A Manhattan priest with a penchant for solving crimes goes to the aid of a young actress. She is becoming enmeshed in a series of bizarre incidents she can't explain, and her complaints to the police have gone ignored.
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Title: Padre Brown, Detective (TV Movie 1979)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Barnard Hughes | ... | Father Brown | |
| Michael McGuire | ... | Lieutenant Bellamy | |
| George Hearn | ... | Monsignor Kerrigan | |
| Robert Schenkkan | ... | Father Wembley | |
| David Rasche | ... | Jack Collins | |
| Fred Gwynne | ... | Judge Potter | |
| Elizabeth Wilson | ... | Mrs. Glidden | |
| Kay Lenz | ... | Carol Bain | |
| Peter Maloney | ... | Eli Clay | |
| Saul Rubinek | ... | Jerry Stone | |
| Jeffrey DeMunn | ... | Whitney Fowler | |
 |
Donald Symington | ... | Russell Heyman |
|
|
Maureen Silliman | ... | Beth Landau |
| Alice Drummond | ... | Grace Barringer | |
| Thomas Hill | ... | Carl Barringer | |
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Father Brown is an amiable Manhattan parish priest with a bent for crime solving who comes to the aid of a young actress who is innocently embroiled in a series of bizarre incidents and cannot find a sympathetic ear amoung the police. Written by Anonymous
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
23 April 1979 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Padre Brown, Detective See more »Filming Locations:
Manhattan, New York City, New York, USACompany Credits
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Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1
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Did You Know?
Trivia
This was the pilot film for a proposed "Father Brown" series, with G.K. Chesterton's sacred sleuth transported from England to New York City. The series never came to fruition and all that remains is this pilot. See more »Connections
Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Charlton Heston/Johnny Yune/Jack Douglas/Blair Brown (1979) See more »Frequently Asked Questions
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A young woman is being stalked by a devious lowlife who tries to make her think she's losing her mind before he reveals his full plans. Fortunately the woman has the kindly priest-sleuth Father Brown to solve the mystery for her.
"Sanctuary of Fear" plays to the typical American made-for-television mystery formula of "Perry Mason" and "Murder She Wrote," and does so poorly. While the mood of the film is mildly promising at the start, it is all downhill from there... all the way to the preposterous and laughably melodramatic denouement. Worse, the only actor who shows talent in the entire film is Barnard Hughes as Father Brown.
One wonders why the filmmakers even bothered to invoke G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown character for this film. They have transported the good Father from England to New York, made him an American, and left not a single recognizable personality trait. Nor does the story contain even the smallest attempt at a metaphysical subtext of the sort common to Chesterton's stories. Was Chesterton's character so popular in the late 1970s that it would draw any kind of audience among television viewers, and would that audience have been satisfied with this drivel?