Silent Film Sources - Reviews

DeMille Pictures. Released by Producers Distributing Corp. 14 reels. Director, Cecil B. DeMille. Story and continuity, Jeanie Macpherson. Art director, Mitchell Leisen. Consulting artists, Dan Sayre Groesbeck, Anton Grot, Ed. Jewel, Julian Harrison, Harold Miles. Chief photographer, Peverell Marley. Assisted by Fred Westerberg, J.A. Badaracco. Music by Hugo Reisenfeld. Color photography, Technicolor.  1928 General release version: 12 reels. Synchronization by R.C.A. Photophone. Music Score by Hugo Reisenfeld. General Musical Director, Josiah Zuro.  
Cast: H.B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Joseph Schildkraut, Jacqueline Logan, Rudolph Schildkraut, Sam De Grasse, Victor Varconi, William Boyd. 

The film opens with a party at the house of Mary Magdalene, a bejeweled courtesan. Judas is missing, so she declares "Harness my zebras- gift of the Nubian king," and sets off after him. She find Judas among Jesus and his followers and witnesses a miracle. In a beautifully staged scene, Jesus first appears on the screen through the eyes of a blind child whose sight is restored. Although Mary Magdalene's previous life style seemed a lot more appealing than redemption, she is saved and her sins appear and are cast out via a complex multiple exposure. 

As the Christ, H.B. Warner is restrained, yet charismatic. It is a thankless role, and the best Warner can do is look holy and walk through it. The Jesus that DeMille and screenwriter Jeanie Macpherson present is one who performs miracles: healing the sick and raising the dead. The film does not include the Sermon on the Mount, or the parables, making the moral teachings a minor part of Jesus' appeal. This makes The King of Kings a film for those who already believe. The story is effectively told, but it does not present non-believers with reasons to convert. 

In his previous films, DeMille's style could keep audience interest in the most formula narrative. Here the challenge was to give life to a story that would be familiar to every member of the audience. DeMille takes advantage of that foreknowledge, with the audience powerless to stop the inevitable betrayal and crucifixion. Despite the size of the production, DeMille makes it a very human story, with the betrayal of Jesus due to basic human traits of jealousy, resentment and fear. 

DeMille is a wonderful director of crowd scenes, surrounding his leading players with a background of extras, each with telling characterization and personality details. As the story concludes, the showman in DeMille takes over completely, so that, courtesy of thunder, lightning, a windstorm and a well-timed earthquake, Calvary becomes as exciting as the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments or the train wreck in The Road to Yesterday. 

DeMille engaged clergy and rabbis to consult on the production, but after its premiere the film came under criticism from the Jewish community. The villain of Macpherson's story is the high priest Caiaphas, played by Rudolph Schildkraut, whose temple of worship is, according to a title, a "corrupt and profitable marketplace." Caiaphas conspires against Jesus and has him arrested and brought before Pontius Pilate. To emphasize that Caiaphas is Jewish, not Roman, a gong which he uses to call his henchman is shaped like a star of David! 

After the premiere, the film was reworked slightly to downplay this concern. DeMille signed a historical note that appears before the main title, explaining that Jewish high priests were appointed by Rome. Provocative titles like "His Blood Be Upon You and Your Children" were removed. After the crucifixion, as the temple collapses around Caiaphas, he now cries "Lord God Jehovah, visit not Thy wrath on Thy people Israel- I alone am guilty." Nonetheless, the film was banned in some American cities, and DeMille was bitter, as he felt that he was just telling the story in the Bible. 

The full-length road show version runs some 45 minutes longer than the available general release version, with two sequences in two-color Technicolor. Some of the reissue prints, including the video and laserdisc editions, offer the four minute resurrection sequence in color approximating the original. 

The Kino video and Voyager laserdisc are the 1928 general release version with full orchestral score and sound effects. They feature the same transfer including the Technicolor sequence. The video restores the original tints, while the laser disc is black and white. (Review © 1997 David Pierce)