nbbaiyuchen A nameless and conflicted Catholic priest is a fugitive in an unnamed Latin American country where religion is outlawed. Another fugitive, a murderous bandit dubbed "El Gringo", comes to town. He and a beautiful Indian woman conspire to help the priest escape. Taken to safety, the priest is then convinced by a police informant to return to the town on the pretense that "El Gringo" is dying and wishes to receive the last rites. The priest is captured and sentenced to death, but forgives the informant for betraying him. The priest's execution by firing squad brings an outpouring of public grief and shows the authorities that it is impossible to stamp out religion as long as it exists in people's hearts and minds. I think that The Fugitive is perhaps Ford's last great 'art film', a high-minded show of faith, a lovingly crafted paean to his own Catholicism.

Adam Peters (53%) A south of the border fictionalised state in which religion, amongst other things, has been outlawed is the setting to this down-beat take on a famous story. John Ford's direction is stuffed with religious images, from the sunlight blazing down through a church window, to the virgin Mary likened character, and the many references to Christ such as the three crosses upon a hillside and the martyr running theme. Fonda plays an almost silent character who has the appearance of a startled dear in the headlights of a speeding car throughout the entire length of the movie, and as this borders on an almost silent film at times there's not really a great deal to get ones teeth into. It's also a slow paced movie with little actually happening at times, but if you stick with it and are willing to put up with a piece that is showing signs of age then you'll be rewarded with a well made sombre flick that isn't just a old copy of of a well used plot.

JoeytheBrit This is a strange one: a John Ford film that looks more like some failed experiment by Orson Welles (something he toyed with before growing bored) with a turgid, meandering plot that, for the most part, stubbornly refuses to engage, and a leading man who looks as uncomfortable as he does ridiculous.Henry Fonda plays the fugitive of the title – a catholic priest in a Latin American police state determined to eliminate all traces of religion – with all the enthusiasm of a seven-year-old forced to attend Sunday school. Perhaps it's the fact that all the characteristics that drove the priest in Grahame Greene's source novel (i.e. drinking, womanising, doubting of God's love) have been ruthlessly whitewashed from the screen version leaving us with a blank canvas that still somehow contrives to be pious in the extreme. Fonda doesn't know what to do with the part, and Ford's heavy-handed, over-sentimentalised treatment doesn't help him one bit. Ford ladles it on – especially early on when we get a crippled child hobbling into church on his crutches, and subjects us to a number of intimate lingering shots of Dolores Del Rio's Mary Magdalene figure who blinks so rarely that I at first thought she was supposed to be blind. She really becomes quite frightening after a while, and I found my attention to what plot there is evaporating as I entered into some perverse kind of staring competition with her each time she appeared on screen.The film looks great, thanks to Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography and the location shooting, but the film goes nowhere as it hammers home its message: a soul lacking religion will quickly become corrupt and debauched, and trying to deny your faith to yourself will lead only to frustration and self-loathing. Pedro Armendariz as the tortured police captain and Ward Bond as a criminal fugitive bag the best roles, although Bond's is somewhat underdeveloped, meaning his protection of the fugitive priest in the corn field appears a little puzzling. Presumably he identifies with the priest's plight, but we are told too little about him to understand why.Bottom line: this is one of Ford's misfires, and not very interesting at that.

bkoganbing When Herbert J. Yates of Republic Pictures made a deal with John Ford to produce The Quiet Man he first made Ford agree to do one of his cavalry epics with John Wayne because he wanted a surefire moneymaker before taking a chance on The Quiet Man. The cavalry picture was Rio Grande.He must have been talking to the folks at RKO who lost their collective shirts when the public stayed away in droves from The Fugitive. It got great critical acclaim and no box office at all.My guess is that The Fugitive was sold all wrong or was made a year or two too early. If it had been sold as an anti-Communist as opposed to a pro-Catholic film it might have done better in those beginning years of The Cold War.The Fugitive is based on a Graham Greene novel The Power and the Glory and it is about a priest in an unnamed South American country who is a fugitive because of his calling. An anti-clerical government has taken control of the country and they are doing their best to drive the Catholic religion out of the country.Henry Fonda turns in a good sincere performance as the cleric, but he's about as convincingly Latino as Toshiro Mifune. The other members of the cast are well suited for their roles.The best performance in the film is from that chameleon like actor J. Carrol Naish who could play any kind of nationality on the planet. He's the informer who rats out Henry Fonda to the police. Very similar to what Akim Tamiroff did to Gary Cooper in For Whom The Bells Toll and Naish's own performance in another Gary Cooper film, Beau Geste.This was the first of three films Pedro Armendariz did with John Ford in an effort to broaden his appeal beyond Mexican cinema. Dolores Del Rio as his estranged wife was already familiar to American audiences from the silent screen.The original novel by Greene had the priest as somewhat less than true to all his vows. He's a drinker and a womanizer. Del Rio's character is also quite tawdry. And this from Greene who was a well known Catholic lay person. But this Hollywood in the firm grip of The Code so a lot of what Greene wrote had to be softened by Ford for the screen. It lessened the impact of the film.And with the whitewashing of Fonda's character came some rather heavy handed symbolism of Fonda as a Christlike figure.Still The Fugitive might be worth a look for Ford, Greene, and Fonda fans.