This 1968 MGM film is the kind of big, sprawling roadshow movie that they don't make any more. Anthony Quinn plays a recently released political prisoner from a Russian gulag ruled by Laurence Olivier. Traveling to Rome, Archbishop Lakota (Quinn) soon finds himself elected Pope in a whirlwind series of events. With a WW3 showdown looming between Red China and the Soviet Union, Kiril becomes an unlikely go-between dealing with the communist leaders and Olivier. It's all very ponderous, sweeping, well photographed and at least a half hour too long. David Janssen's subplot as a philandering TV reporter seems to have stumbled in from another film and nearly disappears by the end of the movie. THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN is indeed the kind of movie they don't make anymore and after sitting through this lumbering dinosaur, you may realize that's good news. C
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