Joan of Arc is a 1948 American epic historical drama film directed by Victor Fleming, and starring Ingrid Bergman as the eponymous French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger and is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the screen by Anderson himself, in collaboration with Andrew Solt. It is the last film Fleming directed before his death in 1949.
Plot In 15th-century France, the young peasant Joan, at the age of thirteen, begins to hear voices that she believes are sent by God. The voices instruct her to help save France from English occupation and to ensure that the Dauphin, Charles, is crowned the rightful king. When she is seventeen, Joan arrives before Sir Robert de Baudricourt, the military commander of Vaucouleurs, and asks to be provided an escort to meet the Dauphin in Chinon. Sir Robert dismisses her request while Jean de Metz, a knight, tells Joan about a prophecy that an armored maiden from Lorraine will lead France's armies.
In March 1429, after the French have lost another battle, Sir Robert allows De Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, a squire, to escort Joan. Upon her arrival at Charles's royal court, Joan identifies the disguised Dauphin within the crowd. Convinced of her sincerity, Charles gives Joan command of France's armies despite the skepticism of his advisors. Joan next persuades Charles to accompany her and the French to Orléans.
At the military camp, Joan instructs the soldiers to cease their gambling, drinking, swearing and using the Lord's name in vain. She also sends away camp followers and prostitutes, and has the troops go to confession and attend Mass regularly before battle. Outside the fort of Les Tourelles, clad in armor and waving a banner, Joan warns English commander William Glasdale to retreat to Britain. Glasdale refuses and accuses Joan of sorcery. Joan leads the French on a siege of Orléans, though the French retreat after Joan is severely wounded in the shoulder. The next day, after Joan recovers, she leads the French to a successful siege, where Glasdale is killed in battle.
Emboldened by the victory at Orléans, Joan leads the French to more military victories, allowing Charles to be crowned King of France in Reims. As Joan prepares to march on Paris, Charles signs a truce with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. He then assumes command of the French army, whereby Joan loses influence within Charles's court.
In May 1430, while defending Compiègne, Joan is captured and sold to the English. She is imprisoned and transferred to Rouen for trial on charges of heresy, presided over by Bishop Pierre Cauchon. As the Bishop interrogates her, Joan explains and defends her divine mandate, and denounces the English. Despite Cauchon's request for her to recant, Joan steadily refuses, even under threat of torture, and unsuccessfully appeals to be tried before the Church.
After she has been formally admonished, Joan is taken out to the churchyard, where Cauchon reads Joan's sentence. Under immense pressure, Joan submits and signs an abjuration document, thereby agreeing to not to wear men's clothing. However, Joan breaks the agreement while imprisoned and is condemned as a relapsed heretic. On May 30, 1431, Joan is executed by burning at the stake.
Cast At Domrémy, Joan's Birthplace in Lorraine, December 1428 Ingrid Bergman as Jeanne d'Arc Selena Royle as Isabelle d'Arc, her mother Robert Barrat as Jacques d'Arc, her father James Lydon as Pierre d'Arc, her younger brother Rand Brooks as Jean d'Arc, her older brother Roman Bohnen as Durand Laxart, her uncle At Vaucouleurs, February 1429 Irene Rich as Catherine le Royer, her friend Nestor Paiva as Henri le Royer, Catherine's husband Richard Derr as Jean de Metz, a knight Ray Teal as Bertrand de Poulengy, a squire David Bond as Jean Fournier, priest of Vaucouleurs George Zucco as Constable of Clervaux George Coulouris as Sir Robert de Baudricourt, Governor of Vaucouleurs The Court of Charles VII at Chinon, March 1429 John Emery as Jean, Duke d'Alençon, cousin of Charles Gene Lockhart as Georges de la Trémoille, the Dauphin's chief counselor Nicholas Joy as Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims and Chancellor of France Richard Ney as Charles de Bourbon, Duke de Clermont Vincent Donohue as Alain Chartier, court poet José Ferrer as The Dauphin, Charles VII, later King of France The Army at the Battle of Orléans, May 1429 Leif Erickson as Dunois, Bastard of Orleans John Ireland as Jean de la Boussac (St. Severe), a Captain Henry Brandon as Gilles de Rais, a Captain Morris Ankrum as Poton de Xaintrailles, a Captain Thomas Browne Henry as Raoul de Gaucourt, a Captain (credited as Tom Brown Henry) Gregg Barton as Louis d'Culan, a Captain Ethan Laidlaw as Jean d'Aulon, her squire Hurd Hatfield as Father Pasquerel, her Chaplain Ward Bond as La Hire, a Captain The Enemy Frederick Worlock as John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, England's Regent Dennis Hoey as Sir William Glasdale Colin Keith-Johnston as Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy Mary Currier as Jeane, Countess of Luxembourg Ray Roberts as Lionel of Wandomme, a Burgundian Captain J. Carrol Naish as John, Count of Luxembourg, her Captor The Trial at Rouen, February 21 to May 30, 1431 Francis L. Sullivan as Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, the trial conductor Shepperd Strudwick as Father Jean Massieu, her Bailiff Taylor Holmes as the Bishop of Avranches Alan Napier as Earl of Warwick Philip Bourneuf as Jean d'Estivet, a Prosecutor Aubrey Mather as Jean de La Fontaine Herbert Rudley as Thomas de Courcelles, a Prosecutor Frank Puglia as Nicolas de Houppeville, a Judge William Conrad as Guillaume Erard, a Prosecutor John Parrish as Jean Beaupere, a Judge Victor Wood as Nicolas Midi, a Judge Houseley Stevenson as The Cardinal of Winchester Jeff Corey as her Prison Guard Bill Kennedy as Thierache, her Executioner Cecil Kellaway as Jean Le Maistre, Inquisitor of Rouen Louis Payne as Judge Thibault Uncredited Richard Alexander as Man on Boulevard Herbert Rawlinson as Judge Marguerie Russell Simpson as Old Man with Pipe Vernon Steele as Boy's Father
Production Development In 1946, Ingrid Bergman appeared in Maxwell Anderson's play Joan of Lorraine. Her performance received acclaim from theatre critics, which led to her win for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Bergman, Victor Fleming, and producer Walter Wanger formed an independent production company, EN Productions (the word means "one" in Swedish), which was later rebranded Sierra Pictures. Wanger had envisioned a film adaptation of the novel The Ballad and the Source with Bergman, but Fleming argued in favor of a biopic of Joan of Arc.
Principal photography began on September 16, 1947, at the Hal Roach Studios, with location scenes shot in the Los Angeles area. Filming ended on December 18, with Fleming directing nine days of reshoots.
Casting Bergman and co-star José Ferrer (making his first film appearance and playing the Dauphin) received Academy Award nominations for their performances. The film was director Victor Fleming's last project—he died only two months after its release.
In Michael Sragow's 2008 biography of the director, he claims that Fleming, who was, according to Sragrow, romantically involved with Ingrid Bergman at the time, was deeply unhappy with the finished product, and even wept upon seeing it for the first time. Sragrow speculates that the disappointment of the failed relationship and the failure of the film may have led to Fleming's fatal heart attack, but there is no real evidence to support this. While contemporary critics may have agreed with Fleming's assessment of Joan of Arc, more recent reviewers of the restored complete version on DVD have not.
Release Original release The movie was first released on November 11, 1948 by RKO. When the film was shortened for its general release on September 2, 1950 with 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.
Restoration The complete 145 minute version of Joan of Arc remained unseen in the U.S. for about 49 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 the evening of April 12, 1968 (an Easter weekend), and has been shown on Ted Turner's WTCG and on cable several times. The full-length version was 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.
Differences in versions There are several differences between the full-length roadshow version of the film and the edited general release version. One that is immediately noticeable is that there is actually a snippet from Joan's trial during the opening narration in the edited version, whereas in the full-length version, the events of Joan's life are shown in chronological order. The narration is more detailed in the edited version than in the complete version, with much of it used to cover the breaks in continuity caused by the severe editing. The edited version omits crucial scenes that are important to a psychological understanding of the narrative, such as the mention of a dream that Joan's father has which foretells of Joan's campaign against the English. When Joan hears of the dream, she becomes convinced that she has been divinely ordered to drive the English out of France. Most of the first ten minutes of the film, a section showing Joan praying in the Domrémy shrine, followed by a family dinner and conversation which leads to the mention of the dream, are not in the edited version. In the complete 145-minute version, the narration is heard only at the beginning of the film, and there are no sudden breaks in continuity. Entire characters, such as Joan's father (played by Robert Barrat) and Father Pasquerel (played by Hurd Hatfield) are partially or totally omitted from the edited version. Even the opening credits are somewhat different, and run about two minutes longer. In the edited version, the story begins after Victor Fleming's director's credit, and in the full-length version, after the director's credit, a title card states "The Players" appears onscreen, after which all the major lead and supporting actors, as well as the characters that they play, are listed in order of appearance and in groups (e.g., "At Domrémy", "At Chinon", etc.), much like Fleming's other lengthy film epic Gone with the Wind. More than 30 of the actors are listed.
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.
Reception Critical reaction