The Singer Not the Song

The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British drama film based on the 1953 novel by Audrey ErskineLindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain.

The films homosexual undertones have been so much the focus of observation and criticism over the years that other aspects are frequently overlooked. The film is, first and foremost, a story of good versus evil, with the priest in the role of a redeemer who comes to save the villagers, and the bandito as the devil incarnate intent on owning their souls. Each seeks to drive the other out.The character of Anacleto is intriguing in that he shows the willingness to become a better person, yet underlying he sees the corruption and hypocrisy in the Church and on those grounds, rather than on evil ones, he cannot bring himself to embrace it. Meanwhile the Church has, since the film was made, revealed to an even more disturbing degree the scandals and outrages over which it has presided and which have occurred within it, rendering more subtle and intriguing the contrast between the two men, whose mutual struggle to drive each other out ends as we might expectneither wins. ........

Source: Wikipedia