Father Brown (1954)

That was an excellent one.

Admirable film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The police find a man dressed as a priest with his hands in a safe. They arrest him but he turns out to be Father Brown (Alec Guinness) who was returning the money stolen by a parishioner. The church is sending the Holy Cross of Saint Augustine to the Eucharistic Congress in Rome. The police tell them that elusive thief Flambeau is after the priceless artifact like the many treasures he has stolen in the last 10 years. Nobody knows what the master of disguise actually looks like. Father Brown determines that the police would be easy targets for Flambeau and transports the Cross himself. Eventually he is alone with Flambeau as intended and he tries to reform him. Flambeau refuses and escapes with the Cross. Despite the disappointment, he tries to entice Flambeau again with the help of Lady Warren.Alec Guinness is great as Father Brown. It's a great character and Guinness is magnificent playing him. It's a fun mystery for awhile until Flambeau is revealed. Then it repeats again and again for Father Brown. It's fun to watch him in a caper to catch Flambeau. It's less fun to watch him try to convert Flambeau. Guinness always tries to keep his character light and fun.

This was a completely mediocre film--and that's a real shame, as I usually LOVE Alec Guinness movies. This movie lacks so much of the imagination and energy of his other movies from this same era (such as THE LADY KILLERS or THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT) and overall is just a standard amateur detective flick in the guise of a rather unbelievable priest. Guinness plays Father Brown--a very idealistic, and at times bumbling, clergy man. Peter Finch plays an international thief who loves to steal one-of-a-kind relics--the type that really can't be re-sold--so he's obviously some kind of nutter (that's British for "loony"). Despite ample opportunities to turn in Finch to the coppers, Guinness actually hinders the police and lies repeatedly (oh well, since he's a priest I guess he can always give himself absolution for these sins). Why? Well, because Guinness knows that it's more important to save the man's soul than find the booty. While this is true in a spiritual sense, it was awfully idealistic (not to mention stupid), but since this is a rather predictable film, in the end Finch somehow sees the light (though I really wasn't sure why). The film earns a 5 simply because I like watching Alec Guinness and Finch does a pretty good job, though the material is awfully lame.

This is another of the often ignored 'small' Guinness films from the early and mid-50's that rarely get the attention they deserve. While it had a brief revival last fall at Britain's National Film Theatre, it doesn't seem to show up that often in Guinness retrospectives.A number of elements in this gently comic film that are worthy of notice: Sir AlecÕs performance is deft, subtle and delightfully wry whether he is playing the sleuth or spouting philosophy to the villain Flambeau.An added treat is a cast that includes Peter Finch, who won an Oscar for Network, Joan Greenwood, who was Lady Balleston in Tom Jones and Bernard Lee who portrayed M in the James Bond series. Guinness, Greenwood and Cecil Parker (The Bishop) also appeared together in the Ealing Studio comedy, The Man in the White Suit.Another interesting aspect is that a large part of the film was shot on location in Paris and rural France, apparently a rarity for the British films of that era.Finally a bit of trivia: After his portrayal of Father Brown, Guinness converted to Catholicism

A great movie that contains another great Guinness character. Instead of trying to break the law in the "Lavender Hill Mob", he does right by helping his "subjects". He latches on to the most wanted thief in Britian and instead of turning him in does his own work to find and search him out. In the end the thief donates his warez to a museum and Father Brown changes the life of a criminal. Very entertaining.