Product Description

In New Hampshire in 1777 Dick Dudgeon's father dies. Called back home to the unhappy family he revolted against years ago Dick finds he has been named heir much to the horror of his religious mother (Elizabeth Spriggs). And to complicate matters the British led by General Burgoyne (Ian Richardson) have arrived and are readying for an execution. As events reach a crisis Dick the self-proclaimed "Devil's Disciple" finds he must confront his true nature as must the village minister (Patrick Stewart).Running Time: 120 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051253422 Manufacturer No: E2534

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48011 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
The Devil's Disciple is not generally considered one of George Bernard Shaw's best plays, but it may be among his most enjoyable. In a New England village during the Revolutionary War, disreputable and self-proclaimed Devil's disciple Richard Dudgeon (Mike Gwilym) finds himself inheriting the bulk of his father's estate, much to the fury of his estranged mother (Elizabeth Spriggs, Sense and Sensibility). But when British soldiers mistake Dudgeon for the Reverend Anthony Anderson (Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: The Next Generation) and arrest him as a rebel, Dudgeon goes along with the error and consents to be hanged in Anderson's place--forcing Anderson's wife Judith (Susan Woolridge, Hope and Glory) to decide whether to save a man she loathes at the cost of her husband's life. The Devil's Disciple starts slowly, but the tension mounts steadily, as does the humor. The courtroom debate between Dudgeon and the cynical General Burgoyne (Ian Richardson, Gormenghast) is rife with Shaw's typical wit and paradoxes--but the rise of feeling between Dudgeon and Judith give the production an emotional kick many Shaw plays lack. The DVD also includes a BBC special, in which Christopher Plummer and others recite classic passages from Shaw's plays and letters. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

The Devil's Disciple as George Bernard Shaw wrote it
The Devil's Disciple is not one of George Bernard Shaw's best-known plays, perhaps because it lacks the cynicism and misanthropy of classic Shaw (Pygmalion, Man and Superman). The characters in The Devil's Disciple are generally likeable people who come to generally good ends. This does not mean that Shaw's satire is absent. His targets in this play are religious and class hypocrisy. The kind of class snobbery represented by General Burgoyne (Ian Richardson), who is determined to commit his atrocities in a gentleman-like manner, may be lost on modern audiences, but Shaw's attacks on religious hypocrisy are quite timely.
The play is set in New England during the American Revolution. Richard Dudgeon (Mike Gwilym) has been called back to his Puritanical home village after his father's death. Richard is in rebellion against the strict morality of his upbringing and does everything he can to shock and scandalize his neighbors and family by claiming to be the Devil's disciple. Richard also brings the news that British troops are marching toward the village arresting and hanging suspected rebels. The local minister, Anthony Anderson (Patrick Stewart), determines to reclaim Richard. The minister invites the reprobate into his home over the protests of his pretty young wife, Judith (Susan Woolridge), then leaves the two together while he answers a parish call. British troops break in, seeking not the reprobate Richard but the upright minister. The British arrest the wrong man, leaving the minister's wife torn between desire to save an innocent man and desire to save her husband. Her confusion is furthered when neither man acts the way she expected.
This 1987 BBC production boasts an incredibly strong cast. Mike Gwilym finds all the nuances in Richard Dudgeon, who is not as free of his Puritan upbringing as he would like to think. Elizabeth Spriggs is both bitter and righteous as Richard's narrow mother. Ian Richardson, as the British commander General Burgoyne, is as cold as he is well-mannered. Susan Woolridge does a competent job with Shaw's least believable part, the young wife who confuses her pity for one man and disappointment with another for a shift in her own affections. But it is Patrick Stewart, as the one man of strong principle and true charity in a town full of hypocrites, who really dominates. When Stewart is on-screen, the contrived plot (even Shaw called it a melodrama) becomes convincing and this production moves from pretty good to outstanding. Anyone who still thinks of Stewart mainly as Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard should see this performance just to get a better sense of his dramatic range.
For those familiar with the 1959 movie version of The Devil's Disciple, starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Laurence Olivier, a word of caution. The 1959 movie took large liberties with Shaw's text. This is the play as Shaw wrote it, with each sharp epigrammatic line of dialogue preserved and without the insertion of unscripted action sequences. This is pure Shaw, well-directed, beautifully-acted, surprisingly moving. Highly recommended.

Great Product and service
I recieved this product in a very timely manner and was very happy with it.

One of my favorite GBS plays
I so much wanted to like this production. I bought it because I was flipping channels not long ago and came across a film version with Kirk Douglas and, in the role of Gentlemanly Johnny Burgoyne, a fantastic actor who I realized only later was Laurence Olivier. I had missed some of Olivier's best lines and so tried to buy the film here on Amazon, only to realize that it wasn't available for purchase in DVD. So the BBC production was the next best thing.

Still, I had very high hopes for it -- with Patrick Stewart and Ian Richardson it seemed almost impossible for it to go wrong. However, if I had thought it through and noticed the date I would have realized that Stewart was playing the Minister, not Burgoyne, which is the role I foolishly expected him in. I'm sure that if it were made again with him in that part he would do it beautifully, as indeed Ian Richardson does here. But Stewart is less suited to the Minister role and I was disappointed not to be getting his Burgoyne.

All in all, the production, while generally enjoyable, was somehow rather tepid. Richard's opening scene should have some irony in it; he should be looking for a reaction in every line that he says, as the only purpose for his hamming it up is to unsettle his relatives; here it is played entirely straight, as if he wholly means what he is saying.

Similarly, Minister Anderson should always give a slight impression of a powerful man not quite placed in his life until he comes into his own at the end; instead, he is curiously bland. The acress playing Judith (the minister's wife) is very good, especially at the end, but should have been made up and costumed to denote younger and prettier; her youth and beauty are what most of the characters respond to for most of the play,and are indeed at the heart of her own self-image, so the audience needs to understand that.

In terms of acting, I actually thought that the best scene was in the last few minutes, when the actor playing Richard makes us suddenly realize just how young the character is meant to be. I was especially impressed when I looked the actor up afterward and realized that he must have been about 40 at the time of the filming. It was beautifully done.

If you're looking to see a production of the play I would not hesitate to recommend this -- it was wonderful to hear the language being spoken by some fine actors. But if you know the play well and have a strong idea of the line readings, then this may disappoint somewhat; too many of the readings seem simply to miss much of the sublety that Shaw, in my view, had in mind.