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 | Singapore:PG | 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 Mr. Hoover and I (1989)

Not quite Falconetti

Sir John Gielgud is supremely stately in this version. He excludes such profound aristocratic splendor and political good sense. I only wish that he hadn't been forced back through time in that ridiculous dream/vision sequence that frames this otherwise superb telling of the maid with moxy's eternally rewarding story.

Jean Seberg doesn't much change the intonation of her voice throughout the entire film. It becomes quite tiresome and ultimately irritating beyond reproach. Yes, she is quite lovely with her shorn locks and exquisite bone structure. She even evokes the divine Falconetti in one scene. Her curse is speech. Her movements resonate the gravity of her mission but her voice and pitch demonstrate that she hadn't quite learned to transform dialogue meant originally for the stage--into poetry for the screen.

Richard Widmark's impish, not-so-daft Dauphin is expertly portrayed. I really wanted the story to ditch the whole Joan nonsense and focus on the reign of Charles VII as played by Widmark just as he is in this film. It was fabulous to see Gilles de Rais take the throne in a failed effort to fool the maid. I would also love to see a lavish biopicture detailing his many passions. Perhaps by mockingly putting such a historically reviled figure upon the throne, these particular filmmakers were foreshadowing the searing bloodbaths yet to come to France and all of Western Europe...