where was the bells of st mary's filmed

“The Bells of St. Mary’s” (1945), starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman, was filmed primarily on studio sets in Hollywood, with some location work in the Tucson Mountains area of Arizona.

Main filming locations

• The official filming location listed for the movie is the Tucson Mountains, Arizona, USA , used for outdoor scenes meant to evoke a Western U.S. setting.

• Much of the film, including key school and church exteriors and interiors, was shot on constructed sets at a Hollywood studio, which is evident from production notes and goofs describing multi-directional shadows created by studio lights rather than the sun.

Studio vs. on-location

• Classic Hollywood productions of the mid‑1940s often relied heavily on backlot sets, and “The Bells of St. Mary’s” followed this pattern, using studio builds for St. Mary’s School and nearby streets.

• Exterior “neighborhood” and courtyard scenes were designed to look like a real parish environment but were controlled soundstage or backlot environments to manage lighting and sound more easily.

Quick recap

• Primary credited location: Tucson Mountains, Arizona (for outdoor landscape shots).

• Majority of the film: studio sets in Hollywood , representing the school, church, and surrounding city streets.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.