Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Having become a faithful watcher of the British television series starring the wonderful Mark Williams, I was delighted (and a bit apprehensive) to find this 1954 rendition of a Father Brown story starring, of all people, Sir Alec Guinness.Occasionally, when a character is portrayed by an actor who just seems to be the perfect one, it's difficult to accept anyone else in the role BUT that is not the case here. Guinness is also "just right" as Father Brown. Humorous but not ridiculous, gentle but tough, smart but not smart-alecky. In short, just right.The film is populated by that British stable of character actors that made the 1950's such a wonderful time for film making. It was filmed in Paris so the ge3nuine Parisian atmosphere is there.The criminal looked vaguely familiar and it took reading the credits to actually confirm that it was, indeed, Peter Finch of "Network" fame ! Never saw him before in "young mode".Enjoyed it. Will watch it again. Good bag sale purchase that is staying in the collection and that is high praise.

It's odd that "gently comic" (as another reviewer put in) usually means "quite unfunny". Or rather, it means "we laugh at a harmless, good character". This film could have done with trying less hard to make us laugh. I can't stand seasickness jokes (tho I rather liked Flambeau's line when disguised as a priest "I must partake of the suffering of others"). And the bit where Brown and the librarian keep dropping/stepping on spectacles - I watched it stone-faced. Brown is quite bumbling enough without being "blind as a bat without my glasses" as well. The film opens well with Brown apparently robbing a safe (of course he's putting the money back). Sid James and Cecil Parker give sterling support, and the friendship between Brown and Lady Warren is touching, and I love the garage man who whisks the priest into the dance. This could have been a good film. Occasionally Guinness becomes entirely serious about saving Flambeau's soul and we glimpse what it might have been. It's based on the first Father Brown story in which Flambeau appears, and some of the plot is retained - the chase across town/country, the swapping of parcels, the wrestling holds, the man who's unmasked because he gives the wrong answer about... in the original story it's sin, not drive shafts. Read the story, it's one of the best (also read the one about the silver forks and the extra waiter). And it whisks you through a wild vision of Victorian London (Camden Town is as benighted as Darkest Africa, and they end up on Hampstead Heath - standing in for the high place where the Devil tempted Christ).

I'm old enough to have seen this film on its release in the cinemas, and, whilst it's not easy to think of a film these days being a success unless millions have been spent on it, this film hung on two superlative performances from Alec Guinness and Peter Finch and the screenplay was worth two of anything you'd hear today. So why, I ask, has it not been released on DVD for a new generation to enjoy? Is it thought too dated? Not exciting enough? Too cerebral? Not a bit of it. It's a thoroughly enjoyable film with moments of high tension and a supporting cast rich in character (including Bernard Lee who was the first M in the Bond films)

1st watched 10/26/1997 - 8 out of 10(Dir-Robert Hamer): Guiness provides a delightful portrayal of a whimsical Father Brown who plays detective on the side. Despite slow spots in the story, the portrayal and determination of Father Brown to get his man soul and all keeps us watching.