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?
"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?
