Review: Saint Joan


Jean Seberg makes her movie debut as Joan of Arc, the peasant girl supposedly driven by the voice of God to lead the French against England in the 15th Century. Richard Widmark is the addle-brained, baby-voiced Dauphin, who Joan promises to see lead to the throne. Sir John Gielgud leads the British, as the calculating and aristocratic Earl of Warwick, who has Joan tried for heresy. Felix Aylmer plays the Inquisitor, with Anton Walbrook as the Bishop of Beauvais. Harry Andrews plays Gielgud’s cohort and Joan’s chief accuser. Kenneth Haigh plays the compassionate cleric who defends Joan during the trial. Richard Todd has an underwritten role as a military captain who takes a liking to Joan.



Infamous, bizarre 1957 Otto Preminger (“Anatomy of a Murder”, “Laura”, “River of No Return”, “Exodus”) directed, Graham Greene (“The Third Man”, “Our Man in Havana”, “The Comedians”) scripted, big-screen adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw (“Pygmalion”) play never quite comes off. It’s really nutty stuff, full of clashing acting styles and wildly inconsistent tone, and ultimately I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Being based on a stage play doesn’t help, the battles are pretty much off-screen, robbing the film of epic status, let alone excitement.



Jean Seberg isn’t as bad as I’d heard and is really quite sincere. Richard Widmark’s oft praised performance, meanwhile, I found to be fatuous and completely annoying. He’s clearly too old and miscast. What kind of film did he think he was in? The role of Joan, to be frank, is poorly written. More of an introduction to her, before she started hearing ‘voices’ would’ve made for a much better film (Apparently much was removed from Shaw’s play). Removing the weirdo ‘ghost’ scenes would’ve definitely improved the film, too, they reminded me too much of “The Canterville Ghost” or something. Perhaps this was the intention of Shaw’s play, but I haven’t seen it. The best acting efforts come from Shakespearean hams Gielgud, Aylmer, and Andrews, though Todd is pretty solid too. Excellent, stark B&W cinematography by Georges Perinal (“The Thief of Baghdad”, “The Day They Robbed the Bank of England”) is a highlight, as is the climactic burning sequence (It’s not a spoiler, read a frigging history book for cryin’ out loud!). It’s not very good, but it’s definitely a curio at any rate.



Rating: C+

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