The Missionary Reviews

Michael Palin of Monty Python fame plays Rev. Charles Fortescue, a missionary who has spent 10 years teaching European history to native kids in an African village. He has stayed in contact with his hometown sweetheart through voluminous correspondence. Called back to London and assigned to run a slum mission for "fallen women," he drums up financial support for the project by appealing to Lady Ames (Maggie Smith), a wealthy aristocrat he met on the boat from Africa. She will help only if Fortescue adds a bit of romance to her empty love life. The story provides plenty of potentially ironic situations, but as a whole it is too weak and fragmented to really hold together. The flimsy plot is balanced somewhat by a brilliant and lively cast, who take full advantage of the numerous laughs.