Sierra Pictures - Versions

Versions

The movie was first released in November 1948 by RKO. When the film was shortened for its general release in September 1950, it was distributed, not by RKO, but by a company called Balboa Film Distributors, the same company which re-released Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, also starring Ingrid Bergman. The complete 145 minute version of Joan of Arc remained unseen in the U.S. for about forty-nine years. Although the complete Technicolor negatives remained in storage in Hollywood, the original soundtrack was thought to be lost. The movie was restored in 1998 after an uncut print in mint condition was found in Europe, containing the only known copy of the complete soundtrack. When it finally appeared on DVD, the restored complete version was hailed by online movie critics as being much superior to the edited version. It was released on DVD in 2004.

The edited version received its first television showing on CBS on the evening of April 12, 1968 (an Easter weekend), and has been shown on Ted Turner's WTCG and on cable several times. Although the complete, unedited version of the film was scheduled to be shown on American television for the first time on February 13, 2011, by Turner Classic Movies, with a broadcast window of 2-1/2 hours, it was pulled and the 100 minute edited version was presented later, on Sunday, February 27. However, the full-length version was finally shown on Turner Classic Movies on March 13, 2011. This marked the first time that the complete unedited version had ever been shown on American television. It has now been shown several times by TCM and appears to have supplanted the edited version.