The Devil's Disciple

1959 "One Devil of a Motion Picture!"
7| 1h22m| en
Details

In a small New England town during the American War of Independence, Dick Dudgeon, a revolutionary American Puritan, is mistaken for local minister Rev. Anthony Anderson and arrested by the British. Dick discovers himself incapable of accusing another human to suffer and continues to masquerade as the reverend.

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Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions

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Reviews

Nonureva Really Surprised!
Konterr Brilliant and touching
WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
atlasmb 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.
lord woodburry Synopis: Light hearted comic look at General Burgoyne's invasion of New York State in 1777-1778 pokes endearing fun at British and American perceptions of each other. Marching south into New York State, General John Burgoyne (Sir Laurence Olivier) is executing the evilest person he can find in every town he passes. In this manner the General expects to stifle resistance from the Devil's Disciples, Rebel irregulars impeding his path. However as this plan isn't working, the General decides to execute instead the most virtuous man he can find, Reverend Anderson (Burt Lancaster), the local minister, leaving untouched the local reprobate and likely rebel, the self-proclaimed Apostle of Satan, Dick Dungeon (Kirk Douglas) whose very mother would like to see hanged. Rescued from a cruel fate, the impeccable Reverend Anderson turns out to be the Rebel leader Burgoyne sought all along. A delightful comedy well played by the giants of the English language cinema, Lancaster-Olivier-Douglas, could have only be the product of the whimsical genius of George Bernard Shaw, the Dublin born playwright who may have known little of the Revolution but whose clever invention caught the English and American perceptions of each other, a Burgoyne imprisoned in his own insufferable, imperious, impervious arrogance fighting Americans who will use apparent sanctity as a cover for their nefarious clandestine behavior. Major Swindon: But what about history, sir? General John Burgoyne: History, sir, will tell lies, as usual!This is purely fiction you may believe every word of it. It is too bad that the celebrated playwright Shaw who died in 1950 did not live to see this production. Contrary to Shaw, there is little evidence that the British sanctioned whole scale war crimes prior to the Battle of Saratoga. Indeed, the British pardoned virtually every American civilian who requested. As fortunes of war changed, the same civilians applied for Congressional pardons, so much for the fortitude of American non-combatants or the lasting success of deluded British commanders in the war for hearts and minds. The incident described in Devil's Disciple may be a Bardic remembrance of the scalping of Jenny MacCrae, a Tory lass remade by American propaganda into a resolute Rebel and whose very name became the battle cry of Saratoga and the title of a popular American song. Throughout the 19th century the name of "Sweet Jenny MacCrae" was oft invoked by polite society in lieu of indulging in profanity. As British and American passions subsided a century and a half later when the play was written, the Jenny MacCrae incident may no longer have been politically correct. It took the genius of Shaw to hide the story in a parable which reminds both sides who they really are. George Bernard Shaw Devil's Disciple hardly ranks with the best of the Dublin born playwright George Bernard Shaw, one of the most prolific playwrights in the English language. Famous for the remark that a common language is the chasm which separates England from America, Shaw may have known little about the Revolution but knew much about the character of the peoples whose world views collided.
bkoganbing Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, both players who chose rather successfully to chart their own careers, decided on their third co-starring film to jointly produce it as well. The property chosen was George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple which takes place in the northern theater of operations in the American Revolution.Shaw's wit is going full tilt here as he's having a great old time blasting upper and middle class pretensions of British society. The vehicle he uses is General John Burgoyne who lost the Battle of Saratoga to the rebel army which guaranteed French recognition and European aid for the colonists. Both Lancaster as Parson Anthony Anderson and Kirk Douglas as committed non-believer Dick Dudgeon play larger than life characters here as they usually do and both have their moments. But in fact this film is stolen completely out from under them by Sir Laurence Olivier as General Burgoyne.As a previous reviewer noted, Shaw wrote the best lines in the play for the Burgoyne character. But it takes the skill of a player like Olivier to bring them off. Burgoyne was very much a product of Georgian Great Britain, a cynical man in a very cynical business. By the way Harry Andrews as Major Swinton does an excellent job essentially as Burgoyne's straight man. Andrews is a pompous sort of character and Olivier tosses the bon mots off him like a handball player.The story involves Dudgeon being mistaken for Anderson and being sentenced to hang for rebel activity. Anderson arouses the populace and sheds his parson's collar for rebel activity and saves Dudgeon from the noose. Burgoyne quits the town he was occupying and goes off to his destiny at Saratoga.But in this case as in a lot of Shaw plays, the story isn't as important as the commentary. And when the commentary is delivered by Olivier, it's being brought to you by the best.
theowinthrop There is little point denying that the greatest dramatist in England in the 20th Century was George Bernard Shaw. He was a great wit, and he had a view of society that he felt needed expressing in one play after another. But there was something irritating about him that has prevented him from overtaking Shakespeare in drama writing: His desire to give his views on this societal problem or that one led to polemics taking over his writings, so that the plays, even when good, can be uneven. He also displayed a monstrous ego at times that did not deserve to be admired or applauded by the public for most of his ninety three or four years. In 1897 he had only a handful of plays that had been produced to show his talents: WIDOWERS HOUSE and MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION were the best of these, and the second had been banned by the Lord Chamberlain's office for treating the subject of prostitution as a business. He decided to do a play with one of London's leading actor managers of the time: Mr. William Terris. But while negotiating with Terris to appear in this play. a madman stabbed Terris to death. Looking around for another actor, Shaw contacted Mr. Richard Mansfield, thus beginning a brief business relationship with that stage star. Mansfield produced THE DEVIL'S DESCIPLE in America, where it was a big success (Mansfield also played Dick Dudgeon).Shaw was looking at good and evil in the play, with Dudgeon being an anti-religious type who was cynical. But Dudgeon demonstrates a sense of right and wrong and compassion that is missing from the other characters in the play, making the title very ironic - Dick may boast of worshiping the Devil, but he never hurts anyone. In the play, because of his fast life style, the local Puritanical townspeople (especially his mother) disapprove of him, and all but ostracize him. Then his father's will is read, and they realize he is rich (and the other heirs, especially his mother are poor). Since they are hypocrites, the lucky break for Dick makes them even more vicious toward him (his mother cursing him before she dies). So far so good for Shaw.As I said, the play begins well, and continues fine - introducing high comedy when General Burgoyne appears. Burgoyne was a dramatist too, so Shaw liked him. And here the play (and movie's) problems begin to be felt. Shaw was writing the play in a period that the Whig historians, like George Otto Trevelyan, wrote the history of the American Revolution. Trevelyan's books became best sellers, and were well researched. But he wrote of the Revolution as the backdrop of English Revolutionary spirit as well. To Trevelyan, the English lost the war due to the ineptitude of the Tory regime of Lord North. One example of this was the story of how General Burgoyne's brilliant plan to split the northern colonies in half and conquer both halves one at a time was ruined when the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord George Germain, failed to send vital plans to General Sir William Howe to link his men with Burgoyne. Instead, Sir William headed for Philadelphia, which he occupied, and heard nothing about Burgoyne until the latter surrendered in October 1777. The play builds up to a comic misunderstanding between the British and Dudgeon, whom they arrest thinking he is the Reverend - Dick was alone with the wife of the Reverend at the time, and assumes the latter's personality because he does not want a scandal to break out. Soon the Reverend (who supports the Revolution) faces a court martial, with the whimsical Gentleman Johnny asking questions. Although the result is a foregone conclusion, (the British have already hanged Dick's father as the movie begins), Burgoyne is annoyed to discover after the verdict is about to be given that Dick is not the Reverend.This is all in the film, and it still works, especially with Olivier's perfect performance as the British general, who is facing defeat but won't lose his cool about it. But Shaw's source, George Otto Treveylan, is no longer supported by students of history - he is regarded as a Whig who ignored the many errors of his own party, to concentrate on the failures of Lord North and his Tories. One mistake is the story of Lord George Germain's failure to send Sir William Howe his plans, because Lord George felt he had to go on his personal vacation to the country, and would not wait to send out those vital plans. It is not true, after all. Lord George did send Sir William the plans, but Howe ignored them, going out to capture Philadelphia instead. "History will lie as usual" says Burgoyne to Major Swindon. Ironically, Shaw pushed the lie as truth himself. Now everyone who sees the play or film believes that Lord George Germain's vacation plans lost the Revolution. Not really. The forests of upper New York State, the lack of good roads, the immense supply train played vital, the vigor of Benedict Arnold as an American general led to Burgoyne's surrender. But that was not as amusing as Lord George Germain's "failure" to send the vital plans. One recalls the end of John Ford's LIBERTY VALANCE: When given a chance to print the truth of the legend, print the legend!