by Nick Taylor
Today is the 75th anniversary of Come to the Stable, which has to rank among the most inoffensive, featherweight films to earn seven nominations from Thee Academy Awards. The story of two nuns, Sister Margaret (Loretta Young) and Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm), who travel all the way from France to a wintry New England township so they can build a hospital. “Why do they go all the way to New England” you might ask, but who cares!
Specific details about why things happen are not the draw of Come to the Stable. A musician/landlord named Bob does not want the nuns to build their new hospital on a hill he owns for some reason, which doesn’t stop them from securing a plot of land and importing two dozen of their Sisters from France. At one point the nuns sneak into a gangster’s suite and successfully convince him to sell the aforementioned plot of land after they trade stories about serving in World War II. In short, every obstacle to Sister Margaret and Sister Scholastica getting what they want proves powerless in the face of their somewhat savvy, utterly guileless embodiments of faith. However, there is one enemy the women cannot pray away, one barrier they must overcome with strength, vigor, and attention. That barrier’s name, you might ask? She’s called tennis . . . .
There is always something to be said for a film ending on its highest note. The ceiling for this particular film doesn’t really lead to very high peaks, but the thrill of something, anything happening with physically tangible stakes cannot be overstated. And boy are there stakes in this tennis match. After five months of tireless fundraising, selling, and bootstrapping, Sister Margaret needs only another $500 to be able to buy the land for the hospital outright. She and Sister Scholastica take a walk to Bob’s tennis court and become involved in a wager with some socialite friends: If Sister Scholastica can win a round of double’s tennis, paired with the least skilled of the socialites, against the reigning power couple, they will receive a $500 donation to buy the land for the hospital.
Suddenly, everything breezily inconsequential about the film is suffused with real tension. Sister Margaret voices this offer with her trademark lightness, but her eyes are too intense, her body to overcome at the possibility of achieving her dream to let false pleasantries take the lead. There’s no chance for mercenary geniality or swells of empathetic recognition to swoop in and save the day. Sister Scholastica knows this too, and her determination now gives way to cracks of nervousness under the weight of her task. It’s all about the swing of the racquet, the physicality of the actors as they dive and dance across the court, and by God is it fun to watch.
Joseph LaShelle’s Oscar-nominated cinematography often keeps more than one body in the frame, sometimes swinging the camera back and forth to follow the ball, sometimes finding a high enough perch to watch the whole court at once without cutting. We get more than enough footage to suggest Celeste Holm is actually fighting for her life down there, rather than a skilled stunt double, and her performance balances the giddy fun of a good match with the steely seriousness of her mission. The sound of the racquet hitting the tennis ball is so loud, too, almost violently so in the context of this quaint film. You’re really invested in how this match will turn out. And through the transitive properties of cinema, you’re invested in how Come to the Stable itself will turn out, even if there’s no real chance the nuns will fail at their mission.
This sequence did also make me think fondly of how Sister Margaret and Sister Scholastica would react to other tennis films. Would they admire the pluck, talent, and boundary-breaking runs of Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes and the Williams family in King Richard, or are they religious in a bigoted way? Is Sally Forrest’s determination or Claire Trevor’s ambition more relatable in Hard, Fast and Beautiful, and in what proportions? Do you think they would like Challengers? Do you think they would become bisexual if they watched Challengers? Anyways, let’s go watch the Olympics and see if we can spot all the nuns competing for gold.
Come to the Stable can be found on YouTube in its entirety here, and can be rented via most major streaming platforms.
