User Reviews

Some seem to regard this film as a put-on, or a subtle story of repressed homosexuality, or what-you-will. I was more impressed by the story of a battle of wills between a determined priest and an equally determined and wily "bad man" (El Malo) boss in a remote Mexican village. "El Malo", or "Anacleto", dominates and exploits the village through fear. When crossed, he orders his minions to kill, but always in such a way as to make it look accidental. The police are not powerless, but without evidence they cannot act. The old priest has been reduced to a lump of terrified jelly, but the new one, "Father Keogh", is made of sterner stuff. Right away, though, his task is complicated by two factors. Å young girl, "Locha", shows signs of infatuation with the new ;priest, and "Anacleto" against his better judgement, begins to like the priest. Maybe this is where the homosexual element, if any, comes in. This is not an unmixed blessing, for the priest becomes obsessed with saving the soul of "Anacleto" more than with contesting his rule of the village. "Anacleto" is a complete apostate, who has been taught to hate the church from youth. During Mexico's various revolutions of the early 20th century hatred of the church was often a central motivation and indeed the rule of the Çatholic Çhurch in Mexico was mostly broken. Priests and Nuns were not allowed to wear traditional habit in public for many years.

In the end, "Father Keogh" must choose between the welfare of the village and his goal of bringing "Anacleto" back to the Çhurch. When "Locha" is more or less kidnapped by "Anacleto", as a plot to force the priest into ceasing his "warfare" against him, "Father Keogh" promises to "speak to the congregation" favourably about "Anacleto" in return for his releasing "Locha". It's a bit more complicated than that, for "Locha" declares her love for the priest openly, and he admits that he loves her as well. When "Anacleto" comes to the church expecting the favourable sermon, "Father Keogh" instead denounces him and brings in the police to arrest him. A gun battle ensues, during which both "Father Keogh" and "Anacleto" are killed. The dying priest kneeling without sight or hearing over the dying "Anacleto" implores him to an "act of contrition", and to press the priest's hand if he is doing so. "Anacleto" does press his hand, but murmurs, "It's the singer, not the song".

It's powerful stuff and powerfully acted by Sir Dirk and Sir John. Mylene Demongeot makes an impression as the youthful and mixed-up kid "Locha". The rest of the cast are equally up to the mark. Most of the Mexicans are played by non-Latino actors, but there are at least a couple of Latinos on hand. "Old Uncle", one of the most vicious adherents to "Anacleto", is played by Laurence Naismith very effectively, even though not a Latino. There is a furious hand to hand fight and gun battle, in which a drunken "Old Uncle" tries to shoot the priest, but is shot himself by "Anacleto" to prevent the killing. I said it was a complicated affair, didn't I. This event, though, was important to the story, for it gave the police the opportunity to drive "Anacleto" from the village temporarily. It's well produced and exciting throughout. How some critics could call it "plodding" escapes me entirely. And if you persist in seeing hidden meanings and nuances, that's just so much lagniappe!

The religious thriller is so surprisingly uncommon in the Cinema, that one is inclined to overlook many faults in a movie that has the virtue of novelty. Such a thriller is "The Singer Not the Song". The theme, expressed in the title, is an interesting, indeed a fascinating one. And certainly a very rare, if not unique experience. Odd, isn't it, that now the Cinema is "liberated" and free to discuss all aspects of human behavior, religious beliefs seldom get a hearing. Yet so much of our social and indeed anti- social behavior is the direct result of what we actually believe or don't believe — or choose to believe or not believe (there is a distinction).

"The Singer Not the Song" poses a genuine religious puzzle: Is it the message — the message of eternal life, the message of the Christ, what most Christians would call the good news of His death with its spiritual and physical re-birth — that is itself so convincing and over-riding in its claims that a man would be a fool to reject it? Or is it the emotion, the audience rapport with which the speaker invests the message that makes it so powerful the mind cannot muster serous doubt or caution? Is it the sincerity, the obvious sanctification of the messenger himself that makes the message itself so unassailable? Or, as the title expresses it, is it the singer, not the song?

Disappointingly, though perhaps inevitably, this question is not resolved. Indeed, the film's cop-out ending is one of its chief faults. Another of course is its cast. Not for one moment does Bogarde convince us, even on the superficial level, that he is a Mexican bandit, let alone on the deeper deception he is required to transmit. It's a use-all-the-old-tricks-and-mannerisms performance that never once comes to grips with Anacleto as written — the character constantly spoken about by the other players. This is not Anacleto, the bandit, but Bogarde, the actor.

John Bentley also seems incredibly out of place as the police chief. Oddly, it is none of the stellar players, but Leslie French (as Father Gomez) who gives the most convincing performance.

True, none of the actors were helped by Nigel Balchin's disappointingly talky script, with all its instant information dialogue. Nor was there much assistance from director Roy Ward Baker. His dull, close-ups, close-ups, close-ups direction (he made negligible use of the CinemaScope frame) doubtless flattered a few egos, but contributed little to credibility or excitement.

A further problem is that the story splits itself neatly into two halves. Unfortunately, despite obvious plot contrivances, it is the first half that is by far the more interesting.

THE SINGER NOT THE SONG is a rare misfire for British director Roy Ward Baker, the man best known for his crime films of the 1950s and his horror output for Hammer in the 1960s. This is one of those rare beasts, a British western, and the truth is that it never really gels despite the large cast and worthwhile genre trappings. The problem with this film is the long-winded and overly pious storyline, which is a battle of wits between a good-natured priest (John Mills) and the town outlaw (Dirk Bogarde). It's intriguing at times, but the film goes on so long and is so slowly paced that it all becomes very dull. The worst thing about this is the waste of cast members including John Bentley, Roger Delgado, Laurence Naismith, and Eric Pohlmann.

What glorious fun.Mr Bogarde was never more arch,Mr Mills never more out of his depth. The script was written by the bloke who invented the "Aero" and only had slightly less holes.Miss Mylene Demongeot clearly had no idea of what was going on and the rest of the cast must have had a lot of fun keeping it a secret. This was 1961 and the term "Homoerotic" was scarcely common coinage,most of Mr Bogarde's fans were female and blissfully unaware that a lot of chaps found those tight leather trousers just as attractive as they.Pity about the hat though. At the time it was thought "The singer not the song" had dealt a fatal blow to the British Film Industry,but as so often before and since,reports of its death were exaggerated.Good-looking sophisticated nicely brought up actors however dropped rather alarmingly from the radar as the New Wave - more like a tsunami in its affect - swept into the studios. In the ensuing decade of whippet and Woodbine sagas the ability to eat peas with a fork became less of a requirement,more of a liability. Mr Bogarde did not like Mr Mills despite the fact that he was shorter and considerably less pretty than himself and was not a happy bunny when he was cast as the priest.He spent most of the movie in the world's longest hissy fit which he does well to disguise fairly effectively. Don't for a minute take it seriously - obviously nobody else did - and it's the funniest and campest thing since "Escape to Burma".If some enterprising company was to issue both of these hilarious movies on one DVD they'd clean up,they really would.

Very difficult to score, because some of it is ridiculous and unbelievable, whereas other stuff is interesting with content about governance, policing, spirituality and religiosity that give the mind material for real reflection.

Ridiculous;- the accents, especially Mills with his poorly sustained Irish one, which calls into question the Direction, why was he not made to do it again or some explanation given in the script for him being an English Roman Catholic Priest? Then again, why was Bogarde an English accented Mexican bully boy, albeit a very stylish one, with fancy leather pants? And the blonde Mexican mademoiselle, acting like a teenager yet looking like at least a twenty-five year old. She dressed contemporarily with the date of the production (1961) and the cars looked early fifties, yet the story somehow seemed as if it belonged to a few decades earlier.

The scenery and sets very effective and presumably expensive, yet the film had so many basic mistakes.

The story convoluted and saga like, I eventually got lost when the Priest (before we thought of paedophilia) planted a smacker on the girl, who looked all woman.

Yet underneath there was a point worth dramatising, about the way we are all prone to be dominated by fear, especially those of us in some religions who fear what will befall us after we die if we have not behaved honourably to our fellow humans. The Bogarde character seemed to be figuring all this out, realised that for him the church was a great confidence trick yet some of the church's adherents are truly honourable human beings.

Particularly ridiculous was the way the car with the severed brake cable/pipe - (handbrake and foot-brake both ineffective) travelled as far as it did down the mountain road without going out of control and then came to a standstill with very little injury to it's occupants.

With adverts this film was 2hours 45 minutes, yet such basic errors proliferated, presumably the Producer spent a great deal of money on the production but then just released it with so many ridiculous inconsistencies.

Yet I am glad I saw it, if only as a piece of film and social history.

I know intend to find out a bit more about the story on which it was based and will be particularly interested to discover what period the novelist was writing about.

Dirk Bogarde gives his career best moody, mean , atmospheric performance as a menacing , ambiguous , mysterious western town gunfighter Anacleto. The film is expertly written, produced directed and acted by a top notch cast that includes British stalwart John Mills as a confused priest who befriends a leather clad gunman Bogarde and the ravishing, exciting French starlet Mylene Demongeot as the love interest. The plot is intricate , meaningful , brooding and dramatically played against the Mexican background. Mutual respect and admiration is evident between Mills and Bogarde as they manage a tense and difficult stand off. Bogarde's mean bandit out to control a Mexican town is resisted by Mills. This film is recommended as Dirk Bogarde's best acting on film and also for superb direction from British director Roy Ward Baker who later went on to direct numerous masterpieces of cult Uk television and horror.

This film had a lot of good moments but was undone by having a very vague plot that seemed to have no end. Instead of offering clarity, the film just seemed to meander--sometimes for the good but often for the worse. It was if the film makers threw in just about everything they could think of--even if it was irrelevant. How I truly wish they had edited this film and forced it to stick to it!

The film begins with John Mills as a Catholic priest moving to a god-forsaken small town in Mexico to replace their current priest. It seems that the old priest was a broken man, as the town was completely anti-God because the town tough guy (inexplicably played by Dirk Bogarde) didn't want religion in HIS town. For the first half of the film, Bogarde and his men did many horrible things to try to drive Mills off, but despite all the killings and attempted murders, Mills persevered.

Then, almost like magic, this problem just vanished. Bogarde stuck around and was a "kinder, gentler jerk". Heck, there was even a bit of a truce between him and Mills. None of this really made any sense and completely undid the first half of the movie.

However, in addition to a seemingly nicer Bogarde (at least he was no longer killing people), the plot just went all over the place here and the second half of the film was a diffuse mess. Out of nowhere, a very blonde and non-Mexican looking young lady who was friends with the priest announced her love for him. At the same time, I seemed to be noticing a lot of gay subtext--as if Bogarde had notions about Mills--though it was never very clear. Considering that Bogarde was gay in real life and that he ran around in leather (looking like a member of Judas Priest), I think this was intended BUT the movie makers weren't bold enough to go with this--and instead created a confusing mess.

By the way, this is a very strange looking film. Though set in Mexico, there were a lot of British accents and casting Bogarde was just weird. It would have been like casting John Wayne in Shakespeare! Plus, as I mentioned above, the leather outfit he wore was odd--looking like he belonged in an S&M film! Additionally, the French actress Mylène Demongeot played a Mexican--which is odd not just because of the French accent but the very blonde hair and very pale skin! Plus, while the film was supposed to be a Western, some people rode around on horses and looked like they walked out of a Spaghetti Western AND some rode around in cars and used telephones! This was so confusing and just looked sloppy--like they could have cared less if the actors were right for the roles.

Overall, this movie was way too long, way too confusing and way too vague. It was like there were two or three movies all mixed together here and it represents one of the worse John Mills or Dirk Bogarde films I have seen.

... An actor (Bogarde) under contract had no choice but to work on a film he knew was never going to be anything special owing to the miscasting of his co-star. Mills is too old at 52 to be playing this role.

Rank Wanted Dirk to sign another contract with them so the director (Baker) was told to let Bogarde do whatever Bogarde wanted to do. Bogarde decides to ramp up the camp and help turn this rather overlong film from mediocrity into a cult classic, for all the wrong reasons.

As if things aren't bad enough on set, Mills decides to start a near 40 year feud between him and Bogarde. Bogarde apparently had a bit of a breakdown during filming over it. Whatever Mills said or did, he felt the need to put it right when he heard Dirk was dying and apologised (according to Mills' autobiography). Probably something to do with Bogarde's step son (for want of a better word), and Mills disapproved of how the lad was being parented on location. Tensions between the two are heightened because of Mills' popularity with the crew, and Bogarde's increasingly odd behaviour.

Then we have the screenplay adaptation from the novel. Homosexuality is worked into the story, probably to liven the whole thing up a bit. The script called for Anacleto to explicitly inform Locha that he was in love with Fr Keogh. According to Bogarde's biographer, Bogarde couldn't bring himself to say it, such was his loathing for Mills. This line was re-written to be a little less obvious and in doing so ensuring half the audience missed this forbidden love aspect of the film. Ironically though it probably meant it got past the censors and the catholic's embraced the film as a debate on faith.

In the book Locha has an infatuation with the priest which Anacleto exploits, Fr Keogh has no desire for Locha, he just makes Anacleto think he does and double crosses him (in order to save Locha and the town from Anacleto). This leads to the shoot out at the end.

I have absolutely no idea whether this is meant to be happening in the film or not? I can't tell from Mills' performance whether he is in love with Locha or Anacleto, both, or none of them at all? It's a very bizarre love triangle.

By the way Mills did a better job of an Irish accent in the Gentle Gunman, alongside Bogarde about decade beforehand. Baker should have pulled him up on it. Mills did a fantastic portrayal of a man in love with his best friend in the film The Family Way. His performance as Ezra Fitton is one of his greatest achievements. So therefore by the standard of his performance in TSNTS we can assume Mills' is just as fed up with the whole thing as everyone else was.

One can only imagine how both actors must have hated that final scene!! Poor Bogarde having to embrace Mills like that after the man had sent him to the verge of a nervous breakdown.

This film is unique. It's just about held together by Bogarde and Mills. They do just enough to make it interesting, but not enough for us to understand what their characters are meant to be feeling.

The only reason why this film is getting an 8 from me is because it has the audience scratching it's head over what the true meaning of the film is all about. You end up with some pretty heavy interpretations, it's all about the message! No wait, it's all about who is delivering the message! No it's all about forbidden love of a celibate priest and a young woman! No it's all about the forbidden love of two men who love each other (back in 1961 at least)! In the end we really only have the title to go on.

I can see why this film is a cult classic, it's so bad it's good, and all the happenings behind the scenes and Bogarde's subversion of the film makes it even more enjoyable.

I really would like to see it available to buy in widescreen format. A widescreen version does exist on YouTube but it's so grainy you miss a lot of the facial emotions of Bogarde and Mills. The pan and scan copy you get on DVD cuts out parts of crucial scenes.

I don't know if there is sufficient interest in this film to warrant a good HD widescreen issue, but If there ever is I'd buy it.

I must admit that for the first hour of this 2 hour and 15 minute movie, I was convinced I was watching one of the greatest films that I had never heard of. All of a sudden plot twists in this religious drama set in Mexico dealing with a priest and a bandit who hates the church takes the oddest turns in this plot line to become something very bizarre. With the leads played by John Mills and Dirk Bogarde, it seems like it's going to be just fine, with Mills as a British priest bullied by Mexican bandit Bogarde who blames the church for all the ailments of the world and has turned against God. He has made threats against Mills and committed murder, and it appears for the longest time that he intends to make Mills his next victim. But for some reason when Bogarde's old uncle (Laurence Naismith) makes a drunken attempt on Mills' life, Bogarde steps in to save him which begins to open up his eyes to the possibility that he was wrong, completely affected by the fact that the young Mylene Demongeot declares her love for Mills out of left field.

It is the sudden plot twist involving the last part of my description that turns us into something very strange, abhorrent in many ways because of how Mills react to it, and made even more bizarre when Bogarde stands up in church and declares further disgust against the church and God. This is beautifully filmed on locations in Spain, and while the leading performances are mesmerizing (especially Mills), the structure of the film is just totally perplexing, often making no sense based on what you have learned about the characters and the spiritual journeys they are considering. It would have been much more interesting to see Bogarde turning around in his beliefs while Mills begins to question his as he re-thinks the vows he took. Naismith is totally over the top, badly directed to overact, and his penultimate scenes are truly absurd. Still, this film is like a fiery car accident on the highway, terrible to look at but mesmerizing the person who witnesses it, causing them to slow down and watch every moment. I couldn't turn away even as my feelings about this film began to diminish, so beware of that if you start it. It's a chore to get through, but the type of movie that is so audacious that it becomes fascinating simply because of that.