Dearest, of all things: I have just come back from a cinema. I don’t think I’ve been since the Four Feathers! Mummy was v. anxious to see the Song of Bernadette, which has just returned to the Electra… I was moved deeply, and I am v. pleased indeed that I went: not so much to have seen the film but to be reminded of Bernadette (and Lourdes) whom (& which) we take too much for granted. A most marvellous story in every aspect, human and religious. In the film some of the situations and acting were admirable. Bernadette and the local priest (the Dean of Lourdes) left nothing to be desired. I did not feel the American accent any trouble at all: it is just as good or bad a substitute for French and Provencal as Oxford English. One of the best incidents is when the old incredulous Bp. of Tarbes challenges ‘your Lady’ to make the Emperor remove the barricade round the grotto – and the Emperor does so almost at once.

J.R.R. Tolkien (letter 94a)