Father Brown in The Hammer of God by G K Chesterton

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE ORIGINAL SHORT STORY AND THE 2013 TELEVISION EPISODE

I very much enjoyed the original short story – a mysterious murder turns out to be committed by the least likely suspect, who is a quite sympathetic character. The reader understands why he did it, but that he went too far and should be pitied instead of hated.

In the TV episode, he kills the victim after underreacting to his actions, but then discovering something he cannot forgive. He also, for no easily apparent reason, tries to shift blame from one suspect to another. The execution of the murder is also particularly brutal, and he tries to shift blame to an unrelated person – God.

In both versions, there are three suspects for the murder of a philandering bully. Both have the blacksmith and his cheating wife; in the book, the third suspect is a simpleton, while in the TV episode, it’s a rather strange creationist. The actual murderer in both instances is a minister – the brother of the victim. He’s fed up with his brother’s acts, and decides to take matters into his own hands.

The minister is at the top of a bell tower – in the book, because he has a habit of praying there, on TV to fix an inaccurate clock. In both instances, he has a hammer for some inadequately explained reason, which becomes the murder weapon.

The original uses gravity to commit the murder – dropping the hammer over the wall, causing terminal velocity to strike a greater blow than an unassisted hand. The adaptation barely brushes this explanation, using a far less accurate thrown hammer.

Three suspects, as mentioned above, are swiftly found. The blacksmith: in revenge for his wife’s cheating. The wife: because she hated her lover. The simpleton: because he was bullied. No accusation seems to have been leveled at the creationist.

In both versions, the minister tries to convince everyone that the wife could not have done it. His reasoning and reasons in the book are far more clear: a woman is unlikely to have been able to strike such a blow, and he does not want an innocent to be punished for his crime. In the adaptation, there is some slight implication that he is in love with her, and does not want to see her executed.

Only in the book does he try to divert blame away from the blacksmith himself. The blacksmith has an unbreakable alibi, and again, the minister doesn’t want the blame pinned to an innocent. In the TV episode, he instead tries to divert all suspicion to the blacksmith, even attempting to convince him to falsely confess.

Finally, the original story came to the third suspect. The murderer argues strongly that the simpleton could have committed the crime easily, and had every reason to. We soon discover that the simpleton, being mentally disabled, could not be punished for this crime, even if he was indeed guilty. This does cause the reader to be more sympathetic towards the murderer. No such thing happens in the adaptation, making him seem far crueler.

Now, the motive for the murder. In the book, the minister is fed up with his brother’s philandering ways, but what tips him over the edge is seeing him bullying the poor simpleton. When he is in the clock tower and sees his brother walking past below, he looks so like an insect that the minister just… drops the hammer.

In the adaptation, the motive is far less PC. Having ignored the philandering as much as he is able to, he kills his brother in anger after discovering he is gay. Yes, seriously. How do you get away with scripting something like that in this day and age?

To sum up, the original story was, in my opinion, far superior. The television adaptation was exceedingly clumsily handled. If you’re looking for a good mystery – look elsewhere.

-The Squid