the scarlet pimpernel of the vatican by jp gallagher

A whole lot of lives were saved because of him. I would recommend watching this film about a good man who happened to be a priest who stepped up to the plate when no one would and fulfilled a great need. And of course the Soviet Union which was his big fear was an Ally. He feared, probably with good reason, an Avignon captivity situation for the Papacy if he appeared to be overtly pro-Ally.

At the point in time that The Scarlet and Black is taking place, there was very little he or anyone else as Pope could have done. The criticisms I have of Pius occur before he reached the Papacy in 1939. Presiding over it all is John Gielgud as Pius XII.

Peck and Plummer are a pair of well matched antagonists. We also see him as father and husband who's enjoying Christmas in Rome with his family and also acting like any other tourist taking the family to see the sights of the Eternal City. We see him as the ruthless Nazi who dogs Peck and his operation every step of the way. What I like about The Scarlet and the Black is the fact that Peck's chief antagonist Christopher Plummer is shown as a three dimensional character. The word got out if you could make your way to the Vatican, Monsignor O'Flaherty could help. You might remember the novel and film Von Ryan's Express which detailed that phenomenon. When Italy threw out Mussolini and switched sides in World War II, a whole lot of Allied prisoners were freed and roaming the countryside. He develops quite a network of people who house escaped prisoners.

Gregory Peck plays the resourceful monsignor who's got a whole bag of tricks from the land of leprechauns to outwit the Nazis. Although Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish national attached to the Vatican staff, was providing aid to refugees of all kinds from the Nazis before, this film covers a period between September of 1943 and Jwhen Mark Clark and the Fifth American Army liberated Rome. Remember Henry II's oblique wish about his former friend Thomas Becket which got carried out? Christopher Plummer tried more explicit methods to get rid of his meddlesome priest all without success.

The scarlet pimpernel of the vatican by jp gallagher