Francis of Assisi (film)

For the historical person, see Francis of Assisi.

Francis of Assisi
Directed by	Michael Curtiz
Written by	Louis De Wohl (novel)
Screenplay by	Eugene Vale James Forsyth Jack W. Thomas
Produced by	Plato A. Skouras
Starring	Bradford Dillman Dolores Hart Stuart Whitman
Cinematography	Piero Portalupi
Edited by	Louis R. Loeffler
Music by	Mario Nascimbene
Production company	Perseus Productions
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date	July 12, 1961 (1961-07-12)
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,015,000
Box office	$1.8 million (US/ Canada)

Francis of Assisi is a 1961 DeLuxe CinemaScope film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel The Joyful Beggar by Louis de Wohl. It was shot entirely in Italy. The film was a box office loss. It starred Bradford Dillman in one of his few sympathetic leading film roles (he usually played a villainous character onscreen, despite having originated the role of Jamie in the original stage version of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night in 1956).

Two years after the release of Francis of Assisi, Dolores Hart, the 24-year-old actress who plays a nun in the film, became a real-life Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.

Plot

Francis Bernardone (Bradford Dillman) is the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, who gives up all his worldly goods to dedicate himself to God. Clare (Dolores Hart) is a young aristocratic woman who, according to the film, is so taken with St. Francis that she leaves her family and becomes a nun. By this time (1212 A.D.), St. Francis has a well-established reputation for his vows of poverty. The movie goes on to note miracles (such as the appearance of the stigmata on Francis's hands and feet) and other aspects of his life, up to and including his death on October 3, 1226. The funeral befitted a man loved by man and beast alike, and ended with the birds he loved doing a flyby.

Cast

• Bradford Dillman as Francis Bernardone of Assisi
• Dolores Hart as Clare
• Stuart Whitman as Count Paolo of Vandria
• Cecil Kellaway as Cardinal Hugolino
• Eduard Franz as Pietro Bernardone
• Athene Seyler as Aunt Buona
• Finlay Currie as The Pope
• Mervyn Johns as Brother Juniper
• Russell Napier as Brother Elias
• John Welsh as Canon Cattanei
• Harold Goldblatt as Bernard
• Edith Sharpe as Donna Pica
• Jack Lambert as Scefi
• Oliver Johnston as Father Livoni
• Malcolm Keen as Bishop Guido

See also

• List of American films of 1961

External links

• Francis of Assisi at IMDb
• Francis of Assisi at the TCM Movie Database
• Template:AllMovie title