I've been on an Alec Guinness kick recently. It wasn't really intentional - he just happened to be all sorts of different things I was watching, from wonderfully dopey old comedies to Lean epics to all sorts of strange things in-between.
That serendipity turned out to be immensely rewarding, because he's a fucking marvelous actor - a real chameleon. His George Smiley and Obi-Wan and Colonel Nicholson are all distinctly different kinds of people, and it didn't take Ealing long to realise he could do that half a dozen times in the same movie.
The hard edge he could bring to a character was always welcome, but I always liked his benevolence, radiating genuine wisdom and kindness. And his best example wasn't in a galaxy far, far away, it was in a Father Brown film.
The version of the 1954 film I saw was called The Detective, but it doesn't matter what it's called, because Guinness is just outstanding in it, and the kindness of his quest for judgement is something that is still touching. He spends the entire movie trying to catch the thief responsible for many crimes, but he doesn't want the man to be punished for his sins, he wants to make him a better person.
Everyone is on a big vengeance kick in movies these days, out for justice because they've been wronged in some horrible way. But to see someone fight for justice, just because it's the right thing to do, and because rehabilitation always beats punishment, that should never be antiquated.
And Guinness' Father Brown is the man you want in you corner if you need somebody to help save your soul, with an iron will behind that beatific smile. He's not going to give up, because he knows it's the right thing to do.
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