Come To The Stable

A Christmas-time TV perennial, COME TO THE STABLE is the gentle saga of two French nuns (Celeste Holm and Loretta Young ) who come to America in hopes of raising funds for a children’s hospital. Traveling to a small New England town presciently named Bethlehem, the nuns befriend an eccentric painter (Elsa Lanchester), who allows them to use her studio (actually a stable) for their base of operations. Utterly ingenuous when it comes to American mores and customs (they tear up a parking ticket, assuming it to be an advertisement), the sisters raise money in a variety of amusing fashions. One of their "agents" is an outwardly-tough gambler (played by Mike Mazurki) who gets his equally raffish pals to invest in the hospital. Towards the end, the nuns even play a little professional tennis to raise money. Based on a story by Clare Booth Luce, COME TO THE STABLE is a perfect example of the light family fare that the studios put out to lighten the mood of post-war America.