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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 [[
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
Compare/contrast the ''[[Bishop Blackie Mysteries]]'' by [[Andrew M. Greeley]].
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Actually, That's My Assistant]]: Invoked in "The Scandal of Father Brown"
* [[Amateur Sleuth]]: Father Brown.
* [[Attending Your Own Funeral]]: In "The Resurrection of Father Brown"
* [[Atonement Detective]]: Father Brown meets and bests a thief named Flambeau, who (to atone for his crimes?) becomes a detective himself.
* [[Badass Boast]]: In a quiet sort of way. Father Brown confronts Flambeau for a second time in the story "The Queer Feet". Flambeau, who doesn't yet recognize the father, and is larger and far stronger, claims not to want to threaten him:
{{quote|"I do want to threaten you," said Father Brown, in a voice like a rolling drum, "I want to threaten you with the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.... I am a priest, Monsieur Flambeau ... and I am ready to hear your confession."}}
* [[Belief Makes You Stupid]]: Subverted with extreme prejudice.
** The aversion of this trope is lampshaded in Father Brown's very first story,
{{quote|
"What?" asked the thief, almost gaping.
"You attacked reason," said Father Brown. "It's bad theology." }}
** From the same story: "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?"
* [[Be My Valentine]]: Aristide Valentin in "The Blue Cross" and "The Secret Garden."
* [[Beneath Notice]]: In "The Invisible Man," a man is murdered and witnesses say they saw nobody. Father Brown figures out that the murderer was {{spoiler|dressed as a postman}}, and the witnesses didn't pay any attention to him.
* [[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"
* [[Deal
* [[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
* [[Everyone Is a Suspect]]: "The Arrow of Heaven" is a good example.
* [[Evil-Detecting Dog]]: Subverted heavily
* [[Exact Words]]: Father Brown suffers from this constantly, as in "The Quick One": "...I never said he was a murderer. I said he was the man we wanted." As a witness.
* [[Fairy Tale]]: As in "The Fairy Tale of Father Brown."
* [[Genteel Interbellum Setting]]: Reasonably enough, as all of the stories were written between 1910 and 1936.
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* [[Hypocrite]]: As, for instance, in "The Ghost of Gideon Wise."
* [[Identical Grandson]]: In "The Doom of the Darnaways." (Ho-ho!)
* [[If Jesus, Then Aliens]]: Defied. [[Father Brown]] is quite devout, but doesn't believe in ''anything'' supernatural at first sight, and is very quick to correct those who attempt to use this logic themselves. Multiple mysteries are mistaken for miracles, curses or what have you, and Brown is usually there to prove that they are quite mundane and staged to look supernatural.
* [[Impoverished Patrician]]: "The Doom of the Darnaways," for example.
* [[Interdisciplinary Sleuth]]: Father Brown is, as the name would imply, a priest.
* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Not a positive example. He observed Father Brown helping a woman run from an ugly man with a handsome one and, assuming it's a typical [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]] scenario, immediately sent a story about how a priest broke a sacred marriage, ruining his reputation. {{spoiler|The ugly one was the lover -- she'd been attracted to him briefly only because he was a talented poet -- and yes, her lawful husband was decidedly better-looking.}}
* [[Malicious Slander]]
* [[Mirror Scare]]: The key to the murderer's identity in "The Mirror of the Magistrate." {{spoiler|He shot at a mirror -- because unexpectedly seeing his own reflection, he thought he was looking at the man he'd come to kill. Meaning they looked somewhat alike....}}
* [[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
* [[Needle in
{{quote|
* [[Nice to
* [[Never Suicide]]: Subverted in "The Three Tools of Death" when {{spoiler|Sir Aaron Armstrong commits suicide and everyone thinks it's murder.}}
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Father Brown appears at first glance to be a simple, not-too-bright parish priest
* [[Off
* [[Path of Inspiration]]: "The Eye of Apollo"
* [[Pepper Sneeze]]: In "The Salad of Colonel Cray," a key clue to the mystery is some unexplained sneezes heard near the scene of the crime. It is eventually explained that the criminal sneezed when throwing away to the dustbin the pepper that could have been used to counter the action of the poison he was planning to use.
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* [[Police Are Useless]]: A police detective complains about this trope in one story. He points out that while the police may not be as intuitively brilliant as the average fictional detective, they are not even shown as having the virtues they do have such as storing and sharing information.
* [[Preemptive Declaration]]: Used by Father Brown, of all people, in "The Blue Cross."
{{quote|
* [[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat]]: In "The Absence of Mr. Glass."
* [[Revealing Coverup]]
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* [[Sarcastic Confession]]: As in "The Worst Crime in the World."
* [[Satchel Switcheroo]]: Used ''twice'' in ''The Blue Cross''.
* [[Scooby
* [[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
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Detective Literature]]
[[Category:Mystery Literature]]
[[Category:
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