I've been a Monty Python fan for a long time. I started watching the show well before the troupe was a household name, when you had to watch them late in the evening on public television.
I joined a ragtag group of kids in high school dedicated to Monty Python. We wrote some original sketches, did a few mockups of existing Python skits, and videotaped them all. This was back around 1976. Little did I know it, but the tapes ended up on our local public television affiliate. Numerous people told me they saw me. This was the beginning and the end of my show business career.
I followed Monty Python's career with enthusiasm ever since then. I loved the movies, I owned the records, and like many other dorks, I imitated them in extremely poor attempts at British accent.
A friend and I saw The Missionary when it came out in 1982. We both liked the movie, but I never heard a lot about it over the years. The Missionary was written by and stars Michael Palen. The film was directed by Richard Loncraine, who also helmed the Peter Straub adaptation, The Haunting of Julia.
Palen plays a nice chap named Charles Fortescue. The Reverend Fortescue has just returned from a decade in Africa, spreading corrupt civilization to people with simple, uncomplicated lives. He is to be married and anticipates a nice job within the Church.
Things do not work out exactly as he hoped. His fiance is more enamored with filing and numbers than in him. Fortescue gets an unusual assignment: He is to bring salvation to ladies of the evening in the worst areas of London. He is successful. Almost too successful, and the Church begins to disapprove of his methods. They don't wish to see too much time and effort spent on lowly street people.
It was required to use Maggie Smith and/or Denholm Elliot in these kind of pictures. Smith is a wealthy patron who is smitten with the missionary. Elliot is a stodgy Bishop.
The Missionary is a sweet, funny, and good-natured movie. It's slightly ribald, but completely innocuous. There are some typical British humor situations, such as an elderly butler constantly getting lost in a mansion. The eighty-two minute running time breezes effortlessly by.
Sometimes we all want a nice little movie with no beheadings, no spirits from beyond, and not a torture scene to be found. Your soul will benefit from a visit by The Missionary.
Written by Mark Sieber
I joined a ragtag group of kids in high school dedicated to Monty Python. We wrote some original sketches, did a few mockups of existing Python skits, and videotaped them all. This was back around 1976. Little did I know it, but the tapes ended up on our local public television affiliate. Numerous people told me they saw me. This was the beginning and the end of my show business career.
I followed Monty Python's career with enthusiasm ever since then. I loved the movies, I owned the records, and like many other dorks, I imitated them in extremely poor attempts at British accent.
A friend and I saw The Missionary when it came out in 1982. We both liked the movie, but I never heard a lot about it over the years. The Missionary was written by and stars Michael Palen. The film was directed by Richard Loncraine, who also helmed the Peter Straub adaptation, The Haunting of Julia.
Palen plays a nice chap named Charles Fortescue. The Reverend Fortescue has just returned from a decade in Africa, spreading corrupt civilization to people with simple, uncomplicated lives. He is to be married and anticipates a nice job within the Church.
Things do not work out exactly as he hoped. His fiance is more enamored with filing and numbers than in him. Fortescue gets an unusual assignment: He is to bring salvation to ladies of the evening in the worst areas of London. He is successful. Almost too successful, and the Church begins to disapprove of his methods. They don't wish to see too much time and effort spent on lowly street people.
It was required to use Maggie Smith and/or Denholm Elliot in these kind of pictures. Smith is a wealthy patron who is smitten with the missionary. Elliot is a stodgy Bishop.
The Missionary is a sweet, funny, and good-natured movie. It's slightly ribald, but completely innocuous. There are some typical British humor situations, such as an elderly butler constantly getting lost in a mansion. The eighty-two minute running time breezes effortlessly by.
Sometimes we all want a nice little movie with no beheadings, no spirits from beyond, and not a torture scene to be found. Your soul will benefit from a visit by The Missionary.
Written by Mark Sieber
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