Johnny Nobody (1961) User Reviews

"Is it a Miracle?"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 11 November 2022]

The two films Nigel Patrick directed were a rum pair. For the second and final instalment he assembled a highly motley cast (fortunately including himself) at Ardmore Studios in Dublin to make this fanciful chase thriller combined with a courtroom drama in which theology is heatedly debated.

As the film progresses Patrick undergoes an extraordinary transformation from Father Brown to Richard Hannay shot on Irish locations attractively rendered in widescreen by future Bond cameraman Ted Moore. Ron Goodwin rather overeggs the score but the conclusion - which divides many critics - this viewer found satisfactory enough.

My biggest regret remains that William Bendix never got to share the screen with Bernie Winters.

Great idea; decent enough movie; terrible ending.

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 10 November 2022]

There's a terrific idea at the heart of this Irish-set thriller, particularly if you're a Catholic. A drunken Irish-American atheist stands outside a Roman Catholic Church in a small Irish village and defies God to strike him dead when out of nowhere a stranger appears and does just that in front of the local priest and the whole village. Since the killer doesn't appear to have a past or an identity, he becomes known as "Johnny Nobody", hence the film's title.

So far so good; unfortunately we get the denouement about two-thirds of the way through and it's not a very good one. From here on things get progressively more far-fetched, like a cross between a poor man's "The 39 Steps" and "Witness for the Prosecution".

Actor Nigel Patrick both directs and plays the sceptical priest, Aldo Ray is the killer and a really rather good William Bendix, the victim. Others in the cast include a miscast Yvonne Mitchell, Cyril Cusack and Niall Macginnis as well as the usual stock company of Irish players. On its level it's entertaining matinee fare but it could have been so much better.

Father Brown Meets The 39 Steps

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 11 January 2014]

After the initial trial sequence the film goes in a completely different direction.Patrick goes to a deserted racecourse and is almost trampled by a horse whose rider doesn't stop.His face is scratched.He gets in his car and then drives into a bog,as someone has removed a warning sign.He goes to the road where waiting for him in her car is Yvonne Mitchell who is a journalist who has been trying to interview him.She drives him to her house.He tries to phone but it is dead.She then admits that she is the wife of Ray and doesn't want him to go back to court.It turns out that Ray shot Bendix as he was jealous of his success as an author.Patrick escapes in her car.However she phones the police and claims that Patrick has assaulted her and stolen items from her home as well as the car.The police seem to believe this without any verification.Patrick escapes and his evasion of the manhunt is very redolent of "The Thirty Nine Steps".he eventually gets to court but the jury have for some strange reason found Ray not guilty.He gloats out loud.Patrick effectively curses him and a couple of seconds later Ray,conveniently ,drops dead.The second half is very tense and much better than the first.As a fan of Bendix I was disappointed that he was killed off so early in the film.

I dare you to strike me down!

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

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).

Johnny Nobody

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 14 March 2024]

"Mulcahy" (William Bendix) is a bit of a stirrer. Amidst a deeply religious Irish community, he invites the wrath of god by daring the deity to strike him down. To the shock of the crowd, that's exactly what happens. Thing is, it isn't a thunderbolt - but a bullet fired from a gun by a bystander. He makes no attempt to escape, and only adds to the enigma when the police can find no clue as to his identity. He (Aldo Ray) claims amnesia - not divine intervention - and looking the gallows fairly and squarely, he has to rely on the local "Fr. Carey" (Nigel Patrick) to try to put together the pieces. I did quite like the subject matter - and as we proceed to the courtroom aspects of the plot, the writing does raise quite a few interesting questions about the role of religion - and God - in the judicial process, and these are well posed by defending counsel Niall MacGinnis to the judge (John Welsh). Sadly, though, the story hasn't quite the courage of it's potential convictions and the last twenty minutes or so fall firmly into the standard pattern of crime-noir and that rather disappoints. Still, Nigel Patrick's direction keeps it all moving along well enough and he has assembled a reliable and solid cast of familiar, and personable, faces to help this into the top tier of standard Saturday afternoon features.

Divine retribution - or just plain murder?

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 16 July 2011]

It is hard to remember when 'Johnny Nobody' ( 1961 ) was last on television. Like a lot of good British movies, it has been undeservedly forgotten.

Written by Patrick Kirwan, it opens in a sleepy little Irish village where drunken American writer 'Mulcahy' ( William Bendiz ) is flaunting his atheistic views before the shocked locals. A fight breaks out, and even the arrival of 'Father Carey' ( Nigel Patrick ) is unable to calm the situation. Mulcahy challenges The Almighty - should He exist - to strike him dead. He indeed does die - thanks to a shot from a gun fired by a mysterious stranger ( Aldo Ray ) identifying himself as 'Nobody'. He then says: "I was standing there, and a voice said "Destroy that man!"".

The press nickname him 'Johnny Nobody', as his trial begins in Dublin. The main plank of his defence is that God Himself ordered Mulcahy's destruction. The villagers are convinced of his innocence. After all, did not God once put an end to Sodom and Gomorrah? When asked if he believes Johnny to be telling the truth, Carey cannot answer, so a two-day recess is called. Carey takes the opportunity to investigate the source of a number of unsigned letters containing Bible quotes - a small village in the Republic of Ireland. Here he learns the truth about the mysterious 'Johnny Nobody'...

This intriguing, thought-provoking mystery was directed by its star, the late ( and underrated ) Nigel Patrick ( remember him from 1959's 'The League Of Gentlemen'? ). He does not sound remotely Irish, but no matter, the rest of the cast is composed of wonderful performers of the calibre of Joe Lynch, J.G. Devlin, Danny O'Dea, Edd Byrnes, Noel Purcell, Niall McGinnis, and Cyril Cusack. The first part of the story is a bit talky, but when Carey is reported to the police by Miss Floyd ( Yvonne Mitchell ) it changes gear, becoming in effect a clerical 'Thirty-Nine Steps' with Carey as 'Richard Hannay' in a dog collar. Some nice location shooting in Ireland here. Ron Goodwin's harmonica theme is wonderfully evocative.

Things To Look Out For - a cameo from Bernie Winters ( sans Mike ) as a press photographer.

This is pleasant entertainment, and would make a nice addition to Odeon Entertainment's excellent 'Best Of British Collection'.

With God On Our Side

[Lejink · 4/10 · 20 March 2021]

Bizarrely-plotted British drama with religious overtones. Set in a small southern Irish village, it starts off dramatically with William Bendix's character, a successful author, hauling himself down to the local bar where he offends the highly religious locals by loudly proclaiming his atheism to all and sundry. Someone sends for the village priest, Nigel Patrick, who attempts to calm down the blasphemer, but now riled even more, he defiantly dares God to strike him down on the spot, if He indeed exists. Cue Aldo Ray as "Johnny Nobody", who promptly steps up to shoot him, claiming amnesia and proclaiming that he was divinely inspired to do the deed.

At the ensuing trial, there's a sensation when Patrick's priest is asked on the witness stand if God could indeed have divinely intervened, causing an adjournment as the trial erupts in uproar, with it seems all the locals, including by extension, the jury, buying into the "God made me do it" defence of the accused. Taking a particularly keen interest in the case is a local female journalist Yvonne Mitchell who seems especially interested in the evidence Patrick will give when the court resumes after the weekend. But Patrick suspects there's more to this than meets the eye and decides to use the intervening 48 hours to follow up a lead arising from cryptic postcards containing Biblical quotations sent to his office, no doubt to try to influence his upcoming testimony. This leads him to a small country village and a number of scrapes, including a revelatory re-encounter with Mitchell, a run-in with a band of traveling folk and the local police on his tail as he then races back to the conclusion of the trial, where God seems to have the last word after all, or does he...?

I was intrigued by the initial premise, right up to the breakdown in the court trial, thinking the film might either continue on with a deep debate into the existence of God, like a sort of serious version of "The Man Who Sued God" or instead go the full mystery-adventure route like a good episode of later TV series like "The Avengers" or "Department S' but no such luck either way. Rather, Patrick escapes to the country to do some Father Brown-type sleuthing as the film lapses into an adventure caper, including an unlikely attempt at murder involving a galloping race-horse which makes you wonder why the perpetrator didn't just run him down in a car and the good father boarding a speeding train like that Bond fellow. As for the shocking conclusion, no doubt designed to make the contemporary viewer scratch their head and think "Well, maybe...", I must admit I found it hilariously preposterous.

Actor Patrick directs himself here, but with no real flair or imagination as he lets the story lead his camerawork and while the lead performances are all just about okay, the movie was too implausible and disjointed to do anything other than amuse me, which I know wasn't the aim.

Tense, exciting drama!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 19 May 2017]

SYNOPSIS: Inflamed by drink, best-seller author Mulcahy (William Bendix) taunts the locals of the little Irish village of Monavullagh about their God-fearing ways. Father Carey (Nigel Patrick) is called to pacify him as he stands in front of the church shouting that if there is a God, to strike him down as a blasphemer. At that moment a shot rings out and Mulcahy falls dead. A complete stranger (Aldo Ray) appears holding a gun and declares that some compelling force made him kill Mulcahy. Awaiting trial in Dublin the stranger becomes legend and is dubbed Johnny Nobody, since no one can discover who he is.

NOTES: Based on a story published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 1950.

Filmed on location in Ireland.

This movie was filmed in so-called "Warwickscope". My memory of Warwickscope is that it was not an anamorphic process at all, but simply a 1.85:1 widescreen framing and projection system.

COMMENT: I can't understand why "Johnny Nobody" has never been revived. It made a big impression on me at the time. I found it tense, exciting, ingeniously intriguing. Not only were the script's credentials as a mystery thriller extremely sound, but it was most convincingly acted — particularly by director Nigel Patrick himself in a really off-beat role.

Other credits, led by the attractive location photography, were likewise outstanding.

In short: Highly recommended.

Strange little movie

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 12 March 2023]

JOHNNY NOBODY is a strange little movie that doesn't really gel all that well, although it proves to be quite entertaining at times. It begins with a bizarre set-piece in which an atheist rants and raves in an Irish pub, understandably upsetting the punters, before a random stranger executes him. The focus then shifts to priest Nigel Patrick (who also directs) as he investigates the killer's motives for his crime. The latter half adopts a kind of preposterous 'wronged man' template with some good suspense scenes that are the best part of the film, but then we get a ridiculous climax that must have been laughed off the screen by audiences of the era.

This is another entry into film-noir of the 1950's.

[Peter22060 · 10/10 · 26 June 2002]

William Bendix gives another brilliant performance as a blasphemer. Aldo Ray performs in a strange and unique role. The conclusion of the film may not come close to Dietrich-Laughton in "Witness for the Prosecution", but one could see a comparison with the original "Bad Seed"

Totally forgotten Irish drama

[sittingherewatchingfilms · 3/10 · 16 April 2023]

The addition of Talking Pictures in recent years for UK and Ireland has given a platform to show many forgotten films including B features, a concept probably alien to anyone under 70, due to the format coming to an end at the 1950s.

This 1961 film is a throw back to this era. While Talking Pictures continues to unearth some gems, this sadly isn't one of them. It uses a typical UK and Irish production model of the time, to bring in an American face and plant them into the plot however odd that may seem, given the setting. Probably easier to get the film funded if through the addition of a US performer, it gives the producers the opportunity to have the finished product break into the more lucrative US market.

Here we get not one but two. While William Bendix and Aldo Ray weren't actual A listers they were reasonably well known due to audiences. Neither get much screen time and one comes away thinking they filmed their scenes over a few days while they were holidaying in Ireland.

Filmed at Ardmore in Wicklow with some filming in Dublin, and in what appears to be a local village, it at times looks like an attempt to play on the charm of John Ford's The Quiet Man, although at a minute level of that film's funding and production values. Priests, pub, comedy, Irish setting, hapless police, and the inevitable chase.

There are some of the usual Irish faces of the time, each offering up a cameo. Cyril Cusack, Niall MacGinnis, Noel Purcell, Eddie Byrne. Joe Lynch does a turn as a friendly traveler and even gets to warble through a ballad as he comes to the aid of our hapless hero, a local priest played by Nigel Patrick, who also directed.

A totally unbelievable plot and added to Patrick, there are other English actors, Yvonne Mitchell and Bernie Winters, who seem very out of place. You'd think their roles would have been better performed by other local actors, but like Bendix and Ray, perhaps a sop to British audiences. Winters, along with his brother, were a comedy act duo of the time. This is one of his handful of film appearances, and again, it's just a cameo.

As other have highlighted, the ending should be up for an award. One gets the feeling they just ran out of money and they had to wrap it up.