is the marriage celebration of one of the wealthiest guests.  This negates one potential suitor, and she asks Mike about others.  The two that are next mentioned are Steve and Van Dam Smith (Joel McCrea).  With this in mind, the next day Pamela arranges to go sailing in the same vicinity as Steve.  They clumsily crash into each other and end up in the water.  She being the stronger swimmer, she saves him from drowning, bringing him back to shore.  Sun bathing nearby and helping them get out of the water is Van.  As she sits between them, it is obvious that they are both developing an attraction to her.  It is Steve that gets the initial acceptance of his dinner invitation in, though it is not surprising when Van shows up at her door a few minutes before the agreed time.  He tries to say that Steve had to leave suddenly, but Steve walks in a few minutes later.  Thus, Pamela goes to dinner with a man on each side of her.  The days pass with her doing different things with them, but all the time the Charters’ funds are dwindling.  By the time they realize they are $100 in the hole there has yet to be a proposal.  Pamela, though, has her heart set on Van.  To get him to ask her to marry him, she asks that Elizabeth come with them to dine to keep Steve occupied.  Everything works according to plan until after the question is popped by Van.  Realizing the truth must eventually come out, Pamela admits to her humble background.  Van has a similar confession: his family’s millions are tied up in trust funds supporting zoos around the country, leaving him nearly penniless.  With this information come to light, he says that Steve should be the one she marries.  She is devastated, but Van finds Steve and gives him the news without revealing what took place.  Steve immediately swoops in and Pamela agrees to be his wife.  With this, the Charters girls are off to Steve’s California ranch, the source of his vast income.  During their first dinner there, they meet Steve’s exuberant sister Miriam Harrington (Binnie Barnes).  She is delighted at the engagement and insists on taking Pamela and Elizabeth out with her and Steve.  Wanting to add another male to their group, Miriam finds Van at the bar, who happens to be in town to play polo with some friends.  Pamela is disconcerted by this addition, and even more so when Miriam insists that Van be the best man at the upcoming wedding since the two men seem to know each other.  At breakfast the next morning, another familiar face appears: Mike.  He had learned of the Charters’ gold-digging ways and had vowed to tell Steve.  He is not happy because the sisters locked him in their suite before fleeing with Steve.  To calm him, Pamela agrees to act on her best behavior during an upcoming barbecue Miriam is hosting the day before the ceremony.  During it, Van dances with Pamela and admits he still loves her.  Their conversation is continued later in her room where Steve walks in on them kissing.  It proves fortuitous, though, as Steve has fallen for Elizabeth, having danced with her and learned of her knowledge of chickens.  It also helps, too, that Moira has secretly wedded Mike, who turns out to be a millionaire himself.  And all’s well that ends well, I suppose.

If while reading any of that synopsis of Three Blind Mice you felt any discomfort, you are not alone.  You do not have to be a Christian to know that marrying someone simply because they are wealthy is not a good set up for marital bliss.  It is such an obvious point that one wonders how anyone, including characters in a movie, could think that it would work as a means of securing a spouse.  That is why I was thankful when Pamela finally told Van about her actual background, even if it took her longer to do so with Steve.  A marriage between two people, the Church teaches, is supposed to be an outward manifestation of God’s love for us by joining a man and a woman into one flesh.  Already that is more poetic than any of the thinking on the matter done by Pamela up until her confession to Van.  Before he finally asks for her hand, they talk about all the romantic things they will do together.  After the truth comes out, in the face of his insistence at the time that they could not work as a couple, she protests that she no longer cares whether he is rich.  I appreciate the sentiment, but it should be added that somebody being right for another does not depend on their socio-economic status.  This stance is made in the movie, but not to the degree Faith demands.  I use the word Faith there because God should come first in anyone’s priorities.  Maybe this is why so many relationships we see on camera, a subject I have analyzed extensively, appear so fragile.  God is seldom spoken of in these people’s race to get hitched, and it is not uncommon that they have already gone through this process once or more.  This, too, does not fit with God’s plans for such unions. Matthew 19:6 says it all, declaring that what God has joined man should not disjoint.  With these kinds of films, it is hard to see that any of this is thought of by the people making it, despite Young’s religious views.

Of course, the absence of any kind of sensitivity to Faith matters in Three Blind Mice is nothing new.  I also do not wish to give the impression that it ruined the movie.  It is not all that different from anything else Hollywood put out at this time.  As such, you need some other motivation for seeing it.  For me, that was watching a fellow Catholic like Young perform.