Father Brown and The Hammer of God. Part One (Warning-Spoilers)

Today, I’m going to write my first blog post on a television series.  Specifically, two different television adaptations of the same subject, author G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mystery story The Hammer of God.  I will first give a short introduction to G.K. Chesterton, his Father Brown character, and the short story itself.  Then, I’ll compare and contrast the two different television adaptations of the same story, in two separate Blog postings. This is Part One.   

Here’s a short biography of G.K. Chesterton from Biography.com:

G.K. Chesterton was born on May 29, 1874 in London. He was known for writing academic commentary, poetry and short stories. His interest in theology and conversion to Catholicism led him to write religious fiction. In 1908, he wrote the novel The Man Who Was Thursday. His most popular work was a detective series featuring a sleuth named Father Brown. He died in 1936.

Here’s an interpretation I’ve found of the Father Brown literary character, the focus of Chesterton’s Father Brown stories.  From Wikipedia:

Father Brown was a vehicle for conveying Chesterton's view of the world and, of all of his characters, is perhaps closest to Chesterton's own point of view, or at least the effect of his point of view. Father Brown solves his crimes through a strict reasoning process more concerned with spiritual and philosophic truths than with scientific details, making him an almost equal counterbalance with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, whose stories Chesterton read.  However, the Father Brown series commenced before Chesterton's own conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Another interpretation of the character Father Brown, this time from the unlikely point of view of an Italian Marxist theorist, Antonio Gramsci.  Gramsci notes his preference of detective (Brown vs. Holmes) unequivocally.  Also from Wikipedia:

Father Brown is the Catholic priest who through the refined psychological experiences offered by confession and by the persistent activity of the fathers' moral casuistry, though not neglecting science and experimentation, but relying especially on deduction and introspection, totally defeats Sherlock Holmes, makes him look like a pretentious little boy, shows up his narrowness and pettiness.  Moreover, Chesterton is a great artist while Conan Doyle was a mediocre writer, even though he was knighted for literary merit; thus in Chesterton there is a stylistic gap between the content, the detective story plot, and the form, and therefore a subtle irony with regard to the subject being dealt with, which renders these stories so delicious.

 

Here’s the summary (warning-spoilers) of G.K. Chesterton’s Hammer of God short story, courtesy of enotes.com:

The Reverend Wilfred Bohun is pleading with his wanton brother, the colonel, to leave the blacksmith’s wife alone while the blacksmith is away. Angry at his brother’s unrepentant lust, the curate warns him that God may strike him dead and runs into the old Gothic church to pray. Half an hour later, the village cobbler enters the church to tell the curate that his brother is dead. They run out to find Colonel Bohun’s corpse stretched out in the courtyard of the smithy, his head smashed in by a small hammer. The local police inspector and doctor are already trying to reconstruct the crime. At first it seems obvious: The blow was so powerful, smashing even the colonel’s metal helmet, that only the smith could have delivered it—and the smith, indignantly aware of the colonel’s trifling with his wife, had ample motive. The smith, however, is soon cleared by unimpeachable witnesses who place him in the next town at the time of the crime.

The hammer’s smallness moves the doctor to guess that the smith’s wife killed the colonel. This theory is discarded, however, because the fatal blow was too powerful for her to have dealt. The curate suggests that the village idiot, Mad Joe, might be capable of such a blow. He recalls seeing Mad Joe, the smith’s nephew, praying in the chapel just before the murder, and seeing his brother, the colonel, mercilessly teasing the poor soul as he left the chapel.

The only one who does not seem content with the curate’s solution to the mystery is Father Brown, who suddenly becomes noticeable in the crowd. When he is alone with Reverend Bohun in the spire of the church, he offers his own solution to the mystery: The murderer is Bohun himself, and the mysterious force that crushed his brother’s metal helmet with such a small hammer is a natural one: gravity. Having picked up a hammer while pleading with the colonel at the smithy, Bohun threw it from the top of the belfry onto his brother’s head, the acceleration giving the tiny tool tremendous force. Father Brown swears that he will not reveal Bohun’s secret but urges him to give himself up, which the curate does immediately.

In 1974 the British tv network ITV aired 13 episodes of Father Brown, an adaptation starring Kenneth Moore in the title role.  I know Moore primarily as the “Ghost of Christmas Present” from the 1970 film musical Scrooge, which starred Albert Finney in the title role. Moore is physically on the short side, and stocky of build, similar to how he is described in Chesterton’s stories; conversely, not quite as “round,” either in face and build, as described in the stories.  American audiences were exposed to the series as it was broadcast for the tv show Mystery! on PBS over the years.

The Hammer of God story was adapted for ITV in 1974 by director Robert Tronson and writer Hugh Leonard (based on Chesterton’s original work.)  Among others, this episode co-Stars Kenneth Moore as Father Brown, Graham Crowden as Colonel James Bohun, William Russel as Reverend Wilfred Bohun, Geraldine Moffat as Elizabeth Barnes, John Forgeham as Simeon Barnes, and Alun Armstrong as Joe. 

I would have say this adaptation follows extremely closely to the original short story, which is not a long story to begin with.  It is quite understandable that certain details omitted from the original story are elucidated in this tv production.  For example, we are shown Colonel James Bohun and Elizabeth Barnes getting out of bed and just about finished dressing after an inferred illicit tryst, which must have been quite racy for tv at this time (1974.)

As far as the casting other than Moore (who is quite good in every episode of the series) the standout for me in this cast was Graham Crowden as Colonel James Bohen.  Crowden does a magnificent job of playing the boorish, lustful aristocrat Colonel Bohun.  He looks quite the part as Chesterton described: him, tall, imposing, with his blond mustaches and samurai-like armored green hat.

I like how religion takes the spotlight in this episode, and the harsh contrasts between the faiths.  There is of course, the faith of Father Brown, Roman Catholicism (here referred to as a “Papist” by another character, John Forgeham.)  Then there is the faith of Reverend Wilfred Bohun (Church of England-a church that, it is implied by Brown, acquired all the former old Catholic churches during its growth and development.)  Lastly, there is Scotsman John Forgeham’s Presbyterian faith (here portrayed as fire-and-brimstone, concerned with “revival meetings” and the like.)

In Part Two of this blog post, I will describe the recent BBC TV adaptation of the Father Brown story, comparing it to the 1974 ITV production.