Courageous Mr. Penn

Penn Of Pennsylvania was one of those films that was made to encourage Anglo-American relations and had the misfortune of not being released before Pearl Harbor when America was given no option but to join the Allied cause. It's purpose was clearly to butter up the Americans to show we had a lot more that united us across the pond than what divided us. William Penn however was a great deal more complex than the saintly man you see here.

What was shown is true enough about Penn and his first wife played by Clifford Evans and Deborah Kerr. After the action of this film is concluded Penn did marry again and between the two wives had enough children to populate Pennsylvania all by himself. The guy you see however is someone you can't imagine doing any propagating.

William Penn was a lot of things, but definitely not a saint. Why Evans played him and the writers wrote him as a Francis of Assissi like character boggles the mind. Historians will scorn this film and the general public will find Evans as Penn totally unrealistic.

As was pointed out in another review, having the one Indian character made up like a 19th century plains Indian as opposed to someone who might have been in one of the Iroquois was also an example of horrible research. But to a British public who saw American westerns these were the Indians you had to give them.

The saintly Penn and the dutiful wife made for some dull viewing as well. Clifford Arundell playing Charles II who no one ever accused of saintly behavior provides some interesting moments. I doubt though that the Merry Monarch was as farsighted as all that. In his own way Charles was far more tolerant than Penn was in real life.

Penn Of Pennsylvania is a ponderous film about a saint that never existed.