SATAN NEVER SLEEPS

US, 1962, 126 minutes, Colour.
Clifton Webb, William Holden, France Nuyen, Fritz Weaver, Athene Seyler, Martin Benson.
Directed by Leo Mc Carey.

Satan Never Sleeps was the last film directed by veteran Leo Mc Carey. Mc Carey had directed films since the '30s, a range including the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup to the classics The Awful Truth and his Oscar-winning Going My Way. His films in the '40s and '50s tended to be sentimental with a touch of religion. He also made the anti-communist My Son John in the '50s.

This film seems to attempt to combine '60s, widescreen spectacle with the religious interest of the earlier films. It is based on a novel by Pearl Buck. The production values are solid: co-screenwriter Claude Binyon, photography by Oswald Morris, score by Richard Rodney Bennett and a title song by authors including Harry Warren. There is an offbeat cast.

However, the film was universally disliked. Perhaps Clifton Webb is too acerbic as a missionary. Perhaps William Holden is too bland as an American priest. The film takes a fairly staunch anti-communist line. However. for those interested in films about missionaries, about religion and persecution, who like religious melodrama - they may well enjoy this action adventure.

1. The impact of the film? Spectacle? Action? Religious? Background of China and missionaries? Chinese wars?

2. Production values: colour photography, the landscapes for China? Chinese way of life? Action sequences? Musical score? Title song?

3. The focus on religion, God and the Devil, mission work and temptation?

4. The background of China in the late 1940s: the presence of missionaries in China, the vast population and national religions, local religions? Civil wars? The warlords? The presence of Americans? The oncoming of the communist revolution? The persecution of the missionaries?

5. Father O' Banion - as played by William Holden? A credible priest? missionary? His being stationed with Father Bovard? The clashes between the two? His response to Father Bovard's suspicions and insinuations? The journey to the mission station and the encounter with Siu- Lan? Her falling in love with him? Her making things difficult at the mission station? Serious? Comic? Her being raped by Ho- San? Her stabbing him? In Father O' Banion's car? The imprisonment? The treatment of the two priests? Their suffering together, Father Bovard's change of heart? Ho-San? and his reactions? The decision for the escape? The journey, its difficulties, dangers, the car, Father Bovard walking away to allow the others to get to Hong Kong? A stereotyped hero?

6. Clifton Webb's film image, sardonic style? The belonging to China? His life's dedication? A credible priest? Not wanting to leave, to go home? His lifestyle? The encounter with Father O' Banion, clashes? His insinuations? A rigid moral outlook?, Siu- Lan and her presence? His relationship with the sisters? With the authorities? The clashes with the authorities? Ho- San? The growing danger? imprisonment? The torture? Father Bovard's failing health? The escape attempt? Father Bovard unable to carry on, his decision to leave the group and to give his life for them?

7. Siu- Lan and her background, family, loyalty to Father O' Banion, his help, Chinese customs, her falling in love? Her presence at the mission station? Her infatuation and its consequences? Ho- San and the rape? her pregnancy? Her escaping in the car? The birth of the child and its effect on Ho- San? The escape? Ho- San and his arrogance, his family background, his involvement with the revolution? The imprisonment and torture? His family? The rape, the consequences, the birth of the child, his change of heart? Arranging the escape?

8. The presence of the missionary sisters, the group in the convent, their work, their devotion to the priests, the decision to leave?

9. The portrait of the Chinese, the pressures from the revolutionaries, massacres? Imprisonment? The revolution?

10. Images of the Chinese situation in the 1940s? The film as judgment on the communist revolution? A portrait of missionary priests - of the 1940s and 1950s? Religious expectations and stereotypes?