THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER
US, 1972, 88 minutes, Colour.
Mickey Dolenz, James Ralston, Michael Anthony, Chuck Patterson, Susan Mc Culloch, Katie Tilley, Anne Barrett, Harold Sylvester.
Directed by Joy N. Houck Jr.
The title of the film bears no relationship to the screenplay nor any of the murders that take place. There is a variety of drowning, wrist-slitting, snakebite, shootings… If anyone comes across this film, and it is available on You Tube, it is a very small-budget pot-boiling thriller set in New Orleans.
It was released in 1972 and it is interesting in its treatment of African- Americans in the American South. And one of the main characters is a priest, a black priest in something of a prejudiced white community; another of the main characters is one of the New Orleans police force. It is not yet a decade after the March on Washington and Civil Rights legislation, but the African- Americans seem to have a proper place in New Orleans. However, the word ‘nigger’ is used frequently, as a matter of derision by racist whites, and with tongue-in-cheek humour by some of the black characters themselves. To this extent, along with the surprise of hearing the word nigger so often, it is an interesting picture of the times and race issues.
What is particularly interesting is the character of the priest. We first see him returning from a year-long retreat in a monastery, is welcomed back to the Archdiocese, being given back his previous parish. The Monsignor who welcomes him back refers to the parable of the Prodigal Son, referring to the status of the two brothers, the repentant brother and the one who stays and begins to hate his father. The bespectacled priest has returned, speaks well, seems a very decent priest, wearing his cassock in the street, lives in a rectory with plenty of Catholic iconography and is welcomed back to the school as well.
The priest, Jesse, hears confessions, kisses and folds his stole, has achieved much as he walks through his parish? The other priest in the parish urges him to meet people and make re-acquaintance, especially with the Robert family who have suffered a tragedy. Jesse is praised for what he is doing the parish. He makes friends again with Vance (Mickey Dolenz of the Monkeys) and visits his older brother, Dan, who goes through the motions but is particularly racist and uses the word nigger frequently. At one stage, Dan angrily criticises Jesse, no black man or what is going to defame his church. He says Jesse is not just a nigger, is a black man, and niggers are not men, let alone men of God. Jesse sends flowers to Dan’s bride, but there is a poisonous snake concealed in them. Jesse gives her the last rites, then officiates at Vance’s and his fiancee’s wedding (strangely no witnesses present).
But here comes the spoiler. After admiring Jesse, who could be seen in the tradition of Bing Crosby and other genial parish priests, we suddenly discover that it is not Jesse at all. It is Jesse who has made Denise Robert pregnant and has been shot by a hitman employed by Dan. The priest is actually Jesse’s brother who had served in Vietnam, resented the death of his brother, and has decided to kill all the members of the Robert family, the brothers, their wives. Suddenly he takes his glasses off, is using slang, helluva shot, the man blasted his ass off, Nam was no picnic …
So, after being offered the portrait of a sympathetic priest, kind, pastoral, seemingly meticulous in his ministry, we discover that this is a bogus priest – and the real priest is not exemplary either. The bogus priest explains that he went away for a year to the monastery to learn all the right moves, which he was particularly good at, and a good priest.
An interestingly offbeat priest portrayal for US 1972.
