Very difficult to score, because some of it is ridiculous and unbelievable, whereas other stuff is interesting with content about governance, policing, spirituality and religiosity that give the mind material for real reflection.
Ridiculous;- the accents, especially Mills with his poorly sustained Irish one, which calls into question the Direction, why was he not made to do it again or some explanation given in the script for him being an English Roman Catholic Priest? Then again, why was Bogarde an English accented Mexican bully boy, albeit a very stylish one, with fancy leather pants? And the blonde Mexican mademoiselle, acting like a teenager yet looking like at least a twenty-five year old. She dressed contemporarily with the date of the production (1961) and the cars looked early fifties, yet the story somehow seemed as if it belonged to a few decades earlier.
The scenery and sets very effective and presumably expensive, yet the film had so many basic mistakes.
The story convoluted and saga like, I eventually got lost when the Priest (before we thought of paedophilia) planted a smacker on the girl, who looked all woman.
Yet underneath there was a point worth dramatising, about the way we are all prone to be dominated by fear, especially those of us in some religions who fear what will befall us after we die if we have not behaved honourably to our fellow humans. The Bogarde character seemed to be figuring all this out, realised that for him the church was a great confidence trick yet some of the church's adherents are truly honourable human beings.
Particularly ridiculous was the way the car with the severed brake cable/pipe - (handbrake and foot-brake both ineffective) travelled as far as it did down the mountain road without going out of control and then came to a standstill with very little injury to it's occupants.
With adverts this film was 2hours 45 minutes, yet such basic errors proliferated, presumably the Producer spent a great deal of money on the production but then just released it with so many ridiculous inconsistencies.
Yet I am glad I saw it, if only as a piece of film and social history.
I know intend to find out a bit more about the story on which it was based and will be particularly interested to discover what period the novelist was writing about.
Ridiculous;- the accents, especially Mills with his poorly sustained Irish one, which calls into question the Direction, why was he not made to do it again or some explanation given in the script for him being an English Roman Catholic Priest? Then again, why was Bogarde an English accented Mexican bully boy, albeit a very stylish one, with fancy leather pants? And the blonde Mexican mademoiselle, acting like a teenager yet looking like at least a twenty-five year old. She dressed contemporarily with the date of the production (1961) and the cars looked early fifties, yet the story somehow seemed as if it belonged to a few decades earlier.
The scenery and sets very effective and presumably expensive, yet the film had so many basic mistakes.
The story convoluted and saga like, I eventually got lost when the Priest (before we thought of paedophilia) planted a smacker on the girl, who looked all woman.
Yet underneath there was a point worth dramatising, about the way we are all prone to be dominated by fear, especially those of us in some religions who fear what will befall us after we die if we have not behaved honourably to our fellow humans. The Bogarde character seemed to be figuring all this out, realised that for him the church was a great confidence trick yet some of the church's adherents are truly honourable human beings.
Particularly ridiculous was the way the car with the severed brake cable/pipe - (handbrake and foot-brake both ineffective) travelled as far as it did down the mountain road without going out of control and then came to a standstill with very little injury to it's occupants.
With adverts this film was 2hours 45 minutes, yet such basic errors proliferated, presumably the Producer spent a great deal of money on the production but then just released it with so many ridiculous inconsistencies.
Yet I am glad I saw it, if only as a piece of film and social history.
I know intend to find out a bit more about the story on which it was based and will be particularly interested to discover what period the novelist was writing about.