Alec Guiness is Father Brown, an English priest transporting an historic cross of St. Augustine to an exhibit in Paris. He's outwitted by the famous and thoroughly civilized thief Gustave Flambeau (Peter Finch). Guiness is on the track of Finch, just as the police and the church are now on the track of Guiness for obstruction of justice or something. He won't cooperate with the cops because he's as interested in Finch as he is in the cross. He's intent on convincing Finch that there's more to life than wallowing in a private art collection that no one else will ever see.
It isn't really a comedy in any strict sense. There are two genuinely funny scenes. One is a farcical auction at which Finch makes off with a chess set attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The other is set in an ancient library of heraldry with Brown and the decrepit caretaker stepping on each other's eye glasses. And they really ARE funny.
The challenges facing Father Brown are (1) how to recover the cross and (2) how to ignite the spiritual side of Peter Finch.
There is some banter about number two and although it's not exactly a laff riot or a theological disquisition it does carry a bit of weight because of the understated way that Guiness's role is written and the way it's played. I'll give one example. In his private gallery, Finch has been bragging about his collection, while Guiness has expressed not much more than pity for him for not sharing his El Grecos with the rest of the world. As a disappointed Guiness is leaving, Finch says something like: "Here, you forgot your cross." "It isn't mine," replies a glum Guiness. No particular point is made of the exchange. It just encapsulates the two conflicting points of view that the pair have just been discussing.
Guiness doesn't go overboard with the role of the priest. He wears a Barry Fitzgerald smile without quite turning the character into a cartoon.
The story itself does a good job of evoking G. K. Chesterton, to the extent that that counts. Chesterton's Father Brown was a recedent figure. Chesterton was an ardent Catholic convert and an aesthete. Some of his stories practically dispense with the mystery entirely and turn into rather long criticisms of barbaric art in the form of an Algerian dagger or something. If Chesterton were alive today and an animist, he might be an avid reader of somebody like Joseph Campbell.
It isn't really a comedy in any strict sense. There are two genuinely funny scenes. One is a farcical auction at which Finch makes off with a chess set attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The other is set in an ancient library of heraldry with Brown and the decrepit caretaker stepping on each other's eye glasses. And they really ARE funny.
The challenges facing Father Brown are (1) how to recover the cross and (2) how to ignite the spiritual side of Peter Finch.
There is some banter about number two and although it's not exactly a laff riot or a theological disquisition it does carry a bit of weight because of the understated way that Guiness's role is written and the way it's played. I'll give one example. In his private gallery, Finch has been bragging about his collection, while Guiness has expressed not much more than pity for him for not sharing his El Grecos with the rest of the world. As a disappointed Guiness is leaving, Finch says something like: "Here, you forgot your cross." "It isn't mine," replies a glum Guiness. No particular point is made of the exchange. It just encapsulates the two conflicting points of view that the pair have just been discussing.
Guiness doesn't go overboard with the role of the priest. He wears a Barry Fitzgerald smile without quite turning the character into a cartoon.
The story itself does a good job of evoking G. K. Chesterton, to the extent that that counts. Chesterton's Father Brown was a recedent figure. Chesterton was an ardent Catholic convert and an aesthete. Some of his stories practically dispense with the mystery entirely and turn into rather long criticisms of barbaric art in the form of an Algerian dagger or something. If Chesterton were alive today and an animist, he might be an avid reader of somebody like Joseph Campbell.