THE GUISES OF GUINNESS: Part One

 

         Father Brown a.k.a The Detective (1954: Dir. Robert Hamer)

Alec Guinness came to hate Star Wars (1977). Although his profit participation had provided him with financial security for the rest of his life, the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi seemed to obliterate his previous acting achievements in the eyes of younger viewers. Prior to working with George Lucas, director David Lean was the filmmaker most associated with Guinness but there was another writer-director with whom Guinness had enjoyed a successful partnership. In the post WWII British film industry of the 1940s, Robert Hamer was one of the bright young filmmakers to emerge from the editing room as a directing talent to be watched. Having garnered critical acclaim for a pair of crime melodramas Pink String and Sealing Wax (1946) and It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), Hamer co-wrote and directed Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) an icy black comedy about a ruthless aristocrat (Dennis Price) who murders his way into an inheritance. Guinness plays nine roles - both male and female - as each member of the wealthy D'Ascoyne family is done way with in witty fashion. This tour de force of characterization together with his unrecognizable performance as Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), helped cement Guinness in the public mind as a master of disguise. Hamer and Guinness re-united in 1954 for their greatest collaboration Father Brown, boringly re-titled The Detective for American release. Co-produced by Columbia Pictures, it is an amusing though deceptively spiritual adaptation of the first in the beloved G.K. Chesterton stories of a wily clerical investigator. Once again effecting a bold physical transformation, Guinness cheerfully embodies the heavy paunch and myopia of Father Brown while communicating his unique blend of detective skills combined with a congenial yet unshakeable moral authority. His French nemesis Flambeau is portrayed by the underrated Peter Finch, in a suave performance of criminal cunning that is both elegant and tragic in its palpable loneliness. Finch was not yet the star he would become by decade's end and here he proves every bit the equal of Guinness when sharing the screen. Father Brown enjoyed a fitful success and led to an immediate follow-up project for Hamer and Guinness, To Paris With Love (1955). Although his role as a Scottish Colonel gave Guinness the requisite opportunities for eccentric impersonation, this romantic comedy is unfortunately a light souffle of an entertainment that never adequately rises. Hamer's final film with Guinness proved more worthy. The Scapegoat (1959) is a moody filming of Daphne Du Maurier's novel of mistaken identity. Surprisingly, for a film about assuming the identity of another man, Guinness is at his most subtle and least mannered in both his physical and emotional personification. The film's lack of success is often blamed on its troubled production. Hamer, a tormented homosexual, struggled with chronic alcoholism and as a result he was often left unable to work. This caused particular conflict with Guinness, who as co-producer with Du Maurier had insisted on hiring Hamer for the job of director. In addition, Hamer came into conflict with financiers MGM who altered his director's cut by re-editing and re-scoring the film despite his protestations. Sadly, Hamer would make only one more film School for Scoundrels (1960) before dying at the young age of 52. Guinness however would continue to expand his impressive collection of masquerades. (DVD Region 2)