Refugio de criminales

Excellent movie of a true story. Father Clark did his best to help the criminals, but the punks have to help themselves first. Great movie made entirely in St. Louis, a tough film to watch.

I was 13 when this film came out and while I don't know for sure why I never got to see this. I'm guessing, morals being what they were at the time; this was probably judged to rough a movie for a boy my age. It probably would have been a R rated movie in it's day. So when I saw it listed on Turner Classic Movies I thought great, I finally get a chance to see this old film. Well now that I've seen it I'm amazed this film gets so much buzz. I found it to be way to melodramatic, over acted and just plain hammy. I'm not sure how this could have ever been relevant. I know that Father Clark did great work in his time; but this seems a poor way to tell his story. Almost everyone in this movie is over acting. I'm guessing that's the fault of the director, but that doesn't make it any easier to sit through. I'm sure many will be drawn to this film by Keir Dullea's name in the cast. Dullea's fame comes from 2001 a film whose uniqueness at the time; pulled along most of the actors who happened to be in it. Like the Hoodlum Priest there were no great performances in that film either. A film for film school students, theater majors, and nostalgia buffs. A corny waste of time.

Father Charles Dismas Clark was by all accounts an extraordinary man and at least 30 years older than Don Murray who played him in The Hoodlum Priest. He came from a working class coal mining background in Pennsylvania, his ancestors were Molly Maguires. Not the kind to rise in the Catholic Church and he didn't. He died only two years after The Hoodlum Priest came out. But two years before Clark founded Dismas House, the first halfway house for newly released criminals from prison. Though I'm sure each state has its different standards, Dismas House became the prototype for such programs.

Murray plays the jive talking priest who speaks the language of the streets and gains the trust of the hoodlum element by doing so. It's the portrayal of a deeply dedicated man to his cause of ministering to a class of people not usually thought of as Christian material. Murray also produced this independent film released by United Artists on a shoe string budget that went way overboard for clearly a B picture.

In an article I read about the film Murray was in St. Louis promoting one of his films when a priest literally accosted him at the premiere and it was Father Clark. Fascinated by the man Murray agreed to do the film and set about to find the cast and financing for Hoodlum Priest.

Larry Gates plays a criminal attorney who helps Murray with setting up and financing Dismas House. In helping Murray realize his dream Gates' role is not all that different from Henry Hull's in Boystown.

Another plot thread is taken from the Pat O'Brien film Fighting Father Dunne where O'Brien is also trying found a home for orphans like Spencer Tracy in Boystown. Keir Dullea plays a troubled youth in his breakthrough role and Darryl Hickman plays the same kind of part in Fighting Father Dunne. In both films it was the failure here that contrasts the overall success. Both Hickman and Dullea have tragic and identical ends. Murray's facial reactions at Dullea's death is a priceless bit of acting without dialog.

Hoodlum Priest is a fine film a great example of what just a few dollars will get you with the right script, direction, and playing. Even if it put a few gray hairs in Murray's head when it went over budget.

Irv Kerschner, who was George Lucas' teacher at USC and later directed one of his pupil's Star Trek features, made this glossy well-meaning melodrama released by United Artists in 1961. Shot on location in St. Louis and featuring the semi-documentary but often overly self-conscious B&W cinematography of Haskell Wekler, the story is based on the real life story of a Jesuit priest --perhaps the first man in America to set up a half-way house for ex-cons. Although its heart is in the right place, and the film makes the plea that the criminal justice system in the United States only serves to criminalize young offenders rather than reform them, Kershner cannot resist all the obvious opportunities to be arty: chases through railroad yards and into abandoned buildings with broken furniture and boarded-up windows providing the right shadows on the wall. He also hammers home his point by squeezing out the last drop of melodrama from the shaky plot, including a totally implausible electric chair sequence with the priest admitted into the chamber as his hoodlum friend is about to be electrocuted. The film tries to have its cake and eat it, too. In real life the Irish priest was helped to build his halfway house by a Russian-Jewish immigrant attorney, Morris Shenker, but the film homogenizes their relationship; the young offenders somehow feel as if they dropped out of "West Side Story," made the same year, because they were unable to sing and dance.

I first saw this film on T.V. when I was around 12 years old. It made a lasting and powerful impression. I remember actually sobbing at the end. The performances by both Don Murray and Keir Dullea were riveting. I've always been sorry that both actors had only a handful of truly great roles to play because they were/are capable of much more than they have been allowed to show us. Whenever I notice this film is appearing on T.V., I usually tune in. If you've never seen it or haven't seen it for a long time, watch for a chance to view it. I think you'll be moved by it.