Saint Joan (1957)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

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:

France | Joan Of Arc | Female Protagonist | Burned At The Stake | Saint

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

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

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:

A special effects accident caused actress Jean Seberg actually to catch fire in the scene where Joan of Arc is burned. (She [Seberg] sustained only very minor injuries.)

Quotes:

St.Joan of Arc: Be you a saint?
English Soldier: Yes, lady, straight from hell.
Dunois, Bastard of Orleans: A saint, and from hell!
English Soldier: Yes, noble captain, I have a day off. Every year, you know. That's my allowance for my one good action.
Cauchon: Wretch! In all the years of your life did you do only one good action?
English Soldier: I never thought about it: it came natural like. But they scored it up for me.
The Dauphin, Charles VII: What was it?
English Soldier: Why, the silliest thing you ever heard of. I...
St.Joan of Arc: He tied two sticks together, and gave them to a poor lass that was going to be burned.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Closer You Get (2000)

Not as bad as usually thought

This is an under-rated version of the story of the farm girl who fought the British and helped kick them out of France. Seberg is nowhere near as bad in this movie as reputation would suggest (and looks great with a way cool cropped hair-do), and there are good performances from Geilgud, Richard Widmark, and Richard Todd. It does have to be said, though, that this is not a movie for action-lovers - the centrepiece of Joan leading the troops in the liberation of Orleans, for example, is replaced by a fade-to-black! The movie is also quite stagey and it is stylistically easy to think it was made at least ten years earlier than it's 1957 release date. The movie makes a nice change if you are fed up with the Ingrid Bergman version, though.