As noted in the film, Peter Marshall was born in Scotland in 1902. After emigrating to the United States in 1927, Marshall attended college and became an ordained minister. His dynamic speaking style and popularity with a wide variety of parishioners led to his appointment as Senate chaplain on January 4, 1947, a position that he held until his death on January 26, 1949. Marshall's son Peter was ordained as a minister in 1965.
In the book, To Live Again (New York, 1957), written by Marshall's wife Catherine, she devotes many pages to an account of her involvement with the production of A Man Called Peter. She relates that Twentieth Century-Fox writer-producer Lamar Trotti, who had recently suffered the loss of a son in an automobile accident, was drawn to the book and made extensive notes on it. However, Trotti was stricken by a fatal heart attack in August 1952, and his notes passed into the hands of fellow producer Samuel G. Engel. The studio purchased an option to the book in November 1952, and Sylvia Richards was assigned to write the screenplay. Richard Burton and Jean Peters were suggested for the roles of "Peter" and "Catherine Marshall."
The following summer, the studio exercised its option and purchased the rights to the book for $30,000. In November 1953, Eleanore Griffin was given the screenplay assignment, and Catherine Marshall was engaged as technical adviser for the screenplay. In her book, Mrs. Marshall notes that it proved necessary to make a few modifications to the actual events; "For example, in real life Peter and I had spent our honeymoon in New York, not on Cape Cod; in the script there was the necessity of introducing Cape Cod early in the story. In real life Peter John was born on January 25, 1940, not in December of 1941. Yet this time shift simplified the Annapolis sequence in the movie.... Changes of this sort did not bother me, because they did no violence to the spirit of the truth."
In Twentieth Century-Fox publicity material, Engel commented on his decision to include in the film lengthy scenes of Marshall delivering sermons: "The sermons are wonderfully imaginative and interesting and what gives the Marshall character its dimensions. But nobody had ever put as much as 20 minutes of sermons into a film....Mr. [Darryl F.] Zanuck backed me on this 100 percent." Reviews lauded the filmmakers for these scenes. Variety commented, "Again and again, the camera picks up Richard Todd as Peter Marshall mounting the pulpit to deliver the sermons for which he was famous and which drew overflow crowds Sunday after Sunday to the New York Ave. Presbyterian Church in Washington. These sermons are things of beauty and [director Henry] Koster and Engel deserve kudos for allowing them to run on for several minutes at a time.... Todd does such a masterful job of preaching the sermons, the camera staying on him most of the time, they're almost the best thing in the picture."
As Richard Burton proved to be unavailable for the film, the role of Peter Marshall was offered to Richard Todd, who, as he had personal doubts regarding his ability to do the role justice, asked if he might shoot a test of himself delivering one of Marshall's sermons. The test was shot in England, and upon seeing it, studio head Zanuck wrote to Engel saying, "I was simply mesmerized. I couldn't believe this was something on film." Although Jean Peters was originally announced to play Catherine, other actresses including Eva Marie Saint, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons, Dorothy McGuire and Donna Reed were considered; Peters was assigned to the part just six days before shooting started.
According to a May 21, 1954 Hollywood Reporter news items, background exteriors were shot on location in Scotland. Actual filming began with second unit work in Atlanta, Decatur and Covington, GA, then moved to Washington, D.C. and later to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, according to Hollywood Reporter news items and studio publicity. According to her book, Mrs. Marshall was not present when the film was shot. Although Hollywood Reporter news items include Flo Vinson, Stephanie Sidney, Ruby Colman, Jay John Potter and Elizabeth Holmes in the cast, their appearance in the completed picture has not been confirmed. The following actors appeared in scenes cut before the film's release: Agnes Bartholomew, Rick Kelman, Luis Torres, Jr., Bob Hunter, David Wood, Alex Campbell, Jonathan Hole and Maudie Prickett.
On January 24, 1955, eighty clergymen-Catholic, Jewish and Protestant-saw a rough-cut of the film at a special screening at the studio. Their reaction was overwhelmingly positive. When Catherine Marshall saw the final cut, shortened by about fifteen minutes, at the studio's New York screening room on 7 Mar, she felt that "some memorable scenes had been sacrificed to length," but knew that "whatever small faults the picture had, it was all right." According to a March 17, 1955 Hollywood Reporter news item, special previews of the picture had been arranged in sixty cities for other clergymen and "opinion makers."
Simultaneous world premieres of the film were held on March 31, 1955 in Glasgow, New York and London. Catherine Marshall and Todd attended the New York premiere, the proceeds of which went to the Highland Fund of North America and the Caledonian Hospital of Brooklyn. The Glasgow premiere was attended by Marshall's sister, and approximately 13,000 people attended the three premieres, according to Hollywood Reporter. After opening to slow business, word-of-mouth built the film into a box-office success. According to a June 10, 1955 Hollywood Reporter news item, the studio was predicting that A Man Called Peter was going to become "one of the company's most profitable pictures." Life magazine gave the film a six-page spread but criticized the film's promotion which included lines such as: "He was a lovin' kind of guy....He was God's kind of guy."
While Marshall was a Presbyterian minister, the film's producer and director were Jewish, and the screenplay writer Catholic. In a May 19, 1955 Hollywood Citizen-News article, Engel stated, "No one [involved in the production] stopped to think whether he was a Christian or a Jew, or whether he was a Catholic or a Protestant. All fell into step because each in his way wanted to have a hand in the making of this picture....Certainly, I never dreamed that the long years devoted to gaining a Hebrew education would stand me in good stead in my professional career....Only in a free country like ours could the son of a poor Jewish immigrant still carry the Star of David in his heart and at the same time be given the opportunity and privilege of bringing the life of one of Christ's foremost disciples to the screens of the world." Alfred Newman's score for the picture includes a reprise of his main theme for the 1939 Twentieth Century-Fox production Young Mr. Lincoln (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40). A Man Called Peter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography.
Voted Best Supporting Actress (Rambeau) and One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1955 National Board of Review.
Voted One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1955 New York Times Film Critics.
Released in United States Spring April 1955
CinemaScope
Released in United States Spring April 1955
