***SPOILERS*** Not too convincing film about a hot shot and well intentioned priest who gets in over his heed in trying to saved his beloved Catholic Church from going bankrupt.
The Second World War is soon to be over and the Catholic Church has suffered major financial losses because of it. American priest Father John Flaherthy, Christopher Reeve, comes up with this master plan to save the church but there's just one hitch: It involves the Mafia who's the only one who can make it happen. Getting involved with his childhood friend-from Brooklyn NY- Lodo Varese, Joseph Cartese, a master sergeant in the US Army Father John has Lodo through his Mafia and black market connections sell thousands of cartons of cigarettes from the Vatican commissary, that Father John is the administrator of, for a mark up of over 400%. The very naive Father John thinks that his friend Lodo together with his Mafia boss Don Vito "the Apple" Appolini, Jason Miller, will be as honest about this strange arrangement that he cooked up in secretly saving the church as he is.
While all this is going on Father John, using the alias of US Army Lt. Finnigen, gets involved with the not yet confirmed Catholic nun Clara Genevieve Bjold, whom he rescued from getting drenched from a sudden downpour with her fellow nuns while driving his army jeep. In a matter of days the very handsome Father John, or Lt . Finnigen, had the impressionable Clara, who thought that he was a black marketeer, have an affair with him. Thinking that she was involved with a corrupt US Army solider not a Catholic priest, or Monsignor which he was at the time, Clara flipped out when she saw Father John at a ceremony at the Vatican together with his mentor Cardinal Santoni, Fernando Rey, and the Holy Father himself the Pope played by Leonardo Cimino!
Father John not knowing what to say later, while in Church praying for forgiveness, let himself have it, by being sapped around,by an outraged Clara who accused him of ruining her, as well as his, life! The relationship between Father John, a CPA before he entered the church, and his good friend Lodo also started to sour with Lodo taking off with some 40 million dollars of the church's money as well as losing over 600 million dollars playing the very speculative currency markets.
***SPOILER ALERT*** The mad as hell Don Vito who's money, in connection with the Catholic Church, Lodo also ripped off has a hit put out on him which a tearful Father John begs him to put off. This turned out to be about the only good thing that Father John did in the movie and even that backfired on him!
Insulting, especially to Roman Catholics, in how the movie treats members of the clothe by making them look worse then the hoods and gangsters that their shown to be working with. Christopher Reeve as the corrupt Father John is anything but sympathetic in his being so obsessed with both money and sex, as well as power, that whatever good there was in him quickly evaporated within the first ten minutes of the movie. Even though Father John's attempt to save the Catholic Church from going bankrupt was in the end successful his methods were anything but Christ-like. Which made you wonder if, in the movie, with the underhanded and sleazy tactics that Father John used to save it was in fact worth saving at all!
The Second World War is soon to be over and the Catholic Church has suffered major financial losses because of it. American priest Father John Flaherthy, Christopher Reeve, comes up with this master plan to save the church but there's just one hitch: It involves the Mafia who's the only one who can make it happen. Getting involved with his childhood friend-from Brooklyn NY- Lodo Varese, Joseph Cartese, a master sergeant in the US Army Father John has Lodo through his Mafia and black market connections sell thousands of cartons of cigarettes from the Vatican commissary, that Father John is the administrator of, for a mark up of over 400%. The very naive Father John thinks that his friend Lodo together with his Mafia boss Don Vito "the Apple" Appolini, Jason Miller, will be as honest about this strange arrangement that he cooked up in secretly saving the church as he is.
While all this is going on Father John, using the alias of US Army Lt. Finnigen, gets involved with the not yet confirmed Catholic nun Clara Genevieve Bjold, whom he rescued from getting drenched from a sudden downpour with her fellow nuns while driving his army jeep. In a matter of days the very handsome Father John, or Lt . Finnigen, had the impressionable Clara, who thought that he was a black marketeer, have an affair with him. Thinking that she was involved with a corrupt US Army solider not a Catholic priest, or Monsignor which he was at the time, Clara flipped out when she saw Father John at a ceremony at the Vatican together with his mentor Cardinal Santoni, Fernando Rey, and the Holy Father himself the Pope played by Leonardo Cimino!
Father John not knowing what to say later, while in Church praying for forgiveness, let himself have it, by being sapped around,by an outraged Clara who accused him of ruining her, as well as his, life! The relationship between Father John, a CPA before he entered the church, and his good friend Lodo also started to sour with Lodo taking off with some 40 million dollars of the church's money as well as losing over 600 million dollars playing the very speculative currency markets.
***SPOILER ALERT*** The mad as hell Don Vito who's money, in connection with the Catholic Church, Lodo also ripped off has a hit put out on him which a tearful Father John begs him to put off. This turned out to be about the only good thing that Father John did in the movie and even that backfired on him!
Insulting, especially to Roman Catholics, in how the movie treats members of the clothe by making them look worse then the hoods and gangsters that their shown to be working with. Christopher Reeve as the corrupt Father John is anything but sympathetic in his being so obsessed with both money and sex, as well as power, that whatever good there was in him quickly evaporated within the first ten minutes of the movie. Even though Father John's attempt to save the Catholic Church from going bankrupt was in the end successful his methods were anything but Christ-like. Which made you wonder if, in the movie, with the underhanded and sleazy tactics that Father John used to save it was in fact worth saving at all!