The Wizard of Oz began filming in October of 1938, which was roughly three years before the United States entered World War II. Ten years later, on Armistice Day, November 11th, the film Joan of Arc, was released (in New York, anyway). This date marks just a little more than three years after the end of World War II. Let’s not forget that Victor Fleming directed the bulk of Gone With the Wind which was released in 1939 soon after the Wizard of Oz—these films, collectively have quite a bit in common. All three tell the story of strong, or at least strong-willed, young women who undertake a quest which sees their trials and triumphs transform them into a much different person from the start of the film.

What’s interesting is that most people have heard of The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, even if they’ve never seen them, because of the huge impression the films made in their era just before the world changed. Joan of Arc, on the other hand, does not get nearly the same amount of attention as the director’s earlier stories, despite its similar tropes.

Joan of Arc can be categorized as an attempt to create popular culture, but since the audiences didn’t respond to it the same way they did for the pre-World War II film of Flemings, it isn’t pop culture in the way of being embraced by society. Had it come out in the 1930s rather than the late 40s I’m fairly certain Joan of Arc would stand out more than it does in the Golden Age of Hollywood. For one thing, Ingrid Bergman would’ve been that much younger and therefore closer to the real Joan of Arc’s age of 14 or so, which most versions of her passion seem to emphasize. Also, the “France at War” angle would’ve made a lot more sense as the most recent conflict, World War I, was far more about France than World War II (I realize that World War II had much fighting in France, especially from the summer of 1944 on, but the Great War was almost exclusively in and about the nation).

But, of course, the source material for Joan of Arc didn’t exist as of the 1930s, it too was a product of the post-World War II era. Maxwell Anderson’s Broadway play, Joan of Lorraine starred Ingrid Bergman as an actress playing Joan of Arc in a play-within-a-play. It was performed starting in 1946 and was quite meta even before that term was used. So in some ways, the 1948 film is akin to the fictitious producers and cast of Joan of Lorraine finally getting their play turned into a movie.