Sanctuary of Fear

A young woman is being stalked by a devious lowlife who tries to make her think she's losing her mind before he reveals his full plans. Fortunately the woman has the kindly priest-sleuth Father Brown to solve the mystery for her.

"Sanctuary of Fear" plays to the typical American made-for-television mystery formula of "Perry Mason" and "Murder She Wrote," and does so poorly. While the mood of the film is mildly promising at the start, it is all downhill from there... all the way to the preposterous and laughably melodramatic denouement. Worse, the only actor who shows talent in the entire film is Barnard Hughes as Father Brown.

One wonders why the filmmakers even bothered to invoke G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown character for this film. They have transported the good Father from England to New York, made him an American, and left not a single recognizable personality trait. Nor does the story contain even the smallest attempt at a metaphysical subtext of the sort common to Chesterton's stories. Was Chesterton's character so popular in the late 1970s that it would draw any kind of audience among television viewers, and would that audience have been satisfied with this drivel?

I remember vaguely seeing this when it first aired. As I rewatched it, I really only remembered the brief scene where Father Brown figures out where some evidence of a crime went and finding it clever. The rest of the movie is rather forgettable. They do build some interesting suspense with the lovely Kay Lenz but plotwise it's confusing. Even when you discover who the "villain" is you recognize that some of what that individual does makes no sense. I do see what they were trying to do though and they had the potential to create a rather twisty and interesting mystery but it just doesn't hold together. However, Barnard Hughes makes for a decent Father Brown and there are some amusing bits here and there related to his character. (P. S. That scene at the rectory is creepy but Father Brown seems to live in a rectory the size of the Empire State Building!)

I'm still trying to figure out why I stayed with this movie. Knowing it was a pilot for a show not produced is reason enough to skip it. However as a fan of G. C. Chesterton's Father Brown stories and knowing how radical the changes hat to be to move the story from England and France to New York City, I was intrigued to see how badly it was done. Perfectly bad it was and it was an awful affront to a great author. Painfully a style of late 1970's to early1980's TV productions I expect Charlie's Angels or McMillian and Wife to show up. It was as if every person involved in producing this pilot was new to the job.

I'm a big fan of the BBC's "Father Brown" series. (Well, at least the first nine seasons.) This movie, which apparently was a TV show pilot, had a totally different Father Brown in NYC, and that's wasn't a bad thing. Bernard Hughes was a most likable, kind and intelligent Father Brown. I think he could have carried a series, if it had been made one.

No, what was bad was the script. It was confusing who did what, and exactly how one person could have done what he did. By the time the movie was over, I also wasn't sure exactly what and why others did what they did. Moreover, Father Brown solved the case in a too intuitive sort of way, and Kay Lenz wasn't particularly likable or interesting. Oh well, lots of TV pilot movies aren't that good, but are still watchable.