Francis Of Assisi

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This penultimate film by director Michael Curtiz, perhaps best known for his 1942 Casablanca, is a verbose, routine religious drama on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. After quickly passing over St. Francis' early life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, the story notes his talents in and out of battle. St. Francis hears the call to the cloth (in his hagiography, the call was repeated several times before he finally responded completely), and gives up all his worldly goods to dedicate himself to God. The main focus of attention is then on his relationship to Clare (Dolores Hart) a young aristocratic woman who was so taken with St. Francis that she left her family and became a nun. St. Francis by this time (1212 A.D.) had a well-established reputation for his vows of poverty, and aside from the dubious aspersions cast on his interest in Clare, the drama goes on to note miracles and other aspects of his life, up to and including his death on October 3, 1226. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Subtitle: Eng/Spa
• Screen: Letterbox for TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • cc
  • Movietone news: "Behind the Scenes of Francis of Assisi" and "Mayor of San francisco Receives A Statuette From Assisi, Italy"

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Bradford Dillman - Francis Bemardone
       Dolores Hart - Clare Scefi
       Stuart Whitman - Paolo
       Pedro Armendariz - Sultan
       Cecil Kellaway - Cardinal Hugolino
       Eduard Franz - Pietro Bernardino
       Athene Seyler - Aunt Buona
       Finlay Currie - Pope Innocent III
       Mervyn Johns - Brother Juniper
       Russell Napier - Brother Elias
       Harold Goldblatt - Bernard
       Edith Sharpe - Donna Pica Bemardone
       Jack Lambert - Scefi
       Oliver Johnston - Father Livoni
       Malcolm Keen - Bishop Guido
       Evi Marandi - Saracen Girl
       Manuel Ballard - Lucia
       Jole Mauro - Elfrida
       Paul Muller - Friars
       John Karlsen - Friars
       Cyrus Elias - Friars
       Curt Lowens - Friars
       Walter Maslow - Friar
       Renzo Cesana - Friars
       Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. - Cardinal Savelli

• Director:

  Michael Curtiz

• Producer:

  Plato A. Skouras

• Screenwriter:

  Jack W. Thomas, James Forsyth, Eugene Vale

• Book Author:

  Louis DeWohl

• Cinematographer:

  Piero Portalupe

• Composer (Music Score):

  Mario Nascimbene

• Editor:

  Louis Loeffler

• Art Director:

  Edward Carrere

• Set Designer:

  Walter Scott, Ferdinando Ruffo

• Costume Designer:

  Vittorio Nino Novarese

• Special Effects:

  Joseph Natanson

• Consultant/advisor:

  Vincenzo Labella

REVIEW:

• At the end of his long movie career, Michael Curtiz (1888-1962) directed this reverent biography of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). Although the film cannot compare artistically with the masterpieces of Curtiz's heyday--such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, and Yankee Doodle Dandy--it is nonetheless a good film that paints a faithful portrait of Francis, born Giovanni di Petro di Bernadone but later renamed Francesco (Francis). Filmed on location, the production presents the story mainly in the medieval alleyways, churches, and dwellings of Assisi, an Italian hilltop town, and in the surrounding valleys and forests. The script follows Francis from his early adult years to his death, capturing most of the major events of his life, including his reported visions; his decision to forsake the emptiness of wealth for the fulness of poverty; his founding of the Franciscan religious order for men; and his visits with Pope Innocent III and a Saracen sultan. Bradford Dillman portrays Francis with straightforward sensitivity and piety, and Delores Hart ably plays his soul mate, Clare, a young woman so inspired by Francis that she founded her own religious order, the Poor Clares. Hart, an exquisitely pretty young woman who played Elvis Presley's love interest in two films, joined the Benedictine order of nuns shortly after making Francis of Assisi, eventually becoming a mother superior. A highlight of the film is the portrayal of the pope by the late Finlay Currie, the rotund, craggy-faced Scottish actor who was a mainstay of Hollywood epics, including Cleopatra, Ben-Hur, Solomon and Sheba, Ivanhoe, and Quo Vadis. Overall, Francis of Assisi contains much to commend it. Although it is not a great Michael Curtiz film, it is good enough to allow Curtiz to rest in peace, knowing that he made a final motion picture of merit. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi