Joan of Arc (1948 film)

Plot

Unlike the play Joan of Lorraine, which is a drama that shows how the story of Joan affects a group of actors who are performing it, the film is a straightforward recounting of the life of the French heroine. It begins with an obviously painted shot of the inside of a basilica with a shaft of light, possibly descending from heaven, shining down from the ceiling, and a solemn off-screen voice pronouncing the canonization of the Maid of Orleans. Then, the opening page of what appears to be a church manuscript recounting Joan's life in Latin is shown on the screen, while some uncredited voiceover narration by actor Shepperd Strudwick sets up the tale. The actual story of Joan then begins, from the time she becomes convinced that she has been divinely called to save France to her being burnt at the stake at the hands of the English and the Burgundians.

Academy Award wins and nominations

Production

Joan of Arc was made in 1947–1948 by an independent company, Sierra Pictures, created especially for this production, and not to be confused with the production company with the same name that made mostly silent films.

Filming began 16 September 1947 and was done primarily at Hal Roach Studios, with location scenes shot in the Los Angeles area.

The movie was first released in November 1948 by RKO. When the film was shortened for its general release in 1950, 45 minutes being cut out; it was distributed, not by RKO, but by a company called Balboa Film Distributors, the same company which re-released Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, also starring Ingrid Bergman.

The 1948 Sierra Pictures never produced another film after Joan of Arc.

Reception

One of the modern criticisms of the film is that Bergman, who was 33 at the time she made the movie, was nearly twice as old as the real Joan of Arc; the Swedish actress would later play her (at age 39) in a 1954 Italian film, Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (Joan at the Stake). However, reviewers in 1948 did not object to this; it was — and still is — common in for an older actress to play a teenager, as the twenty-four-year-old Jennifer Jones had in 1943's The Song of Bernadette, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. Children were also sometimes played by older actors at the time; the sixteen-year-old Judy Garland had very convincingly played twelve-year-old Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz, another film directed by Victor Fleming, and the nineteen-year-old Charlotte Henry had played Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1933).

Several contemporary critics criticized the film for being slow-paced and dialogue-driven, as does contemporary critic Leonard Maltin, who has not yet reviewed the full-length version; he has said that there is "not enough spectacle to balance the talky sequences".

The film was one of the biggest hits of the year earning $4.1 million in the US. However due to high cost it recorded a loss of $2,480,436.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Versions

The movie was first released in November 1948 by RKO. When the film was shortened for its general release in September 1950, it was distributed not by RKO, but by a company called Balboa Film Distributors, the same company which re-released Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, also starring Ingrid Bergman. The complete 145 minute version of Joan of Arc remained unseen in the U.S. for about forty-nine years. Although the complete Technicolor negatives remained in storage in Hollywood, the original soundtrack was thought to be lost. The movie was restored in 1998 after an uncut print in mint condition was found in Europe, containing the only known copy of the complete soundtrack. When it finally appeared on DVD, the restored complete version was hailed by online movie critics as being much superior to the edited version. It was released on DVD in 2004.

The edited version received its first television showing on CBS on the evening of April 12, 1968 (an Easter weekend), and has been shown on Ted Turner's WTCG and on cable several times. Although the complete, unedited version of the film was scheduled to be shown on American television for the first time on February 13, 2011, by Turner Classic Movies, with a broadcast window of 2-1/2 hours, it was pulled and the 100 minute edited version was presented later, on Sunday, February 27. However, the full-length version was finally shown on Turner Classic Movies on March 13, 2011. This marked the first time that the complete unedited version had ever been shown on American television. It has now been shown several times by TCM and appears to have supplanted the edited version.

Differences between complete and edited versions

There are several differences between the full-length roadshow version of the film and the edited general release version.

The edited version might be considered more cinematic through its use of maps and voice-over narration to explain the political situation in France. (In the full-length version, Joan's family discusses the political situation during dinner.) The full-length version, although not presented as a play-within-a-play, as the stage version was, nevertheless resembles a stage-to-film adaptation, makes great use of Maxwell Anderson's original dialogue, and may seem, to some, stagy in its method of presentation, despite having a realistic depiction of the Siege of Orléans.

Comic book adaption