Saint Joan
(1957)

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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. After winning many battles she is not needed any longer and soon she is thought of as a witch.
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This is one of Hollywood's celebrated disasters, panned by the critics at the time and seen by almost no one. Loosely based on George Bernard Shaw's play, the script is by none other than Graham Greene and, instead of hiring a major star, director Otto Preminger took a huge gamble with a then unknown young actress called Jean Seberg, who was the right age to play France's great heroine. Poor Jean Seberg wasn't up to it, said Greene later. Anyway, I got a few laughs that were not in Bernard Shaw; at least I can claim that. Richard Widmark as the Dauphin adds to the general weirdness and John Gielgud seems oddly out of place. Flops are rarely as fascinating as this one.