Any opportunity to record for posterity the great performances of live theater is a necessity in keeping them available not only for entertainment purposes but for study and certainly so these not often revived plays can be seen for generations to come. Hallmark Hall of Fame took a recent version of a French play, translated to English and adapted by Lillian Hellman, quite different from the George Bernard Shaw play that has been frequently revived, while this one has not. Julie Harris had received great acclaim for her performance as Joan of Arc as did Boris Karloff, and they get to recreate their performances for television. It is a very dramatic and theatrical special event, perhaps way too big for the small screen, but that beats never having been filmed at all.
The television film is seen through the eyes of authority figures from the church, watching her from the time she was growing up until they became involved in her case. She believed that she was called by God to dress as a man to go into the battle to fight for France, and that results in her being accused of blaspheming, leading to her execution by burning. Karloff seems throughout the play to be anxious to save her, but the results of her trial have him saving her in a way that does not really save her. She would rather face the fire and see God sooner, rather than live the rest of her life in prison as a part of her atonement. The way Karloff announces her sentence changes him from a sympathetic character to someone misusing his power, and it's obvious that in the final scenes he will live to regret it.
The supporting cast is wonderful, with Jack Warden, Denholm Elliott, Eli Wallach and in a lengthy cameo, Basil Rathbone. Filmed on a TV sound stage, the production requires the viewer to utilize their imagination, with minimalized sets but realistic costumes representing the era in which she lived. Harris definitely is playing to a third balcony which isn't there, but that gives the viewer the idea of what they would have seen on the stage. I have seen two stage adaptations of Shaw's play, and this is quite a different interpretation of her life. I wouldn't have this done any other way than how it is here, but unlike other plays which were later re-done in color with the same cast, this is definitely a product of the time of early television, so it is a time capsule back to experimentation in that medium, and if not perfect, a necessity. The Hallmark Hall of Fame commercials for their product are tedious and easy to fast forward through, that is for viewers who don't want to sit through them and get an unintentional laugh.
