Johnny Nobody

William Bendix gives another brilliant performance as a blasphemer. Aldo Ray performs in a strange and unique role. The conclusion of the film may not come close to Dietrich-Laughton in "Witness for the Prosecution", but one could see a comparison with the original "Bad Seed"

The two films Nigel Patrick directed were a rum pair. For the second and final instalment he assembled a highly motley cast (fortunately including himself) at Ardmore Studios in Dublin to make this fanciful chase thriller combined with a courtroom drama in which theology is heatedly debated.

As the film progresses Patrick undergoes an extraordinary transformation from Father Brown to Richard Hannay shot on Irish locations attractively rendered in widescreen by future Bond cameraman Ted Moore. Ron Goodwin rather overeggs the score but the conclusion - which divides many critics - this viewer found satisfactory enough.

My biggest regret remains that William Bendix never got to share the screen with Bernie Winters.

JOHNNY NOBODY is a strange little movie that doesn't really gel all that well, although it proves to be quite entertaining at times. It begins with a bizarre set-piece in which an atheist rants and raves in an Irish pub, understandably upsetting the punters, before a random stranger executes him. The focus then shifts to priest Nigel Patrick (who also directs) as he investigates the killer's motives for his crime. The latter half adopts a kind of preposterous 'wronged man' template with some good suspense scenes that are the best part of the film, but then we get a ridiculous climax that must have been laughed off the screen by audiences of the era.

"Mulcahy" (William Bendix) is a bit of a stirrer. Amidst a deeply religious Irish community, he invites the wrath of god by daring the deity to strike him down. To the shock of the crowd, that's exactly what happens. Thing is, it isn't a thunderbolt - but a bullet fired from a gun by a bystander. He makes no attempt to escape, and only adds to the enigma when the police can find no clue as to his identity. He (Aldo Ray) claims amnesia - not divine intervention - and looking the gallows fairly and squarely, he has to rely on the local "Fr. Carey" (Nigel Patrick) to try to put together the pieces. I did quite like the subject matter - and as we proceed to the courtroom aspects of the plot, the writing does raise quite a few interesting questions about the role of religion - and God - in the judicial process, and these are well posed by defending counsel Niall MacGinnis to the judge (John Welsh). Sadly, though, the story hasn't quite the courage of it's potential convictions and the last twenty minutes or so fall firmly into the standard pattern of crime-noir and that rather disappoints. Still, Nigel Patrick's direction keeps it all moving along well enough and he has assembled a reliable and solid cast of familiar, and personable, faces to help this into the top tier of standard Saturday afternoon features.

There's a terrific idea at the heart of this Irish-set thriller, particularly if you're a Catholic. A drunken Irish-American atheist stands outside a Roman Catholic Church in a small Irish village and defies God to strike him dead when out of nowhere a stranger appears and does just that in front of the local priest and the whole village. Since the killer doesn't appear to have a past or an identity, he becomes known as "Johnny Nobody", hence the film's title.

So far so good; unfortunately we get the denouement about two-thirds of the way through and it's not a very good one. From here on things get progressively more far-fetched, like a cross between a poor man's "The 39 Steps" and "Witness for the Prosecution".

Actor Nigel Patrick both directs and plays the sceptical priest, Aldo Ray is the killer and a really rather good William Bendix, the victim. Others in the cast include a miscast Yvonne Mitchell, Cyril Cusack and Niall Macginnis as well as the usual stock company of Irish players. On its level it's entertaining matinee fare but it could have been so much better.