The Fugitive

In the midst of an anti-Cleric and anti-Catholic regime in the Mexican state of Tabasco, the last remaining priest flees persecution and seeks freedom in America, finding help along the way., A brooding tale set in a small Latin American country, where an authority-defying priest falls foul of anti-clerical decrees. Relentlessly pursued by the police, he heads for the border, but returns to administer last rites to a dying criminal. Based on Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory., The Fugitive was shot on location in Mexico by that country’s premiere cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa. Henry Fonda plays a Christ-like priest in an unnamed Latin-American country where religion has been outlawed. Though incognito in a backwater village, Fonda cannot help but seem more spiritual and mystical than those around him. Meanwhile, another fugitive, homicidal-bandit Ward Bond, stumbles into the village. Bond and the beautiful Dolores del Rio, whose illegitimate child has been secretly baptized by Fonda, conspire to help the priest escape. Once Fonda is on safe ground, he is implored by police spy J. Carroll Naish to return to the village, ostensibly because Bond is dying and wishes to have last rites. Fonda is captured and sentenced to death, but is willing to forgive the repentant Naish for betraying him. The priest dies a martyr, and the outpouring of public grief proves to the authorities that simply outlawing religion will never subjugate the hearts and minds of the people.