Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi is a 1961 DeLuxe CinemaScope movie directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the 1958 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). Two years after the release of Francis of Assisi, Dolores Hart, the 24-year-old actress who plays St. Clare in the film, became a 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. He joins a military expedition, but deserts when an inner voice commands it. He 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. This follows a lengthy rivalry between Francis and the warrior Count Paolo for Clare's affections and values; Clare follows a monastic life instead of marrying Paolo, but Francis and Paolo are eventually reconciled. 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, such as a visit to Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt, 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".