Having been imprisoned at a labor camp in Siberia for over 20 years, a Catholic archbishop by the name of "Kiril Pavlovich Lakota" (Anthony Quinn) is transported from there to Moscow to confer with the premier of the Soviet Union "Piotr Ilyich Kamenev" (Laurence Olivier). As it turns out, Kamenev was once the warden of the labor camp and knows Kiril extremely well. And it's because of this that Kamenev has decided to release him back to the Vatican in the hope that this gesture will help him with a much more serious problem involving a severe famine in China that threatens to envelope the world in a nuclear war. To his surprise, his gambit pays immediate dividends with the unexpected death of the current pope and the subsequent selection of his replacement-Kiril Pavolvich Lakota. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I enjoyed the manner in which the director (Michael Anderson) managed to capture the pomp and circumstance involving the Vatican and the selection of a new pope. I also liked the performances of Oskar Werner (as "Father David Telemond"), David Janssen ("George Faber") and the aforementioned Anthony Quinn. On the other hand, I didn't especially care for the performance of Burt Kwouk (as "Chairman Peng") or the rather simplistic and abrupt ending to the film. But even so I enjoyed this film and have rated it accordingly. Above average.
Review of The Shoes of the Fisherman
