The Catholic Story Behind the Film
This Father Brown (based upon Chesterton's character) movie has been on my radar for years because of an inspiring event that occurred during its filming. As related by Rita Reichardt from Catholic Culture, Alec Guinness left the set of the motion picture one day wearing his priestly garments. Suddenly, "a little boy, mistaking him for the real thing, grabbed his hand and trustingly accompanied" him for a time, trusting him implicitly because of his perceived role as a priest. This touching encounter, along with other life events, gently moved Alec Guinness (and wife) to become Catholic at the time of his filming of the classic, Bridge Over the River Kwai.
Finding the DVD & Making it Work
I've searched for this movie for years, but I have never had any luck finding it in the USA. (I didn't think of picking it up when I visited London last September.) When I finally found what I thought was the correct DVD format on Ebay, I purchased it. Of course, it turned out to be a Region 2 formatted DVD. What is Region 2 DVD, you ask? Here's some information on the issue courtesy Amazon.
About DVD Region Specifications
Global region codes identify DVDs and Blu-ray discs that are compatible with the players typically sold in that region.
The following are the different regions and their corresponding numerical equivalent:
Standard DVDs
Region 1: U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, and Bermuda
Region 2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East, including Egypt
Region 3: Southeast Asia, East Asia, including Hong Kong
Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
Region 5: Eastern Europe, Baltic States, Russia, Central and South Asia, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region 6: China
Blu-ray Discs
Region A/1: North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Region B/2: Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand
Region C/3: India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia
Note: Most of the DVDs and Blu-ray discs sold by Amazon.com are only encoded for Region 1 or Region A. These titles only play in one region unless noted otherwise.
I tried device after device, but I could not get anything to play the dvd. Finally, I purchased a new LG external dvd writer from Best Buy. Last night, I finally was able to watch the motion picture using the external drive and my iMac. It wasn't a perfect viewing experience, but it worked well. And the movie was wonderful. Before offering a few more words about the motion picture itself, though, I should mention that for legal reasons one can only switch regions on one's external dvd player five times. This means that the switch must be done before watching any Region 1 dvd, so five changes are likely to come fast. If you like English films as much as I do, I recommend purchasing two dvd drives and labeling each for a specific region--e.g. one dvd drive for Region 1 and another for Region 2. As I understand the system, this should adequately address this problem.
The Detective
Now for the delightful movie... Click the photo below to watch the opening at the TCM website.
The tale takes a different approach than your typical detective story. Father Brown is one resourceful priest, but he's also particularly interested in the struggling souls of his flock. He even tries repeatedly to convert the master thief on whose track he is following from London to Paris. Sir Alec Guinness' acting is, of course, masterful, but there is a gentle quality to this film that is greatly endearing in this day and age. It's a lovely and brilliantly written motion picture, which is bought to life by the genuine artistry and magic of Sir Alec Guinness (as well as other good performers such Peter Finch and Joan Greenwood). I strongly recommend this movie for your home library. G.K. Chesterton would be quite please, I am sure!
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