Customer Reviews

The Hoodlum Priest

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Hoodlum Priest is based on the life and work of an actual Jesuit priest ,Father Clark, who was heavily involved in the provision of support to newly released former convicts in St Louis.The movie was co-scripted by its star Don Murray under the pseudonym Don Deer.The other scriptwriter was Joseph Landon .
The movie focuses on Father Clark's relationship with one particular man ,Billy (Keir Dullea-giving a striking and memorable performance on his movie debut).Billy is released from prison and with the help of the priest begins his adjustment to life on the outside very well .He secures a place to live ,gets a job and acquires a steady ,respectable girlfriend (Cindi Wood).Then things begin to go wrong -he is unjustly fired from his job ,decides to exact revenge by burglarising the place and ,when the robbery is interrupted, kills a man .Billy is put on trial for murder and his life hangs in the balance.
The movie was shot in 1961 but feels like an older movie in some ways ;it is easy to imagine the movie being made 2 decades earlier with Pat O'Brien as the priest and somebody like John Garfield in the Dullea role .The movie is well shot in crisp monochrome and the direction by Irvin Kerschner is restrained and semi-documentary in feel.The peformances are sincere and earnest .The one big bugbear I have with the movie is its script which is an odd mixture of the pious and the profane and inclined to moralise .It is a "message movie"about the need for aftercare for ex-convicts in order to make it easier for them to readjust to life in "normal society" .A worthy sentiment but here the story stops and starts too much as the script keeps making the point in a preachy way.

The movie is sincere and well intentioned and is not to be lightly brushed aside but it needed a sharper script to make its point without sermonising .

This movie is very worthwhile even if dated. The message is positive and we dont get many movies with positive messages in this day and age.

The Hoodlum Priest is a better than average crime drama, tame by today's standards, but still a good black and white film that has some merit. Don Murray appears in a symphathetic role of a kind priest dedicated to helping ex-cons adjust to life on the outside after their release from prison. Unfortunately, his efforts to assist parolee Billy, played by Keir Dullea in his first screen role, end tragically. Dullea is excellent as a young irresponsible thug who initially follows the guidance of Father Dismas Clark, but then carelessly murders his employer during a robbery. Dullea really gets into the role as a tense, scared, doomed man in his final moments before breathing in the deadly fumes of the gas chamber.

Dullea of course, went on to star in Kubrick's 1968 hit 2001: A Space Odyssey, and recently played a minor role as Senator Russell in 2006's The Good Shepard. If you like this early 60's drama, you might also enjoy The Young Savages, also from 1961, starring Burt Lancaster, Shelly Winters, Dina Merrill, and a young Telly Savalas.

This movie has regional appeal for those living in St. Louis, since it's true story occurred in that locale and also was filmed there. Also entertaining for those not from St. Louis.

On-location shooting of sleazy streets and bars are nice---but there's only a few minutes worth; the rest is pure 60s, pre-DEATH WISH pity-killers nonsense.

"He's a good boy" the hoodlum priest tells the govenor, about a young killer...! The priest bad mouths the victim by saying he was going after the killer with a crowbar---never mind that the victim with the crowbar was defending his property against the killer who was burglarizing his place!!!

Professional critics, like Andrew Sarris, actually like this movie a lot more than DEATH WISH and DIRTY HARRY----though only because this movie is against capital punishment, and pitys killers and other criminals as being misunderstood.

From the director of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.