Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Detective (1954)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Robert Hamer
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Disappointing adaptation of the British mystery stories of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton. Alec Guinness plays the priest and amateur sleuth whose priceless cross is stolen by international art burglar Peter Finch. He tracks the thief to Paris where he corners him in the underground catacombs. However, rather than recover the cross he attempts to reform him with religion. Finch naturally finds that easy to resist, but guilt eventually catches up to him. I was not at all impressed with Guinness' characterization of Father Brown, a rather smug fellow with a constant grin on his face. The frequent attempts at comedy failed more often than not, and the film as a whole was poorly paced and mystery uninvolving. A definite step down from Guinness' far more successful Ealing comedies of prior years.

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