The Singer Not the Song (1961)

Directed by

Roy Ward Baker

Genre

drama film, Western film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

2h 12m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 19 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A priest and an outlaw clash in a small Mexican town. The conflict becomes personal and intense as each man tries to assert his will over the other.

slow-pacedmelodramaticcampysombertensedatedstylizedemotional

What happens

The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British Western film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, and Mylène Demongeot. It was written by Nigel Balchin based on the 1953 novel of the same title by Audrey Erskine Lindop. The film became a notorious flop for the Rank Organisation. Bogarde called the film "a travesty of what it should have been" while Roy Baker said "I hated it, it broke my heart. It put me completely out of kilter for years afterwards, it was a disaster. I’m told it’s a cult picture and quite probably in countries with large Catholic communities it has some special reference. I should never have made it." "That was one that went wrong," said John Mills. The film failed at the box office, but has since developed a cult following due to its camp homosexual context and over-the-top performance by Bogarde in black leather trousers. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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