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The Prisoner (1955)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
11 December 1955 (USA) moreGenre:
DramaTagline:
Which One is the Prisoner? morePlot:
A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. As a prince of his church, and a popular hero of this people... more | add synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 5 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 2 wins moreUser Comments:
"The Result Of Human Weakness" moreCast
(Credited cast)| Alec Guinness | ... | The Cardinal | |
| Jack Hawkins | ... | The Interrogator | |
| Wilfrid Lawson | ... | The Jailer | |
| Kenneth Griffith | ... | The Secretary | |
| Jeanette Sterke | ... | The Girl | |
| Ronald Lewis | ... | The Guard | |
| Raymond Huntley | ... | The General | |
| Mark Dignam | ... | The Governor | |
| Gerard Heinz | ... | The Doctor |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
Netherlands:95 min | USA:91 minCountry:
UKLanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Deemed suitably controversial enough to be banned from both the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals. moreQuotes:
[Speaking about the "art" of interrogation]The Interrogator: It's a pity it's a sport that has to be played with living men.
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Prisoner (1955)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| HOLYWOOD PLEASE UPDATE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!! | johngeo-2 |
| The Cardinal | gordon0239 |
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Alec Guinness got to repeat one of the roles he did on the London stage with the screen adaption of Bridget Boland's The Prisoner which was directed by Peter Glenville who also did the original stage production. It was one of Guinness's personal favorites among his parts because of the Catholicism of the actor.
In fact the role really hit close, maybe too close to home, because like the character he plays in the film, Guinness was a child of a prostitute mother who escaped into acting as a refuge from a really bad childhood. Just as his character the Cardinal of an unnamed Balkan country now ruled by a Marxist dictatorship went into the church as a way of rising above the station he was born in life.
Jack Hawkins plays the state inquisitor, a psychologist by training who probes and finds the weakness in Guinness and uses it to get a confession of treason out of him. Pride and vanity are the trickiest of human sins, we're all guilty of it in one way or another.
In making this film Guinness, Boland, and Glenville were all adamant about keeping the main character Catholic and not some Christian preacher of an unnamed denomination as what the producers originally wanted to do, the better for a broader appeal they reasoned. Catholicism and the special burdens and duties it places on its clergy is precisely what makes the story valid.
According to a recent biography of Alec Guinness though it was never going to be anyone else but him in the role of the Cardinal, Noel Willman had done the inquisitor part on stage. Several people like John Gielgud and Peter Bull were considered for that part before Hawkins was signed for the role.
If the subject matter does seem familiar, the role is obviously modeled on Josef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. And director Peter Glenville would have his greatest screen triumph in Becket, the story of another troublesome priest several centuries earlier.
Guinness does lay bare his soul in this film. For fans of Alec Guinness this film is a must.