Saint Joan (1957)

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Graham Greene (writer)
George Bernard Shaw (play)

Release Date:

8 May 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Young Joan of Arc comes to the palace in France to make The Dauphin King of France and is appointed to head the French Army...

Plot Keywords:

15th Century | French Court | Female Protagonist | Religious Conviction | Burned At The Stake

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	The Dauphin, Charles VII
Richard Todd	...	Dunois, Bastard of Orleans
Anton Walbrook	...	Cauchon - Bishop of Beauvais
John Gielgud	...	Earl of Warwick
Felix Aylmer	...	Inquisitor
Archie Duncan	...	Robert de Baudricourt
Harry Andrews	...	John de Stogumber
Margot Grahame	...	Duchesse de la Tremouille
Barry Jones	...	De Courcelles
Francis De Wolff	...	La Tremouille
Finlay Currie	...	Archbishop of Rheims
Victor Maddern	...	English Soldier
Bernard Miles	...	Master Executioner
David Oxley	...	'Bluebeard',- Gilles de Rais
Patrick Barr	...	Captain La Hire

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | UK:U | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Wheel Productions

Trivia:

Desmond Dickinson started as DoP but was replaced.

Quotes:

St.Joan of Arc: Are you the Bastard?
Dunois, Bastard of Orleans: Are you the Maid?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Closer You Get (2000)

This is Shaw, NOT Who have you

Most of the comments made on this film suggest that the writers have neither read nor seen the George Bernard Shaw play on which it is based. Shaw in "St. Joan," as in every single one of his plays, is all about talk. It's impossible to make an action movie out of a Shaw play without doing it irremediable violence. "St. Joan" is a play about Nationalism and Protestantism, ideas that did not even exist in the period when the play is set. Shaw's St. Joan IS a French nationalist, which is what makes her an anathema to the British. Shaw's St. Joan IS a Protestant, inspired directly by the spirit of God, un-mediated by the Church, and that is why she is an anathema to the Catholic authorities. Preminger's "St. Joan" is an adaptation of the play and, because the play (in important respects) utterly defies film conventions, the movie is mediocre. Anyone who wants to understand "St. Joan" as Shaw conceived her needs either to read or see the play, preferably both. Unfortunately, "St. Joan" is rarely performed these days, partly because Shaw has fallen out of fashion but also because it takes an extraordinary young actress to perform convincingly as Shaw's Maid, a warrior child whose voices speak common sense to her, , and there aren't too many of those around. If a director wishes to make another FILM about Jean d'Arc, as someone, somewhere, some time will undoubtedly want to do, Shaw's play is not the place to look. It belongs to the stage or the page, not the movies.