The Devil's Disciple (1959)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

George Bernard Shaw, as big a name as he was, proves here that no everything he thought of to write was great. I understand his play here was only performed once live. Then these script writers converted it into a screen play.Talented Director Guy Hamilton did this film and the action sequences show his talented touch. The film is short which in this case is an asset. The performers are very talented which helps too. There are a few comedies about the American Revolution, Abbott & Costello's Time of Their Lives comes to mind. In a way, this film has some in common with it. Abbott & Costello were not getting along when they did their film. Here Lancaster, Douglas & Olivier are are trying to get along and get quality screen time. The difference is A&C have ghosts and do obvious comedy. This one has a cheeky style of jokes that in some cases go over the average audience heads.Lancaster is a preacher, Douglas is a sort of rascal, and Olivier is British General Burgoynne (yes, there really was this General). While the facts are few and far between, the characters are very well acted. That is what makes this entertaining. It becomes obvious as the film goes along that Lancaster & Douglas own the production and both of them get their moments in. Olivier pretty much plays the straight man who gets the major speeches and comes off quite well.The most unusual role is Lancaster (the preacher's) wife. She has to play a woman almost on the edge of fooling around with Douglas when her husband gives her the chance. It is an edgy role and really makes the film more interesting than most films. Janette Scott actually brings this role off quite well.Because of the length being short, and the male stars all being at the top of their games, this comes off pretty good despite the farce it is at times.

This is a wonderful film of historic fiction, primarily due to a script that subtly combines action, romance, humor and real questions of values. The story is built around Kirk Douglas, who plays a seemingly amoral fellow and Burt Lancaster, who is a clergyman. Using the American Revolution as a backdrop, it presents both men with questions of character in a time of duress, transforming them into their true natures.Lawrence Olivier, who plays General Burgoyne, is a revelation. He plays his part as strongly as Douglas and Lancaster with understatement and economy. Harry Andrews plays Major Swindon, the blustering "company man", with gusto. (See him in the movie "The Hill" if you have not.)The film's music is finely crafted, providing accents for the range of emotions--from the stirrings of romantic love to the urgency of armed conflict.In its best moments, The Devil's Disciple is not afraid to poke fun at society's conventions--the church, government, authority, traditions. It asserts that individual men of conscience are the real heroes, and they are not forged in the flames of religious piety or societal order.A note about the ending: I disagree with those who question the choice made by the preacher's wife, Judith. She had always loved her husband, but she wished to see him as a brave man of action and romantic fervor.

It's not clear why IMDb missed a superior version of this Shaw play produced by BBC with Patrick Stewart as the Reverend Anderson and Ian Richardson as General Burgoyne. We were lucky to find the BBC production on Netflix.Shaw is not exactly in fashion these days, and "The Devil's Disciple" is not one of his better known plays. But it has all the features that Shavians admire and that British actors on the whole handle much more effectively than Americans. Patrick Stewart is known in this country mainly for entirely different roles but he is a classically trained actor and does a superb job as the Reverend Anderson. Lawrence Olivier is no doubt the greater actor but Ian Richardson is extremely good, and he's perfect in this role.Skip this one and find the BBC disk.

This is a terrific film. The cast is great, Sir Laurence Olivier's Gentlemanly Johnny Burgoyne is the perfect balance of dreamer, cynic and realist, Burt Lancaster is exceptional as the minister who finds another calling as a patriot, Kirk Douglas is Dick Dudgeon, "devil's disciple", who is probably more righteous than the hypocrites who condemn him for his lifestyle, Janette Scott is the preacher's upright and uptight wife who discovers a less than spiritual side of herself when Dick unselfishly takes her husband's place as a British prisoner soon to be hanged. Harry Andrews rounds out the headliners as the bloodthirsty and officious Major Swindon, who wants to hang seemingly everyone who crosses his path, while reciting platitudes that would make a super-patriot blush. The film starts with the hanging of Dick's father. His brothers and other relatives are scared out of their wits and take the cowardly way out, seeming to ignore the fact. Ne'er do well Dick, however risks his life and brings his father back to the church for a Christian burial. He and Anthony Anderson, the minister engage in a witty chat over Dad's body that evening. The reverend gives Dad a send-off, but the British arrive in town and see the new grave. Dad leaves almost everything to Dick, with a small bequest to Dick's younger brother, excluding their mother. Mom leaves the house in a huff, cursing her son. Rev Anderson is told by Dick's squeeze that the British have seen the grave and are going to arrest Dick. The Rev goes to tell him and brings him home to the rectory, when he receives word that Mrs Dudgeon is dying and needs him (the minister). Anthony leaves Dick with his wife, and then comes a hilarious scene as the uncomfortable and contemptuous Judith makes him feel as unwanted as possible while still keeping up Christian hospitality. Sure enough, the soldiers come and arrest Dick believing he's the reverend. Dick's farewell to his "wife" ends in a steamy kiss and embrace. Judith races to her husband, and in another riotous scene tells him Dick has been arrested in his place. Rev,"Confound Richard. He's given me a debt I can't repay". But the minister takes off in an effort to get the local patriots to help free Dick, but as the narrator relates, they're too busy trying to kill their enemies to save one of their friends. Anthony winds up in the middle of a battle and turns the tide for the Americans. While this is happening, Dick is put on a completely impartial trial, while gallows are constructed outside. More witty exchanges ensue between Dick, Burgoyne and Swindon before Judith tries to save him by telling the British that he's not her husband. It doesn't work and they schedule the hanging. Anthony rides up just in the nick of time and in a new outfit of buckskin, to present terms to Burgoyne and negotiates Dick's release. Judith must choose between her crush on Dick and her newly revived love for her newly remodeled man of action husband. General Burgoyne tells Major Swindon that soon their army will face unfavorable odds and lose. This movie has everything, fine acting, satire, romance, action, slapstick and philosophy. The only thing is, it's too bad it wasn't made in color to see the uniforms and scenery.