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Slow-moving but compelling psychological Western about a determined priest who arrives at a small town that seems to be mysteriously dominated by a local bad guy, and decides to fight him in his own peaceful way; their confrontations make the movie. Literate script (just a quote: "Isn't that your job, Father; To keep hoping that any soul can be saved, even mine?", asks the bandit), exceptional acting by the two leads (and very unexceptional acting by Mylene Demongeot). (***)

I watched this film not expecting terribly much, but was blown away by the subject matter and, more importantly, how it was handled by the skillful actors in the film.

The story centres around a priest, played by John Mills, and a local bandit, excellently played by Dirk Bogarde.

Without spoiling the ending, the story focuses on the conflict between the Priest and Anacleto. More importantly, it is a tale of the pursuit of religion, and the issues involved.

John Mills excellently plays the well intentioned priest, caught between his own feelings and the duties to the church. Dirk Bogarde plays the local bandit, Anacleto, and portrays a truly intelligent athiest at the mercy of his own desires and ideologies.

This is a great story of characterisation, and of the sometimes misplaced loyalties that we place on ourselves - be it through religion, or otherwise.

Watch out for the excellent and hard hitting conclusion, with some excellent summarising by both Anacleto and the Priest at the storys conclusion.

A must see for those who enjoy a deeper meaning behind the action and dialogue.

My first (and for a long time) only viewing of this film was way back in the mid-1980s (during the early days of VHS in my neck of the woods) via a tape of a local TV screening my father loaned from a friend of his; even though I was aware of a couple of Italian TV showings over the years, I never managed to catch up with it – until another friend of my father’s alerted me (around Good Friday of last year) that it had been released – and, as it happens, subsequently deleted – on R2 DVD in the UK…which is how I eventually reacquainted myself with it on the day marking the centenary of one of its lead actors, John Mills. The reason I went into such detail about my previous experience with this particular film is because, even though it’s been 23 years since my sole viewing of (what is nowadays perhaps considered) a fairly obscure title, I myself have never forgotten it.

The ‘rejected priest in a godless Mexico’ theme recalls John Ford’s THE FUGITIVE (1947) and Luis Bunuel’s NAZARIN (1959), while the ‘homosexual undertones in a Western setting’ angle is reminiscent of the Howard Hughes/Howard Hawks concoction THE OUTLAW (1943) – with henchman Laurence Naismith’s ambiguous father-son-lover relationship with bandit leader Dirk Bogarde being particularly a throwback to the Thomas Mitchell/Jack Beutel one in the earlier film. Incidentally, THE SINGER NOT THE SONG’s controversial ending plays almost like a male version of that featured in yet another steamy over-the-top Western – DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)! This was the fourth of six collaborations between Mills and director Baker and which also included the latter’s debut, THE October MAN (1947) – a well-regarded thriller I’d love to watch and which, incidentally, has just been released on R2 DVD as part of a “John Mills Centenary Collection”. Bogarde, who himself considered the whole thing “beyond camp”, is almost always completely black-clad and, at one point, even sports cool shades!; here, he was already beginning to bravely delve on screen into his real-life gay side – which would come to full fruition later that same year in Basil Dearden’s VICTIM and other later acclaimed international films.

Nigel Balchin’s complex screenplay is at once fascinating and heavy-going, occasioning a few lulls particularly during the last third of the film’s lengthy 132-minute duration; besides, the ‘alphabet murders’ element to Bogarde’s tyrannical rule – not to mention pretty, pouting Mylene Demongeot’s forbidden love for middle-aged priest Mills – isn’t very convincing. On the other hand, Otto Heller’s spectacular color cinematography and Philip Green’s playfully evocative score, stand out as undeniable assets to the film. Having said that, DD Video’s full-frame presentation would have usually put me off acquiring a title on DVD – but, for the reasons delineated in my introduction, I gladly made an exception in this case.

Roy Ward Baker’s accompanying brief interview is very interesting: he wasn’t keen on doing the film himself but concedes now that it is beautifully-made; he also discloses that, initially, it was supposed to star Richard Burton instead of John Mills (but he was only interested in playing the bandit…except that the role was always intended for Bogarde – this, in fact, turned out to be the last film the latter made under contract to Rank) and that there was a mysterious enmity between the two male stars. I usually enjoy listening to Ward Baker’s Audio Commentaries (on his Hammer flicks) and, while I would have liked one for THE SINGER NOT THE SONG as well, the fact that he is now in his nineties and that he does not have fond memories of the shooting of the picture has understandably put paid to that prospect!

Who thought that it would be a good idea to have the two main male parts played by actors with posh English accents in a film set in Mexico, I saw no trace of an Irish accent from John MIlls that's been mentioned by others. An interesting film let down by poor casting, Dirk's character should have been a lot more butch as he was as threatening as Julian Clary. John's priest should have been a lot younger. Set in the 1960s but in the style of the 1930's, a very odd jumble of a film.

This unusual 'Western' is all a bit of mess. But some of the ingredients are rather tasty and juicy and so, it is actually quite enjoyable.

John Mills, as the priest, supposedly Irish but who's accent is only about 10% that, does OK but doesn't shine. Apparently Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift were first choices for his part. And on set, he didn't get on with arch rival desperado outlaw, Dirk Bogarde - and it shows.

Bogarde's high-camp dandy of an outlaw would make you laugh if this film wasn't so serious. To many, the ongoing religiosity - I won't go so far to say 'sermonising' between the Church (Catholic, in this case) - could be a turn-off.

I was trying to place the film's setting, period wise but can't find mention of it but would guess 1930-40s and a remote village in Mexico (actually Spain). Aside of its two English leads and the above, the final third in the triangle is a beautiful blonde French young actress, Mylene Demongeot. As I said, quite a mish-mash that makes a tastier dish than it should.

Trying to simplify the plot, I'll say that Mills takes over from another priest who is disenchanted and can't wait to get out. Mills, the idealist and good-doer can't believe him when he says that the Church is hated in the village, led by the local gangster, Bogarde. This desperado punishes any that assist or even go to church. Demongeot is the daughter of a local man who helps the priest. Apparently, she's in love with Mills, who presumes it's Bogarde that is her crush.

One day, a drunk man who Mills prays for comes to his lodgings after and tries to kill him. Bogarde saves his life and shoots the man, dead. The police, who have never had anything concrete to nail the crook on, try to arrest him but not only does Mills neither hand him over but absolves his sins. Thinking that he has redeemed an evil man....

And so it goes on. The girl is beautiful and nice to look at, Bogarde struts around gamely like a peacock and Mills is reliably nice.

The title - one of its strong points - refers to the man (the priest) rather than his song (Church, The Bible) as Bogarde came to have respect and admiration for Mills, rather than what he stood for.

The direction is a bit stodgy and as I saw it on commercial TV, it was cut up by frequent ads and in 4:3 ratio. And soft. And long, at 2.5 hours (on ITV)

The Rank Organisation presents a thought-provoking film , a Roy Baker production , as one of Britain's most solid stylists and released by Rank film distributors limited . It concerns on Father Michael Keogh (John Mills , his third of several works with Baker) , a priest who has been given welcome by Father Gomez (Leslie French), whom he then replaces to a Mexican village after the Revolution . The village is submitted by Anacleto Comachi (Dirk Bogarde) dressed in dark and usually on horse , with its cowardly residents hiding in the houses . Eventually, the priest assists them in regaining their confidence and defending themselves . Anacleto regularly attacks the village and steal all their supplies . Comachi is twenty nine years old and natural son and was born a countrywoman . Father Michael takes on Anacleto who murders people with alphabetic names , beginning D and going on E, F.. Meanwhile , the rich owner's daughter (Mylene Demengeot) falls in love with Comachi.

From the novel by Audrey Erskine written by Nigel Balchin , this British picture is an interesting drama that carries a genuine charge of intelligence with exciting battle of wits between an upright priest and a nasty outlaw . It deals with people living on the edges of themselves and their resourcefulness , a recurring issue in Roy Baker's work . The picture bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Guns of San Sebastian (1968)¨ by Henry Verneuil also with a priest-though false- played by Anthony Quinn who arrives in village being harassed by an evil enemy played by Charles Bronson . A Cinemascope picture in glimmer color processed by the Rank laboratories (Denham) limited, England and well photographed by Otto Heller B.S.C . Good Production Manager by Denis Holt with nice Production design by Vetchinsky made on location in Torremolinos , Malaga, Spain and at Pinewood Studios, London .

The motion picture is professionally directed in Western style by Roy Baker , though contains up and downs with an amazing final . Baker emerged in post-wars years as one of the best Brit filmmakers and ahead of his time in editing techniques , working even in Hollywood, right from his initial American film titled ¨Inferno¨ with Robert Ryan and as ¨Don't bother to knock¨ with Marilyn Monroe . His movies also achieved some of the most important popular successes of the English cinema in the 50s and 60s, including ¨Morning departure¨ ,¨The one that got away¨ and the better film about Titanic tragedy as ¨A night to remember ¨ and at TV as ¨Sherlock Holmes , The Champions , the Saint , and the Avengers¨ . On his return to the cinema in the 60s billed as Roy Ward baker , he no longer seemed the same filmmaker and indeed directed entirely different kind of subjects , mainly terror movies as ¨Quatermass and the pit¨, ¨Vampire lovers¨, ¨Asylum¨ ¨Legend of seven golden vampires among others¨ . Rating : acceptable and passable

Bogarde himself described this film as "beyond camp". Trying to have a serious discussion about camp is futile. I first saw it as a teenager and, at the time, thought all that emotion at the end rather an impressive bit of movie drama . Alas, how maturity has tarnished my childhood tolerance for "artistic licence". Mexican peasants speaking in perfect RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) English didn't bother me at all back then. The leather-fetishist attire of the villain Anacleto, went entirely unnoticed by my teeny-bopper eyes. Back then I had no idea that Bogarde was gay and I'm sure that there was no mention of homosexuality in the novel on which the film was based. Now that everyone knows his secrets, there are bound to be some who "read between the lines", stuff that isn't and was never there in the first place. Sure he is very "camp" himself in the film but what do you expect when the costumier puts him in something so outrageously over-the-top. I thought John Mills did the best he could with a bad screenplay and was rather good at times. Even he couldn't make that melodramatic ending convincing however - no one could.

This movie leaves so many various impressions on a viewer, it is impossible to form a final opinion. To begin with, it is a British western, with two great British actors in the leads. Then, there is the actress, looking quite like Bardot. And then, even the atmosphere reminded me of "Et Dieu... crea la femme" in certain scenes (Bogarde called it camp, and you can see why). During certain scenes you are thinking that it will go the way of other movies with similar plot ("Satan never sleeps" is an example), ending in infinite praise of the religion, without measure or sense. But then it turns the other way and surprises you. And in the end you come to see that even some deep religious deeds can be interpreted as acts of latent homosexual love... I know it sound bad but, somehow, unlike modern movies, the topic is introduced subtly. Anyway, you should see it yourself and decide whether you like it or not...

The writing was on the wall it seems for this even before filming began. The production was troubled and it shows. Roy Baker was reluctant to direct. Dirk Bogarde sensed that he was totally miscast as a desperado (how right he was!) and voiced his objections to the casting of John Mills as the Priest. The gorgeous Mylene Demongeot is the meat in the sandwich and hers is the performance that lingers. Mills portrays very well the kindliness of Father Michael but his Irish accent is risible. No need to dwell on Bogarde's 'camp' performance as the bandit as this has been more than adequately covered by other reviewers! This is a literate adaptation by Nigel Balchin from the novel of Audrey Erskine-Lindop but is utterly devoid of passion, fire and what the Spanish would call 'Cojones'. It is all far too 'English' for its own good. Excellent cinematography by Otto Heller and a mediocre score by Philip Green. The poster proclaimed ' a strange and terrible combat between two men in a strange and terrible Mexican town'. This is indeed a strange and terrible film.

I saw this movie in 1961 at the army base in Schofield Barracks and was struck by its import. I was an eternal optimist and had a very naive faith that God was in control. The movie really shook me out of this blind faith. That night I sat on my bunk and meditated on this dilemma and asked that I be restored or lead to a reality of truth. I was certain that I would be in battle soon and wanted to experience a sense of truth before this happened. I only went to the movie out of boredom and was not expecting the impact it made on me. The title says it all. I was struck by the simple plot. The actors who were unknown to me provided a great contrast of what is good and evil. The actress was simply beautiful and I always wondered why I had never seen her in anything after that. The love shown between the desperado and the priest was very touching.

We all bring our own life experiences to a movie and understand it on different levels. With themes like religious faith, love & sexuality, and what makes a good man, it is sometimes easy to see what we want to see ... what relates to us personally.

The two main protagonists reach different conclusions: for Anacleto it is "the singer, not the song" which is the opposite of Fr Keogh's. In the context of the movie we can ponder these two extremes and reach our own conclusion which may be an intersection of both.

Anacleto's hostility towards the Church is explained in part by his words: "It must be heartbreaking to fall in love with a man you can never have ... I understand this". It is as close as the script comes to identifying him as homosexual though his rather bizarre outfits are meant to convey the same notion along with his lack of interest in the beautiful & desirable Locha.

The death embrace at the end illustrates the feelings of the two men ... Anacleto clings to the man, Keogh clings to his faith. Only in death are the two reconciled.

What an odd film this is!A British made " Western"set in Mexico, but the cars and houses are very 1950's.Dirk Bogarde is a Mexican bandit but makes no attempt at an accent.John Mills is playing an Irish priest and does attempt an accent but forgets it half the time. Film with it's obvious homosexual overtones is ahead of it's time,but film does not on the whole come over as convincing.Fair,at best.

An unintentional riot of fun! Never has the wonderful Dirk Bogarde been so poorly miscast. The sight of his character reduced me to tears as he failed to strike fear dressed as a Jim Morrison wannabe in leather trousers and black silk shirt. John Mills appeared to be having a hard time holding onto his ersatz Irish accent and his attempts at steely determination were a joy to behold. One must assume that money was the prime motivation behind theses to old pros participation - Bogarde did go on to give us some of his finest performances in films like The Servant and Death in Venice. This shocking waste of time would have been better left on the cutting room floor. Unless you are really stuck for something to watch or have a finely tuned sense of the bizarre give this a miss

Another of these movies where Dirk Bogarde got lost.Why on earth did he have to get involved in that business?The screenplay has enormous pretensions and suggests homosexual tendencies between the priest and the all dressed-in-black Bogarde as well as a love which blonde Mylène Demongeot feels for the same priest!which is a bit too much!Luis Bunuel could have got away with it,but the director here is not in the same league.The screenplay is incoherent and the three leads are finally unconvincing.The title is absurd (Bogarde likes the singer (the priest?) but not his song(his Christian message?).It was also to be a Rolling Stone song with a nice dulcimer arrangement by Brian JOnes in the mid-sixties.

But here Bogarde's fans can have a look,but be warned:it's the actor,not the movie.

This film started with the best intentions from the director. The star of the film was to be Marlon Brando eventually coupled with Richard Burton. But as it often happens in the movie world something went wrong somewhere and chaos followed. Bogarde reluctantly agreed to make the film (against a promise to get freed from his J. Arthur Rank contract), but he did not get along with John Mills (signed at the last minute) at all. So he decided, as a sort of retaliation against the company, the actors and the director to ham it up as much as he could. And he certainly could. Mylne Demongeot told me during an interview that the shooting in a small Spanish town was absolute murder, with everybody hardly speaking to one another. And yet And yet what came out of these hectic premises is a unique movie. I must confess that I have a soft spot for these one of a kind movies. Films that have almost no equivalent and which seems to have a life of their own despite whatever intentions led to their existence. Naturally enough these films generally get panned upon their releases and sometimes gain a real stature years later. Two films come to mind in this category, and I was lucky enough to see them both when they were first released, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and Charles Laughton's The Night of The Hunter. I can still remember the deadly reviews that greeted these two films before their long overdue rehabilitations. Another handful of films could find a place in this category. But getting back to The Singer not The Song, without being on the same level as the Laughton or Powell's films, it nevertheless fits in the list of neglected "sort of masterpieces". Everything is this film is not what it seems, as a matter of fact it may be the only film where the story being openly told is in absolute contradiction with what we are shown. Almost every line spoken is continuously belied by the understatement it carries. Right from the beginning everything in the story appears improbable. Here we are in a small Spanish town where a ruthless anti-clerical bandit keeps getting rid (one way or another) of the local priest lest he should turn the town people against him. OK, we have the regular triangle, the bad guy, the good guy, a priest, and the girl. And what we witness is the old story of the good guy fighting the villain with the pretty girl thrown in in the middle of this tension. Except that this film turns the whole story upside down and we are left to witness the villain falling for the priest in front of the bewildered girl who cannot decide which one she wants. We somehow get two stories fro the price of one. No doubt that Dirk Bogarde does everything is his power to accentuate the homosexual tension. Clad in tight fit black leather costume he is absolutely over the top, perfect in every gesture, every look, every motion. His willingness to make fun of the whole story just add to the ambiguity of the script. Whereas he thought he would show his contempt for the project, in fact he brings it to a level probably nobody foresaw. If you are open to unusual film (and a British western is already unusual) this is an absolute must where the subtext is only acknowledged with the last sentence of the film (its title as a matter of fact). I have watched this movie many times and have always found something new to appreciate. Don't miss it. A real shame that the British DVD is pan and scanned. A French company has just released the original scope copy and it really shows the brilliant use of the location by Roy Ward Baker.

I must say I was agreeably surprised to come across this offbeat film as part of a collection of John Mills rarities (can't recall the other two,I threw them away). Prior to viewing the full screen DVD,I was able to recall the film's poor following in N.Z. At the Auckland premiere in the early 1960's, the cinema manager came on stage and announced that "The Singer Not The Song" was unsuitable viewing and would be replaced with "Tunes Of Glory".I'm unable to recall if the film was released at all after that.I certainly don't recall anyone discussing the film in question but given it's suggestion of homosexuality,I'm now not at all surprised.Such topics were never even hinted at in those days down in innocent little New Zealand.Thank God we now live in a more informed world.Therefore,this film was years ahead of it's time and as such,I find it compelling. I rate it eight,only because it was impossible to get it all right,given the subject matter. Dirk Bogarde and John Mills both give thoughtful,intelligent performances and I am so grateful that keen film buffs like myself can now fully appreciate this worthwhile contribution to British Cinema.