Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

bsmith5552 "The Prisoner" is a tour de force between two superlative actors Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins. It's an unusual sort of movie in that it is set in an unnamed communist country following WWII and all of the characters do not have names.A Cardinal (Alec Guinness) is arrested for treason against the government. He had been a hero of the resistance against the Germans in WWII and now is accused of rallying the people against the new totalitarian regime. He is to be question by master interrogator Jack Hawkins.Over a period of three months the interrogator tries to break the priest's resolve and force him to sign a bogus confession of his guilt. He uses sleep deprevation, relentless badgering, bright lights and even bringing the Cardinal' s mother into play. But the Cardinal is the interrogator's equal in intelligence.Eventually the Cardinal's own self doubts are brought to the forefront and he is broken and put on trial. He is found guilty and is sentenced to death but..................................................................................................................The ending of the movie is particularly poignant leaving the question: Did anyone really win this verbal battle of the minds?Although this is essentially a two actor performance, there are some interesting supporting players as well. Wilfred Lawson plays the somewhat likeable jailer, Kenneth Griffith is Hawkins ambitious secretary, Jeanette Stark and Ronald Lewis play a young couple trying to make sense of it all and Raymond Huntley is the General.The story was supposedly based on the Cardinal Mindszenty trial in Hungary in 1948.

mark.waltz This is one of those puzzling films to try and analyze as it gives you no character to which to be loyal to. It all starts off promisingly as a well-loved Bishop (Alec Guennis) is suddenly arrested and put into confinement to be questioned as an enemy of the state. When that tragic priest is played by the effervescent Guennis, you know that the characterization will be brilliant, and sure enough, it is. Jack Hawkins as the investigator brutally questioning him starts off gently, but gradually, it builds to horrific methods in order to reach his goal. There are lots of angry conversations of human failings-towards flesh, hatred of fellow man, and even resentments to God. In lesser acting hands, I would call this a total bore, but Guennis could make villains likable ("Oliver Twist's" Fagin) and be both touching ("Star Wars") and even dreadfully funny ("Murder By Death"). Even as Hitler, Guennis added much humanity to the greatest villain civilization has ever known. But this is a difficult assignment, more an acting exercise rather than a full-fledged story, and ultimately emotionally D.O.A., just like the poor Bishop's life is as he faces man's greatest and most evil goal: mind control.

bkoganbing Alec Guinness got to repeat one of the roles he did on the London stage with the screen adaption of Bridget Boland's The Prisoner which was directed by Peter Glenville who also did the original stage production. It was one of Guinness's personal favorites among his parts because of the Catholicism of the actor.In fact the role really hit close, maybe too close to home, because like the character he plays in the film, Guinness was a child of a prostitute mother who escaped into acting as a refuge from a really bad childhood. Just as his character the Cardinal of an unnamed Balkan country now ruled by a Marxist dictatorship went into the church as a way of rising above the station he was born in life. Jack Hawkins plays the state inquisitor, a psychologist by training who probes and finds the weakness in Guinness and uses it to get a confession of treason out of him. Pride and vanity are the trickiest of human sins, we're all guilty of it in one way or another. In making this film Guinness, Boland, and Glenville were all adamant about keeping the main character Catholic and not some Christian preacher of an unnamed denomination as what the producers originally wanted to do, the better for a broader appeal they reasoned. Catholicism and the special burdens and duties it places on its clergy is precisely what makes the story valid.According to a recent biography of Alec Guinness though it was never going to be anyone else but him in the role of the Cardinal, Noel Willman had done the inquisitor part on stage. Several people like John Gielgud and Peter Bull were considered for that part before Hawkins was signed for the role.If the subject matter does seem familiar, the role is obviously modeled on Josef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. And director Peter Glenville would have his greatest screen triumph in Becket, the story of another troublesome priest several centuries earlier.Guinness does lay bare his soul in this film. For fans of Alec Guinness this film is a must.

jump.boy A classic sadly almost ignored and forgotten probably because of it's small scale being a quite simple screen version of the popular stage play. Alec Guinness is the Cardinal arrested by the state during the Cold War, Jack Hawkins is the state inquisitor trying to break him. Ex comrades in arms, fighting in the Resistance against the Nazis; they now find themselves on opposing sides of Church and State. An intense battle of wills ensues, superb performances all round including Wilfred Lawson as the jailer. Highly recommended.