Das schwarze Schaf (1960)

Much to his bishop’s dismay, Father Brown has once again played detective, tracking down a murderer and consequently earning a prominent place in the newspapers instead of Police Inspector Graven (the bishop: “The day before, Brigitte Bardot was in that spot”). He is transferred to the small town of Bray as a punishment, accompanied there by his housekeeper, Mrs. Smith. On arriving, while looking for donors to fund an extension to the church, he makes the acquaintance of the impoverished Lord Kingsley, who hands him some shares. But at the bank, Conelly tells Father Brown that they are completely worthless. Shortly afterward, Conelly is murdered while watching a televised football match at the hotel of Father Brown’s old friend Flambeau. Inspector Graven, who has also been transferred to Bray after failing to solve the case Father Brown cracked at the beginning, is at a loss. A little later, Father Brown’s shares are stolen. His housekeeper, who witnessed the theft through a keyhole, tells him that Lord Kingsley is the thief. When Father Brown goes to retrieve the shares from Kingsley’s castle, he sees the lord selling both his own shares and the ones he had stolen back to Mr. Gordon, a shady character. Gordon had offered Kingsley, who was penniless, an attractive sum for the shares, which had been worthless for years. Father Brown soon discovers, however, that the shares have unexpectedly risen to ten times their former value, and that shortly before his death, the murdered bank director Conelly received a telegram bearing this very news. But the telegram was not found on the dead man—the culprit apparently wanted to prevent news of the rise in value from reaching the people of Bray. Shortly before Conelly’s murder, a theatrical troupe led by actor Emilio Scarletti had checked into Flambeau’s hotel. During a walk, Father Brown notices a certain resemblance between Scarletti and Gordon on one of the troupe’s theater posters, and sends Flambeau, a former safecracker, to the theater to see whether the shares are there. Flambeau does indeed find them, but, contrary to Father Brown’s instructions, brings them back to the hotel. This is enough for Inspector Graven, who arrives shortly afterward, to arrest him: from Graven’s point of view, the owner of the shares must be Conelly’s murderer. Father Brown now has no choice but to solve the crime in order to get Flambeau out of custody. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Scarletti is shot backstage during the theater performance. Father Brown initially suspects Lord Kingsley, who has happened to discover that Gordon and Scarletti are one and the same person, and who wanted revenge for the fraudulent share purchase. But Kingsley’s innocence is quickly established. As he continues his investigations, Brown is baffled by the simultaneous events: Scarletti, whom he now believes to be both Conelly’s murderer and Mr. Gordon, had always been seen elsewhere when the crimes were committed. At last, he deduces that Scarletti must have had a twin brother, who was then shot by Scarletti himself during the performance. Acting on this theory, Father Brown searches the theater and finds the supposedly dead Scarletti hiding there. Scarletti quickly admits that his twin brother had indeed provided him with an alibi while he posed as Mr. Gordon and murdered Conelly. But after the successful heist, he wanted to get rid of his brother as an inconvenient witness, so he shot him during the performance. When Scarletti now tries to kill Father Brown as well, Inspector Graven intervenes, and a shootout with the police ensues, in which Scarletti is fatally wounded. The headlines that appear in the newspapers afterward prompt the bishop to transfer Father Brown to the remote island of Abbotts Rock. The outgoing Father Hilliard greets him with the words: “This island needs a capable police inspector more than it needs a good priest.” Father Brown smiles slyly and remarks that the ways of God are inscrutable.