Satan Never Sleeps (1962)

Director:

Leo McCarey

Writers:

Claude Binyon (screenplay) and
Leo McCarey (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 March 1962 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A priest (William Holden) arrives at a mission-post in China accompanied by a young native girl who has joined him along the way...

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Church | Catholic Hospital | Convent School | Nun

Cast

William Holden	...	Father O'Banion
Clifton Webb	...	Father Bovard
France Nuyen	...	Siu Lan
Athene Seyler	...	Sister Agness
Martin Benson	...	Kuznietsky
Edith Sharpe	...	Sister Theresa
Robert Lee	...	Chung Ren
Marie Yang	...	Ho San's mother
Andy Ho	...	Ho San's father
Burt Kwouk	...	Ah Wang
Weaver Lee	...	Ho San

Also Known As:

Flight from Terror
The Devil Never Sleeps (UK)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1962)

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This was Clifton Webb's final film and one of only two of his sound films in which he appeared without his trademark mustache. The other was For Heaven's Sake (1950).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the baptism scene at the end, Holden pulls the white garment over his head just as the name of the child is revealed. His hair is very tousled as his head subsequently emerges. The scene cuts to the proud/happy parents, then right back to Holden and his hair is miraculously restored to its customary neatness with no apparent time elapsed.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Satan Never Sleeps

Depressing and Ultimately Unsatisfying

This film, set in Mao's China during the Communist Revolution proved to be an almost infuriating film to view. It was the final film of Leo McCary's fantastic (and eclectic) directing career ("Duck Soup," "The Bells of St. Mary's). The story centers around a young priest, Father O'Bannion (William Holden) sent to relieve an aging priest in a Chinese mission. He meets a wide-eyed, idealistic young Chinese girl (France Nuyen) along the way. When he arrives at the mission, all hell seems to break loose. Without divulging too much plot...our young priest encounters many battles: fending off the affection of the young girl; remaining true to his faith, and abstaining from self-defense and violence (even under extreme duress); and pleasing his aging sage, the older preist (Clifton Webb). Why did this movie bother me? Well, in a nutshell: the young girl professes her love for Father O'Bannion...and he realizes he must send her off, despite his *true* feelings. Later, a character rapes the young girl while Father O'Bannion can only look on in desperation (after being tied up). After the inital horror, the good Father suscribes to the ideal that the resulting son needs a father. No matter who it is. When the rapist returns to see is his son, O'Bannion more or less encourages the young woman to form a family. This after our new "dad" has watched communists kill his parents in cold blood for the simple act of worshipping Christ. I suppose this movie is "pure to the period." But it's a tough movie to view in this day and age. A rapist is never properly punished. A man supresses his true feelings of love for a woman, who then must live with her attacker "just so the child can have a father." The finale is as wacky as forgiving rape for "family's sake." The charming Nuyen and Holden give solid performances, but the message sent, and the film itself, left me frustrated and somber.