The King of Kings (1927)
Overview
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.
Cast
H.B. Warner
Jesus, The Christ
Dorothy Cumming
Mary, the Mother
Ernest Torrence
Peter
Joseph Schildkraut
Judas Iscariot
James Neill
James - Brother of John
Joseph Striker
John - the Beloved
Robert Edeson
Matthew - the Publican
Sidney D'Albrook
Thomas, the Doubter
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CinemaSerf
As biblical epics go, this is probably the best in my book. Cecil B. de Mille has crafted a masterpiece of silent cinema depicting the tale of the Christ from the beginnings of his journey until the resurrection. Using partly scripted and actual verses from the bible, the intertitles are expertly spaced to offer support to the dialogue when required, but largely we are left to follow the story with the grand scale imagery doing the talking for it. The detail is meticulous - costumes, sets etc, as you would expect - but the use of light and shade, particularly at the end, is magnificent. The characterisations from HB Warner as Jesus; Joseph Schildkraut (Judas) and Jacqueline Logan as the courtesan Mary Magdalene, replete with zebra-driven chariot all contribute to a rich, extensive, cast whose facial expressions carry far more weight than any words might do. Long? Well it's not, actually - the enterprise flies by (I saw it beautifully accompanied by the Sosin 2004 score) and if you've any interest in the history of cinema (or Christianity) then this is a must watch.
