Publicity still for Luise Rainer’s appearance as Joan of Lorraine in Los Angeles, 1951.
The story and legend of Joan of Arc has been inspirational to writers, composers and artists for almost 600 years, not only in her French homeland (where she is a patron saint) but across the world, with references in all spectra of popular culture; opera, theatre, cinema, literature and art. The story of this 19 year peasant girl who, with the assertion that she was directed by God himself to free her country from English oppression, became a legend, is as inspirational and emotional as one could imagine; when we take into account her subsequent violent death (she was burnt at the stake), her martyrdom (24 years after her death), beatification (1909) and finally her canonisation (1920), we have one of the greatest stories ever told, with an iconic heroine like no other.
Her story has been adapted for the stage on numerous occasions and is regarded as one of the most formidable for an actress in the theatre. Joan appears in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 (1590) but she is portrayed here as a villain, justly executed for her crimes against England. Over the next 400 years she would be portrayed by writers as diverse as Voltaire, Mark Twain, Thomas Keneally and Terry Pratchett, in both prose and poetry. Perhaps the best-known theatrical adaptations are Friedrich Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans) (1801), George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (1923, based on original records of her trial), Bertolt Brecht’s Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (Saint Joan of the Stockyards, which moved the action to 20th century Chicago (1932)) and Maxwell Anderson’s Joan of Lorraine (1946) which utilised a play-within-a-play framework to tell the story for a post-Second World War audience.
Luise played the role on numerous occasions, and, if any one role defines her as an
Luise Rainer on screen as Joan of Arc in MGM’s Dramatic School (1938)
actress this is probably it. She first played Joan in the 1920s / 1930s, first in Schiller’s The Maid of Orleans, then as part of Max Reinhardt’s touring company in Europe, most likely in a translation of Bernard Shaw’s text rather than Brecht’s version (Saint Joan of the Stockyards debuted on German radio in 1932 but did not appear on stage until 1959). In a 1940 interview Luise claims that it was her second role, aged 17, which would place her performance in Dusseldorf, 1927. During these early years she is said to have played the part over 400 times, including at least one run at the Josefstadt Theatre in Vienna with Reinhardt. She returned to the role, in part, in 1938 for her final MGM film, Dramatic School. As the young stage school ingenue ‘Louise Mauban’ she was cast in the title role and made a triumphant debut. The film contains a section of the play (the trial scene and finale) which is, tantalisingly, the only footage of Luise playing Joan, albeit an artificial recreation for the cameras.
Luise’s next public appearance as Saint Joan is certainly one of her most unusual ‘roles’; a unique parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. on 10th February 1940. Despite her protestations that she is apolitical Luise agreed to head a march to the White House to open the American Youth Congress citizenship institute, riding a white horse and dressed as Joan. Upon arrival President Roosevelt met with over 3000 delegates to discuss youth issues and the expansion of the National Youth Administration program. If this event seems random it should be seen in the context of Luise’s next performance, for which she would have been in rehearsal at the time…
In March 1940 Luise made her American stage debut in a production of Shaw’s play for the Civic Theatre in Washington D.C. It was directed by Erwin Piscator, the German theatre director who had migrated to the USA the year before (one of many artists who did so as the outbreak of war grew closer), whom Luise brought in from New York. This was also his American debut, a week of benefit performances for The Red Cross, with a largely amateur company of actors. Luise expressed her horror when she visited Europe in 1939 (for her London stage debut, Behold the Bride) and the war broke out: “Many of my nearest friends were torn into the war on all sides. It was terrible. I didn’t know what to do. Acting seemed so unimportant. It seemed so unrelated to what was happening in the world…Can I just go back to America and be an actress while these terrible things are going on? But my friends said ‘Luise, go back, you can do more for us there than here.” Upon her return Luise visited the State Department to see what could be done to assist those stranded across the Atlantic, and whilst in Washington she made contact with the Secretary of the American Red Cross, Mabel Boardman, who first raised the idea of a benefit performance of Saint Joan. Although claiming that it was chosen simply because Washington audiences had not seen the play and the Civic Theatre had wished to mount a production for some time, it is a choice loaded with symbolism. Luise, however, rejected any political motivation saying, “I do not want to get into politics…I am an actress and a woman. Both are important occupations,” and she agreed to take part without payment, with the proceeds channelled to war relief where it was needed, without any political affiliation. The production ran for a week at the Belasco Theatre, premiering 10th March 1940, and was mooted for a possible tour and New York run, neither of which materialised.
Director Erwin Piscator and Luise Rainer preparing for performances of Saint Joan in Washington DC, 1940.
Reviews of this produciton were variable; Time magazine was particularly unimpressed by a “feeble” performance which was “stagy and elocutionary”, although one senses some snobbery from this publication which constantly refers to Luise as a ‘cinemactress’ as if it were a dirty word. The New York Times, however, found her “appealing and quite feminine”.
Between 1940 and 1947 Luise made several other stage appearances, including her Broadway debut in 1942 (A Kiss for Cinderella). She worked with Bertolt Brecht to bring The Caucasian Chalk Circle to the New York stage (to no avail) and with producer Jules J. Leventhal she toured in A Gift for the Bride. Her next engagement, in 1947, saw her return once more to Joan of Arc.
The American playwright Maxwell Anderson adapted the story in 1946 for his play Joan of Lorraine, setting the action in a theatre company which he used to explore the effects that Saint Joan has on the players, with most of the cast taking dual roles as both the ‘actor’ and the ‘character’ in the play-within-the-play. The play begins in a rehearsal where the company are working on parts of their performance; the central conceit is an argument that unfolds between the director and lead actress about how Joan should be played and this is resolved during the course of the action through further ‘rehearsal’ scenes and actual performance scenes.
Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc in Victor Fleming’s 1948 film version of Maxwell Anderson’s play.
The play debuted on Broadway in November 1946 with Ingrid Bergman as Mary Grey (Joan) who was a great success, winning the Antoinette Perry Award (Tony) for her performance. She would later appear in the film version Joan of Arc (1948) based on the play, and with a screenplay by Anderson and Andrew Solt which excised the play-within-a-play framework and told the story straight. Such was the success of the play that the following summer there were a number of productions doing the rounds on the strawhat circuit starring amongst them Sylvia Sidney, Diana Barrymore, Judith Evelyn and Luise. These were new productions which appeared at various venues; Luise appeared at the Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, Pennsylvania (August 1947) and in Detroit (October 1947) in a version staged by Henry Jones, but I would be interested to hear more about the tour and which venues she played in the interim. The part, once again, stayed with Luise for some considerable time and a year later she appeared in the role again, playing for a week at the Montclair Theatre in New Jersey, and shortly afterwards, seemingly in a different production again, this time produced by Harold J. Kennedy and Herbert Kenwith, at the McCarter Theatre, New Jersey as part of the Princeton Drama Festival (August 16th to 21st, 1948).
This latter production would lead to a professional relationship with Kennedy which brought her back to Hollywood three years later, though, ironically it was to appear on stage, not film, playing in Joan of Lorraine once again at the Ivar Theatre, Los Angeles for two weeks (from 20th February 1951). This was the play’s first production on the West Coast and was a memorable success, critically. The Los Angeles Times critic Philip K. Scheuer, whilst not bowled over, was complimentary about an “intermittently entertaining evening” in which Luise convinced more in her scenes as Joan (“she rips into the scenes with a passionate sincerity”) than as the actress Mary Grey. He reports moments when she is quite commanding and the finale brought a standing ovation from the crowd. In the same newspaper legendary columnist Hedda Hopper goes even further citing Luise’s performance as proof that “she still has what it takes to walk off with a third Oscar if given the proper film,” and in the same column her colleague Edwin Schallert remarks on a “real theatrical experience” to see Luise in the part, which differs greatly from recent interpretations by Bergman and Katharine Cornell.
My research into Luise’s theatre work continues and I have discovered that she returned
Luise Rainer studies the script for her performance as Joan of Lorraine with Theodore Karl and Stanley Elberson
to this role once again in 1954, for one night only. On May 7th of that year Luise took part in Pacific Lutheran College’s third annual drama festival, in Tacoma, Washington. This was the first time Luise had played the role with a company of non-professional actors. Luise also gave some interpretive readings and selections from the Bible in the afternoon. The director of the festival (and of the production) was Theodore Karl.
This was Luise’s last appearance as Joan, a part which had been with her for almost 25 years, and her last stage role for 30 years. It is difficult to rate a performance that has now been lost, based only on newspaper reviews and lingering memories of the few who saw it, but, when considered with what we do have of Luise on film, it’s hard not to be convinced that her Joan of Arc was both truthful and enlightening. Luise has always been a passionate actress and one senses that this, of all roles, is the one that she was “born to play”.
For this page I am indebted, in particular, to Michael Naylor of the Bucks County Playhouse for supplying images and information from Luise’s brief time in New Hope, and to Lynn Durgin of the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library in Princeton.
1. Saint Joan at the Civic Theatre, Washington DC (1940)
Cast included:
Luise Rainer, Alan Schneider
Credits:
Written by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Erwin Piscator
2. Joan of Lorraine at the Bucks County Playhouse, PA (August 11-16, 1947)
Cast:
Walter Coy as Jimmy Masters, the Director
Robert Caldwell as Al, the Stage Manager
Luise Rainer as Mary Grey (Joan)
Robert Noe as Abbey (Jacques d’Arc) (Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais)
Mitchell Agruss as Jo Cordwell (Jean D’Arc)
Bud Henry as Dollner (Pierre D’Arc)
E. J. Ballantine as Charles Elling (Durand Laxart) (Father Massieu)
Allen Shaw as Farwell (Jean de Metz) (Thomas de Courcelles)
Carmen Costi as The Electrician (Executioner)
Franklin Heller as Noble (La Hire ) (Bertrand de Poulengy)
Neil Fitzgerald as Sheppard (Alain Chartier) (St. Michael)
Wallace Acton as Les Ward (The Dauphin)
Sally Gracie as Tessie, the Assistant Stage Manager (Aurore)
Ronald Alexander as Jeffson (Georges de Tremoille)
Frederic Tozere as Kipner (Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims)
Kenneth Tobey as Long (Dunois, Bastard of Orleans)
Viola Roache as Miss Reeves (St. Catherine)
Isabella Hoopes as Marie, the Costumer
Credits:
Written by Maxwell Anderson
Staged by Henry Jones
Settings and Lighting by S. Syrjala
3. Joan of Lorraine at the McCarter Theatre, NJ (August 16-21, 1948). Part of the Princeton Festival.
Cast:
Theodore Newton as Jimmy Masters, the director
Dennis King, Jr. as Al, the stage manager
Luise Rainer as Mary Grey (Joan)
Morton L. Stevens as Abbey (Jacques D’Arc) (Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais)
Paul Martin as Jo Cordwell (Jean D’Arc)
Bill Walker as Dollner (Pierre D’Arc)
John Adair as Charles Elling (Durand Laxart) (Father Massieu)
Ralph Stanley as Farwell (Jean de Mez) (Thomas de Courcelles)
John R. Handley as The Electrician (The Executioner)
Frank Maxwell as Noble (La Hire) (Bertrand de Poulengy)
Harry Veit as Sheppard (Alain Chartier) (de Estivet)
Harold J. Kennedy as Les Ward (The Dauphin)
Joan Daniels as Tessie, the assistant stage manager
Randolph Echols as Jefferson (Georges de Tremoille)
Haskell Coffin as Kipner (Archbishop of Rheims)
Howard Ledig as Long (Dunois, Bastard of Orleans)
Audrey Ridgwell as Miss Reeves (St. Catherine)
Betty Frohling as Marie, the costumer
Credits:
Written by Maxwell Anderson
Directed by Henry Jones
Settings by Don Gilman
Presented by Harold J. Kennedy and Herbert Kenwith
4. Joan of Lorraine at the Montclair Theatre, NJ (August 30 – September 4, 1948)
Cast:
Jeff Morrow as Jimmy Masters, the director
Frank Marshall as Al, the stage manager
Luise Rainer as Mary Grey (Joan)
Morton L. Stevens as Abbey (Jacques D’Arc) (Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais)
Paul Marlin as Jo Cordwell (Jean D’Arc)
Ken Sutton as Dollner (Pierre D’Arc)
Somer Alberg as Charles Elling (Durand Laxart) (Father Massieu)
Ralph Stanley as Farwell (Jean de Mez) (Thomas de Courcelles)
John T. Slopr as The Electrician (Executioner)
Lester Lee as Noble (La Hire) (Bertrand de Poulengy)
Neil Fitzgerald as Sheppard (Alain Chartier) (de Estivet)
Wallace Acton as Les Ward (The Dauphin)
Terese Hayden as Tessie, the assistant stage manager (Aurore)
Randolph Echols as Jefferson (Georges de Tremoille)
Haskell Coffin as Kipner (Archbishop of Rheims)
Howard Ledig as Long (Dunois, Bastard of Orleans)
Betty Guptill Drew as Miss Reeves (St. Catherine)
Marian Noback as Marie, The Costumer
Credits:
Written by Maxwell Anderson
Directed by Charles K. Freeman
Settings by William de Forest
5. Joan of Lorraine at the Ivar Theatre, Los Angeles, CA (February 20 – March ??, 1951)
Cast included:
Luise Rainer, Walter Coy, Harold J. Kennedy, Jeff Corey, Ross Elliott, William Schallert, David Wolfe, Vernon Steele, Peter Adams, Michael Couzzi, Thom Conroy, Robert Knapp, Robert Sherman, Frank Fiumara, Norbert Schiller, Maura Murphy and Lillian Meeker
Credits:
Written by Maxwell Anderson
Directed by Harold J. Kennedy
