"A Man Called Peter," a film based onthe 1951 biography of Scottish Presbyterian clergyman Peter Marshall,will be the next featurein the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archives Film Series, to be shown Friday, March 23, at 7 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Children 8 years and older are welcome. No food or drink is permitted in the auditorium.
“‘A Man Called Peter’ is moderately eventful, yet charged with a strong magnetic pull,” wrote Bosley Crowther in The New York Times. “Unspectacular yet emotionally surprising. As we say, an extraordinary film.”
The 1955 biographical drama covers the amazing life of the Scottish immigrant and Columbia Theological Seminary graduate who eventually became the crowd-gathering pastor of the New York Avenue Church, also known as the Church of the Presidents in Washington, D.C., and for two years the chaplain of the U.S. Senate until his untimely death at age 46 in 1949.
Based on a book written by Marshall's wife Catherine and directed by Henry Koster, the film will be introduced with behind-the-scenes details about the making of "A Man Called Peter" by James D'Arc, curator of the BYU Motion Picture Archives.
British actor Richard Todd was mesmerized by tape recordings of Peter Marshall's sermons and accepted the role. Jean Peters, the early favorite over Elizabeth Taylor and Eve Marie Saint, got the role of Catherine.
The BYU Motion Picture Archive Film Series is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library and Dennis & Linda Gibson. All motion pictures shown in the series are from the permanent collection of film prints in the BYU Motion Picture Archive in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. A complete season schedule is available online at sc.lib.byu.edu.
Writer: Brooke Eddington
