The Left Hand of God

Humphrey Bogart plays a priest sent to a mission in China in the 1940s. Despite not being a conventional priest, he hits it off with most of the villagers in the region. The doctor assigned to the mission (played by E.G. Marshall), is less pleased, both with Father O'Shea and the locals, but his nurse (Gene Tierney) likes the padre just fine. There's something about O'Shea that isn't on the up and up, and it involves a nearby warlord (played by Lee J. Cobb, who is not Chinese). I don't feel that's too much of a spoiler, since the movie reveals in the first 5 minutes O'Shea is packing heat.

O'Shea is the sort of character Bogart plays very well. A man who has spent a long time focusing on his own interests first and foremost, but who still has the core of a decent guy within him. You see that in some of his interactions with the villagers. He's introduced to the elder of one village, who asks his blessing. O'Shea gives it, then kneels before the man and asks for his blessing.

This is contrasted against Marshall's character. He's been there for some time, and it only seems to have fostered a sense of irritated superiority in him. When a young woman dies in childbirth, he rails against the villagers going to midwives rather than him. He frequently argues the mission should be shut down, because he has only one patient. He doesn't consider that perhaps his attitude makes the villagers feel unwelcome, or that he could try to understand where they're coming from.He just expects them to accept him as an authority and do what he says.

There's a bit of the White Savior aspect in there, where it falls to O'Shea to save the villages from the warlord, but it's mitigated somewhat because a) it really is O'Shea's fault, so it's kind of his mess, and b) we get a few comments that suggest the leaders of the villages are trying to figure out their best option, but don't have the full scoop on what they're up against.

As for the romantic subplot, I feel like I blanked out on most of it. Probably because O'Shea is a priest, neither one of the characters is voicing their interest. They just chat amicably. Which is fine with me, that wasn't what I was watching for anyway. The movie also ends more ambiguously than I expected. There are a few things that I cynically expected the movie would tie up in a neat bow, and it doesn't quite do that. Which was a pleasant surprise.