The writer was certainly influenced by Chesterton and his father Brown :the principal , a priest ,investigating , and getting involved in a man chase,pursued by the police who handcuff him , trying to get to the court on time on a train (they do not have high speed trains then ,don't they?) , a la " thirty-nine steps" .
The subject is very exciting : to deny the existence of God in an Irish -par excellence the Catholic country - town is enough to unleash the inhabitants' fury and the petulant Jehovah's wrath : so when the blasphemer is shot ,might it be an Act of God?
British humor is not absent :since the crime, one sells more toffees and beer and the tourists come en masse!
Might the criminal be inspired by God? And why those strange messages taken from the Bible? And this busy body of a journalist?
It may be implausible : this priest has turned a true athlete overnight! But the screenplay is full of sudden new developments which keep you glued to your chair; and the final scene calls everything into question: does God really intervene?
Douglas Sirk (an atheist director) had already broached the subject of the miracle in his " the first legion" (1950).
The subject is very exciting : to deny the existence of God in an Irish -par excellence the Catholic country - town is enough to unleash the inhabitants' fury and the petulant Jehovah's wrath : so when the blasphemer is shot ,might it be an Act of God?
British humor is not absent :since the crime, one sells more toffees and beer and the tourists come en masse!
Might the criminal be inspired by God? And why those strange messages taken from the Bible? And this busy body of a journalist?
It may be implausible : this priest has turned a true athlete overnight! But the screenplay is full of sudden new developments which keep you glued to your chair; and the final scene calls everything into question: does God really intervene?
Douglas Sirk (an atheist director) had already broached the subject of the miracle in his " the first legion" (1950).