This mesmerising adaptation of The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene's novel about a "whisky priest" - by director John Ford is seriously compromised by the censorship of the time. But, despite the fact that the central relationship is no longer a sexual one and Henry Fonda's priest is not an alcoholic, it remains resolutely convincing. Pedro Armendáriz is particularly fine as the mustachioed police lieutenant, and Dolores Del Rio smoulders as the woman, but the real star of this brooding opus is the magnificent outdoor photography from Gabriel Figueroa. At the time, Ford's non-westerns were regarded more highly than his westerns. This drama is a quasi-western, and all the better for being directed by such a master.

Anti-Catholic and anti-cleric policies in the Mexican state of Tabasco lead the revolutionary government to persecute the state's last remaining priest.