The Devil & the Deep Blue Sea Mystery

Episode aired Oct 4, 1990
TV-PG
48m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

YOUR RATING

Tom Bosley and Tracy Nelson in Fatal Confession: A Father Dowling Mystery (1987)

Comedy Crime Mystery

Sister Steve's brother is a target by a man who wants him to do something illegal. Her brother is run over by 2 men to teach him a lesson.Sister Steve's brother is a target by a man who wants him to do something illegal. Her brother is run over by 2 men to teach him a lesson.Sister Steve's brother is a target by a man who wants him to do something illegal. Her brother is run over by 2 men to teach him a lesson.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

YOUR RATING

2User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
The ending is a take on the story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Benét from 1936.

Goofs
Father Dowling accuses Harry Deal of deliberate blasphemy for eating communion wafers and drinking (presumably wine) from the chalice as a "snack". Communion wafers and sacramental wine are not in themselves sacred - they are ordinary bread and wine. It is only once they have been consecrated by a priest at Mass that (according to Catholic theology) they become the Body and Blood of Jesus, and thus sacred items that can be desecrated. For Deal's "snack" to have been deliberate blasphemy, he would have needed to rob a Catholic church in the middle of a Mass.

Soundtracks
Father Dowling Theme
Written by Dick DeBenedictis (as Dick De Benedictis)

User reviews2

Featured review

8/10

An exceptional episode

The trial scene may owe a debt to The Trial of Daniel Webster but it lifts this episode over the mediocrity of the rest of the series. A story about a priest that has some religious content. Who would have thought it! Tom Bosley must have been overjoyed to finally have something to get his teeth into. But I can't hide the fact that the bulk of this episode is just as pedestrian as we have come to expect from this series.

As this story is the kind of thing that can only be done once, fans of clerical murder mysteries should watch the more recent BBC series Father Brown to see how this sort of thing should be done. It has an interesting cast of characters , no one is there to provide light relief, the guest characters are well-developed and there is always a genuine mystery.