This is one of those puzzling films to try and analyze as it gives you no character to which to be loyal to. It all starts off promisingly as a well-loved Bishop (Alec Guennis) is suddenly arrested and put into confinement to be questioned as an enemy of the state. When that tragic priest is played by the effervescent Guennis, you know that the characterization will be brilliant, and sure enough, it is. Jack Hawkins as the investigator brutally questioning him starts off gently, but gradually, it builds to horrific methods in order to reach his goal. There are lots of angry conversations of human failings-towards flesh, hatred of fellow man, and even resentments to God. In lesser acting hands, I would call this a total bore, but Guennis could make villains likable ("Oliver Twist's" Fagin) and be both touching ("Star Wars") and even dreadfully funny ("Murder By Death"). Even as Hitler, Guennis added much humanity to the greatest villain civilization has ever known. But this is a difficult assignment, more an acting exercise rather than a full-fledged story, and ultimately emotionally D.O.A., just like the poor Bishop's life is as he faces man's greatest and most evil goal: mind control.

"The Prisoner" is a post-WWII psychological drama taking place in an unnamed East European country that has fallen under Communist rule. You'll notice that none of the characters are credited with proper names, in this tale of a popular Cardinal (Alec Guinness) being put through the wringer by an interrogator (Jack Hawkins). The Cardinal has been accused of treason against the state, and arrested, and the interrogator hopes to crack through the churchmans' shell and find his weak spot, anything to make the man confess to what are essentially baseless charges.

It's all about the acting in this small scale production, a battle of wills which does indeed come off as a photographed stage play. Director Peter Glenville doesn't give it style or cinematic flair, but it IS pretty atmospheric as photographed by D.P. Reginald H. Wyer. Inspired by two real-life churchmen, the tale (written by Bridget Boland) is intelligent and compelling. One does feel quite bad for the Cardinal, who is a tough nut to crack at first. And yet neither lead character is painted as purely one-dimensional; the viewer doesn't necessarily hate the interrogator when all is said and done.

There is a minor number of supporting players, all of them very good, especially the hearty and jovial Wilfrid Lawson as the jailer. Ronald Lewis, as the young warder, figures in a subplot about his love for a married woman (Jeanette Sterke),although this bit of business never really goes anywhere. Fortunately, Guiness and Hawkins (old pros, the both of them) deliver commanding performances that hold ones' attention even if the material does not.

Provocative and controversial in its day, "The Prisoner" was seen by some as too sympathetic to Communists, and by others as being too *anti*-Communist. It clocks in at a fairly trim running time, 94 minutes, and does give us a fairly powerful ending.

Seven out of 10.

Interesting play by Bridget Boland loosely based on the notorious fake trial of Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary after a month of brainwashing by the communists in 1948. Alec Guinness was himself a catholic and is really living out his catholicism in this great performance of the live dissection of a catholic priest, extremely actual in today's situation with the church immersed in scandals of pedophilia. Bridget Boland makes a very different story from the Mindszenty drama, making the interrogator (Jack Hawkins) an equal to the Cardinal as opponent and prosecutor and seems to be winning but actually loses in the end against the honesty of the Cardinal realizing his own futility, while the prosecutor- interrogator as a victor is the real loser and takes the consequences. Fascinating drama, which should be returned to again and again. In reality, Cardinal Mindszenty's brainwash process only lasted for less than a month and was chiefly conducted by the use of drugs and physical exhaustion. The only parallel torture that Alec Guinness is exposed to is forced insomnia. He is imprisoned for longer than three months with only private talks with the interrogator as a method and finally released, when the "state" thinks it has won by ruining his reputation and exposing him as a fraud, while Cardinal Mindszenty was sentenced for life. The film was made in 1955, the year after saw the Hungarian revolt, and Cardinal Mindszenty was then set free and lived a long life, even writing books and his memoirs. He is still one of the most important icons of Hungary and will remain so. His shrine is at the ancient basilica of Esztergom north of Budapest, a very beautiful place by the Danube.