The Missionary

Although he does well enough here, I couldn’t ever get the vision of Michael Palin as a sort of “Ripping Yarns” character throughout this pretty weak vehicle for himself and Maggie Smith. It’s the turn of the 20th century and “Fortescue” (Palin) has been brought back to London from Africa by his Bishop (Denholm Elliott) who wants him to get his sleeves rolled up with the women of ill repute who are blighting the city. Of course, it offends his sensibilities somewhat but when he meets the benefactor of this whole enterprise - the married and very wealthy “Lady Isabel” (Smith), he discovers that he has more than met his match. Let’s just say there are strings attached, and many of them are in her corset. It also turns out that she has a little more in common with his prospective subjects than he might have expected. For me, the whole film is over-scripted and Smith over-plays her part, especially as the plot takes them all to the beautiful Ardverikie House (think Balmoral only smaller) where the combination of corridor and grouse shooting shenanigans take it perilously close to farce. The premise of a man dancing to the sexual tune of a woman in Edwardian Britain is quite fun; Trevor Howard parodies his exuberant "Charge of the Light Brigade" performance nicely and Michael Hordern turns in the best perforce of the film as the butler who could get lost in his own pantry. There is some humour here, but all in all it’s just a bit too lightweight to sustain much interest or remain in the memory for long afterwards.