The Fugitive (1947)

In The Fugitive, Henry Fonda plays an unnamed preacher on the run from authorities who have proclaimed religion illegal. He finds an ally in Dolores Del Rio -- the beautiful bilingual star whom Figueroa photographed many times -- as a barmaid with a fatherless child. Along the way, the preacher finds reason to question his faith, his courage, and his will.

The key word here is poetry, as The Fugitive has very little dialogue and very little action. It creeps along slowly and deliberately. We're left to look at the pictures, the bright whites overcome by the intense blacks, the rich cloudy skies and streams of sunlight, the religious symbolism, and the way the shadows intensify Fonda and Del Rio's faces.

It was based on Graham Greene's 1940 novel The Power and the Glory. The Mexican director Emilio Fernández produced.