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'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).

Of all the names in the pantheon of great literary detectives, G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown is easily the most overlooked. The character has appeared in only a handful of films and a 13 episode television series in the early seventies. Of the films, The Detective(US title) is the best. Alec Guinness plays the affable cleric with an insatiable appetite for puzzles very nicely. Guinness shows us the heart and dedication Father Brown has to his calling spiritually over any temporal considerations. He also shows us that Father Brown is a character with depth as he takes lessons in karate and truly learns what the lives of his less than well-off parishioners are like. The heart of this film is Gunness's subtle comedic performance as a man challenging himself to catch a thief named Flambeau in the act of stealing his own church's cross that belonged to St. Augustine. Father Brown wants to save the soul of this man as well as the cross. The cat and mouse game between the two is fun fluff, and is vastly entertaining as that rather than a true mystery. Flambeau is played by a very young Peter Finch with class and style.The film boasts a fine array of British character actors with the likes of Bernard Lee(M from James Bond fame), Cecil Parker(King Roderick from The Court Jester and more), Joan Greenwood(Kind Hearts and Coronets), and my personal favourite, Ernest Thesiger from The Bride of Frankenstein. Thesiger has little screen time yet is very amusing in his role. A nice little mystery once again showcasing the comedic talent of one of our century's best actors...Sir Alec Guinness.

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.