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Father Brown: Difference between revisions
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[[File:FatherBrown.jpg|frame|"The little priest was so much the essence of those Eastern flats; he had a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty as the North Sea; he had several brown paper parcels, which he was quite incapable of collecting."]]
'''Father Brown''' is a fictional detective created by [[G. K. Chesterton]]. To be exact, he is called Father J. Brown, though we are never told what the initial stands for, and is originally presented as the parish priest of Cobhole in [[Home Counties|Essex]], though he is found in parishes as far afield as Italy and South America. In appearance he is undistinguished, small and dumpy, short-sighted and not particularly intelligent; dressed in shabby clerical black, and carrying an umbrella as dumpy and shabby as himself.
The ''Father Brown'' [[Mystery Fiction|mysteries]] generally appeared first as independent short stories in various magazines; (most of) the stories were eventually collected in a series of five books:
* ''The Innocence of Father Brown'' (1911)
* ''The Wisdom of Father Brown'' (1914)
* ''The Incredulity of Father Brown'' (1926)
* ''The Secret of Father Brown'' (1927), and
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Three stories, "The Donnington Affair" (1914) (GKC writing the solution of a mystery set up by Max Pemberton), "The Vampire of the Village" (1936), and "The Mask of Midas" (1936), were published separately, though the second of these was later included in editions of ''Scandal''.
In 1934 a film version of Chesterton's priest based on "The Blue Cross"' appeared with the title ''Father Brown, Detective'', with Walter Connelly in the title rôle. In 1954 ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-BNonixFao Father Brown]'' (U.S. title, ''The Detective'') appeared with Alec Guinness as the eponymous priest. Heinz Rühmann played Father Brown in two German adaptations of Chesterton's stories, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqXBj4S2kNE Das schwarze Schaf]'' ("The Black Sheep") (1960) and ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS8isZQjGO8 Er kann's nicht lassen]'' ("He Can't Stop Doing It") (1962). (The score to these, by Martin Böttcher, became very popular in Germany.) In 1970 an Italian television series entitled ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCVk_MNMe8 I racconti di padre Brown]'' ("The Tales of Father Brown") starred the well-known Italian comedian Renato Rascel. In 1974, Kenneth More starred in a 13-episode ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UZG6S-vCY8 Father Brown]'' TV series, each episode adapted from one of Chesterton's short stories. In 1979, the TV move ''Sanctuary of Fear'' featured an American Father Brown (Barnard Hughes) sleuthing in contemporary New York City. A German television series, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKROsrsjXI Pfarrer Braun]'' ("Pastor Brown"), loosely based on the Chesterton character, is in production since 2003; its title theme by Martin Böttcher is a [[Shout-Out]] to the one of the Heinz Rühmann films.
Compare/contrast the ''[[Bishop Blackie Mysteries]]'' by [[Andrew M. Greeley]].
{{
'''(Note that the following examples are heavy on spoilers!)'''
* [[Actually, That's My Assistant]]: Invoked in "The Scandal of Father Brown"
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* [[Blue Blood]]: Despite GKC's very commonly expressed dislike of aristocratic systems of government, his work abounds in noblemen, both sympathetic and unsympathetic, ''e.g.'', in "The Purple Wig." Some of them are even of ''real'' aristocratic lineage, too.
* [[Brown Note]]: "The Blast Of The Book" revolves around a book that is reported to drive anyone who reads even a few words of it to self-destruction.
* [[
* [[Confessional]]: Is very often Father Brown's goal for the criminals he detects.
* [[Criminal Mind Games]]: "The Insoluble Problem"
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* [[Depth Deception]]: Referenced in "The Song of the Flying Fish."
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Not uncommon in the ''Father Brown'' stories, as for instance, in "The Secret Garden": "...and on the blind face of the suicide was all the pride of Cato."
* [[Duel to the Death]]: In "The Duel of Dr. Hirsch," the eponymous doctor is a party in a duel that does not quite come off {{spoiler|because he's faked it as a publicity stunt, and he's actually '''both''' parties in the duel}}.
* [[Everyone Is a Suspect]]: "The Arrow of Heaven" is a good example.
* [[Evil-Detecting Dog]]: Subverted heavily
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* [[Mistaken for Servant]]: Used in at least two of the stories, "The Queer Feet" and "The Strange Crime of John Boulnois."
* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Discussed [[In-Universe]] in "The Sign of the Broken Sword". Being a greedy and corrupted traitor? Not okay. Killing the one who found out about that? Real bad. ''Killing an entire army so that no one would ever find his corpse?'' There we go.
* [[Needle in a Stack of Needles]]: "The Sign of the Broken Sword":
{{quote|Where would a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. If there were no forest, he would make a forest. And if he wished to hide a dead leaf, he would make a dead forest. }}
* [[Nice to the Waiter]]: "The Actor and the Alibi"
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* [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]]: Almost all the stories seems to invoke supernatural elements, only for Father Brown to discover that they have perfectly mundane solutions, see [[Belief Makes You Stupid]] and [[If Jesus, Then Aliens]].
* [[Seen It All]]: The vast (even shocking) experience of GKC's friend Father John O'Connor so impressed him that he fictionalized the priest in the form of Father Brown, whose first story, "The Blue Cross," is based upon this trope.
* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Subverted in "The Absence of Mr Glass," in which some characters involve a brilliant criminologist in a domestic case, where he concludes with a sinister and dramatic interpretation of some facts. {{spoiler|Dramatic and totally false. The apparent killer is only a stage magician, so that the cards, the knives, the swords and the mysteriously large top hat have a very simple explanation}}. At the end of the tale, everyone (including the criminologist) is laughing.
* [[Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids|Silly Rabbit, Romance Is For Kids!]]: At least, it's not for movie stars on their fifth marriages.
* [[Silver Bullet]]: In "The Dagger With Wings"
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* [[The Greatest Story Never Told]]: In "The Sign of the Broken Sword".
* [[The Reveal]]: One of the bases of [[Mystery Fiction]], of course.
* [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That]]: In one episode of the TV show, someone cannot speak but has a paper saying she cannot speak; when someone answers it, she turn the page and reveals the response to their response, and then someone else says again, and on the next page is the response to that, that she must had already written down all of the responses ahead of time.
* [[The Unfair Sex]]: Provides a blind in "The Oracle of the Dog."
* [[The Uriah Gambit]]: In {{spoiler|"The Sign of the Broken Sword."}}
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* [[Unfriendly Fire]]: The story "{{spoiler|The Sign of the Broken Sword}}"
* [[White Magic]]: Invoked, and debunked, in "The Dagger with Wings" -- and re-invoked.
* [[Who Dunnit to Me?]]?: In "The Resurrection of Father Brown."
* [[Writer on Board]]: Father Brown is a fairly accurate mouthpiece for Chesterton's views.
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[[Category:Detective Literature]]
[[Category:Mystery Literature]]
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