The King of Kings was released on April 19th, 1927. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille and written by Jeannie Macpherson it is a retelling of the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ, from His public ministry to His death and resurrection.
Macpherson's script does a good job bringing various episodes from the Gospel's together to form a coherent narrative. The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees is established early on and continues to drive the story for the remainder of the film. It begins by showing Mary Magdalene (Jacqueline Logan), here portrayed as a courtesan in Judea, who is furious that her lover, Judas (Joseph Schildkraut), has taken up with a poor carpenter. We are next introduced to Jesus (H. B. Warner) who is shown performing various miracles, including the healing of a lame boy revealed to be a young Mark the Evangelist (Micky Moore). We are also introduced to the apostles and Mary (Dorothy Cumming). Then, in a dramatic scene, Jesus expels seven demons (here personifying the seven deadly sins) from Mary Magdalene.
The action then shifts to the countryside and several scene's from Matthew 17 are combined together. First Judas is shown attempting to expel a demon in Jesus name. When he fails, the parents of the possessed boy bring him to Jesus, who cures him. Then Matthew (Robert Edeson), the tax collector, sent by Caiaphas' (Rudolph Schildkraut) conniving, show up and demand that Jesus pay the tribute to Caesar. As they are without funds, Jesus sends Simon Peter (Ernest Torrence) to retrieve money from a fish. The question about the legality of collecting taxes from Matthew 22 is then brought up, prompting the famous response about rendering unto Caesar. After this there is a short scene where Jesus, quoting Mark 10:14, sits
with a group of little children, one of whom has a doll with a broken
leg which He fixes. Jesus is then approached by Martha and Mary of Bethany (Julia Faye and Josephine Norman) who ask him to heal their brother Lazarus (Kenneth Thomson), who is sick. The raising of Lazarus from John 11 then proceeds.
Jesus then goes to Jerusalem where he saves the women caught in adultery (from John 8) and overturns the tables of the moneylenders (from Matthew 21, Mark 11, and John 2). Following this this, in a scene which combines the entry into Jerusalem with the end multiplication of the loaves from John 6, Jesus is welcomed as the Messiah by the people and Judas tries to have him crowned king but Jesus passes "through the midst of them" and withdraws to the temple where he is tempted by Satan with "the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them (in a scene drawn from the temptation in the desert). Finally Jesus is betrayed to the Pharisees by Judas and the Last Supper is portrayed followed by Jesus' passion, death Resurrection and ascension.
The film is not without it's flaws. The opening scene with Mary Magdalene is overly sensualized and indulgent. It also seems to set up Mary as a major character only to have her disappear from narrative after her exorcism until the passion. Like all of DeMille's work,
The King of Kings is
quite theatrical at times. When Jesus is arrested, for instance, the
apostles start a riot to try and free him before being told by the
Master to stop. After Christ's death there is not only a great storm and
earthquakes, as in Matthew 27:51: "And, behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake,
and the rocks rent", but here the men who mocked Jesus fall into a great
gulf caused by the earthquake and are swallowed up by hellfire.
At the same time the film is filled with breathtaking scenes of visual poetry: the healing the blind girl at the beginning of the film, where Jesus is revealed for the first time in a POV shot, as the girl slowly recovers her sight, surrounded by a halo; the cleansing of Mary Magdalene, utilizing multiple exposure to portray the seven demons; the close-up of the cross being dragged through the streets of Jerusalem; the Resurrection, shot in glorious two-strip technicolor in contrast to the black and white cinematography of the rest of the film (the longer premiere version, superior in most aspects, also features technicolor in the opening scene, sadly undermining the effect at the end).
The premiere cut (which adds the scenes dealing with Jesus paying taxes) also features some wonderful scenes of Marian piety. In one surprising artistic addition, the Blessed Mother comforts the mother of the impious thief on Calvary, seemingly taken on the role of the mother of mankind. Later, Jesus appears to his mother first after His resurrection, before Mary Magdalene (a Catholic oral tradition). Coming from a wayward Episcopalian like DeMille, this is surprising.
The King of Kings has an excellent cast. H. B. Warner is a particularly warm Jesus, more approachable then the almost almost stoic figure portrayed by Max von Sydow in
The Greatest Story Ever Told or Robert Powell in
Jesus of Nazareth. He projects both compassion and authority, though he is a little lacking in energy during the cleansing of the temple, casually flipping tables over more then violently overturning them (Warner was 55 when he took on the role). Joseph Schildkraut is the other stand out performance as Judas, completely pompous in the early parts of the film and tragically despairing after his betrayal. Ernest Torrence is almost childlike as Simon Peter, potrayed here as an overzealous gentle giant. Dorothy Cumming is simply wonderful as the Virgin Mary, tender, loving, even radiant at times. Jacqueline Logan's Mary Magdalene, though sadly somewhat objectified in the opening scene, does a fine job in the rest of the picture as Jesus devoted follower, even protesting, futiley, during his condemnation. Rudolph Schildkraut makes for a particularly despicable Caiaphas. Victor Varconi is great as a Pontius Pilate completely bored and disgusted with Hebrew politics. Micky Moore is, at times, distracting as the impetuous young Mark but it's a welcome lively performance in a largely solemn picture.
The King of Kings though certainly flawed is a great film nonetheless. It's easily the best Hollywood film on the life of Christ.
Score: 9/10
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