The Crucible (1957 film)

The Crucible French Les Sorcires de Salem , German Die Hexen von Salem or Hexenjagd is a 1957 joint FrancoEast German film production directed by Raymond Rouleau with a screenplay adapted by JeanPaul Sartre from the 1953 play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The film was only briefly released on home video, and is extremely difficult to find.

JeanPaul Sartre began writing the script in late 1955, during what author David Caute defined as the height of his rapprochement with the Soviet Union. He was inspired by the success of Marcel Ayms Frenchlanguage adaptation of Millers The Crucible, titled Les sorcires de Salem, which was staged in Paris Sarah Bernhardt Theater, starring Simone Signoret as Elizabeth Proctor. Sartre later said he was moved to write his adaptation because the play showed John Proctor persecuted, but no one knows why... His death seems like a purely ethical act, rather than one of freedom, that is undertaken in order to resist the situation effectively. In Millers play... Each of us can see what he wants, each public will find in it confirmation of its own attitude... Because the real political and social implications of the witchhunt dont appear clearly. The screenplay was 300 pages long. Sartres version was different from the original play in many ways Elizabeth saves Abigail from lynching and the townspeople rise up against Thomas Danforth, who becomes the chief antagonist.The film was one of four major FrancoEast German coproductions made during the late 1950s the others were Till Ulenspiegels Adventures, Les Misrables and Les Arrivistes. The Democratic Republics government authorized the DEFA studio to collaborate with companies outside the Eastern Bloc in order to gain access to Western audiences, thus bypassing the limitations imposed by West Germanys Hallstein Doctrine eventually, they intended their films to reach also the public in the Federal Republic. The French, on their part, were interested in reducing costs by filming in East Germany. Principal photography took place in DEFAs Babelsberg Studios from August to midOctober 1956, with additional shooting in Paris during early November. ........

Source: Wikipedia