Films about ancient Christianity and Jesus Wikipedia pages

Sodom and Gomorrah (1962 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorra (1962).jpg
Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Produced by
Joseph E. Levine
 Maurizio Lodi-Fe
Goffredo Lombardo
Written by
Giorgio Prosperi
Hugo Butler
Starring
Stewart Granger
Anouk Aimée
Pier Angeli
Stanley Baker
Rossana Podestà
Music by
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography
Alfio Contini
Silvano Ippoliti
Cyril J. Knowles
Mario Montuori
Edited by
Mario Serandrei
 Peter Tanner

Production
 company

Pathé
 SGC
Titanus

Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

4 October 1962 (Italy)
23 January 1963 (US)


Running time
 154 minutes
 111 min (cut edition)
Country
Italy/France/United States
Language
English
Budget
$4.5 million[1]
Box office
$2,500,000 (US/ Canada)[2][3]
 1,614,441 admissions (France)[4][5]
Sodom and Gomorrah — known in the USA as The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah — is a 1962 epic film which is loosely based on the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. The film was a Franco-Italian-American co-production made by Pathé, SGC and Titanus. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and produced by Maurizio Lodi-Fe, Goffredo Lombardo and Joseph E. Levine. The screenplay was by Giorgio Prosperi and Hugo Butler, the cinematography by Alfio Contini, Silvano Ippoliti, Cyril J. Knowles and Mario Montuori, the music score by Miklós Rózsa, the production design by Ken Adam and the costume design by Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni and Peter Tanner.
The film has a running time of 155 minutes. It is available on VHS and on Region 1 DVD-R.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Score
5 Titles
6 Reception
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
The twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah prosper because of their great deposits of salt, which are mined by an army of slaves. The decadent citizens, who have become wealthy by trading salt, live in luxury and use slaves as servants and for violent games of entertainment.
After a night of revelry, Astorath (Stanley Baker), the Prince of Sodom, tells slave girl Tamar (Scilla Gabel) to carry a message to the king of the Elamites, with whom he plans to overthrow his sister, Bera, Queen of Sodom (Anouk Aimée). Returning from her meeting in the desert with the Elamite leader, Tamar's is captured by a Sodomite patrol. Queen Brea demands the name of her co-conspirator. Tamar refuses to speak under interrogation and Bera has her and her two young sisters killed.
Meanwhile, Lot (Granger) leads his family and a Hebrew tribe through the desert, hoping that he can find a permanent home for his people along the fertile banks of the River Jordan. By contrast with the people of the twin cities the Hebrews are presented as a pious and austere people with high moral standards. As the Hebrews approach their destination, Lot meets the beautiful Ildith (Pier Angeli), who luxuriates in a litter while a group of slave girls in chains precede her over the rocky terrain. Lot assumes that Ildith owns these women. She tells him that she is also a slave, albeit the chief of the Queen of Sodom's body slaves. Lot tells her that owning slaves is evil. The following dialog ensues:

Ildith: "Evil? How strange you are. Where I come from, nothing is evil. Everything that gives pleasure is good."

Lot: "Where do you come from?"

Ildith: "There, not far. Just ahead: Sodom and Gomorrah."
Once Lot and his people reach the Jordan, he negotiates the use of the land on one side of the river with Queen Bera, promising her both grain and defense should Sodom's desert enemies attack. He makes one provision to their deal: any slave of Sodom who reaches the Hebrew camp will be granted asylum. She agrees, and in a surprising turn, gives Lot Ildith. Ildith is unwilling to leave the queen and her life of luxury in Sodom. Astorath is disgusted and baffled by his sister's easy terms with the Hebrews. However, he soon turns his attentions to Lot's flirtatious daughter, Shuah (Rossana Podestà).
Ildith dislikes the rough conditions of the Hebrew camp, but soon becomes a friend to Lot's daughters. She and Lot also fall in love and plan to marry. Love also blooms elsewhere in the camp as Shuah and Prince Astorath begin a secret affair. Lot's other daughter, Maleb (Claudia Mori) and his headstrong lieutenant, Ishmael (Rik Battaglia) also plan a marriage.
Lot and Ildith's wedding day celebrations are interrupted by an Elamite attack. Although the Hebrew farmers and the Sodomite soldiers fight valiantly, they are nearly defeated by the fierce nomadic warriors. As a last, desperate measure, Lot orders the dam that the Hebrews have built to be broken. His quick thinking saves the twin cities and the Hebrews, but the camp and the crops are destroyed. However, the flood waters reveal that the Hebrew camp is also the site of a vast salt deposit. Lot now believes that the Hebrews can move out of the wilderness and live among the Sodomites ("Separate, but in their full view," he cautions) by selling salt. (In the original Roadshow prints, this is where the theatrical intermission occurred.)
Some time later, Lot and Ildith now live in luxury in Sodom. Sodomites and Hebrews both revere Lot and seek his judgment. Ishmael however, believes that Lot has succumbed to luxury and instead should raise a force to liberate Sodom's mine slaves. Lot disagrees and advises Ishmael to wait, believing that the Sodomites will change their ways in time. Ishmael does not heed Lot and unsuccessfully tries to set the slaves free. He believes that the Hebrews will harbour the slaves, but they instead shut their doors on the desperate men who are soon recaptured and tortured to death. As the newly appointed minister of justice, Lot must now sentence Ishmael. However Ishmael is only one of Lot's problems, as he is confronted by the jealous Prince Astorath, who tells him that not only has he had both of Lot's daughters, but that Ildith has kept these affairs secret. An outraged Lot kills Astorath.
At this point, Queen Bera's plot becomes clear: she used the Hebrews to destroy the Elamite threat and also used Lot to rid her of her scheming brother. Lot becomes deeply remorseful that he has killed and that he has led his family and people into sin. Bera has him taken to prison.
While Lot asks God for forgiveness and guidance, two angels appear to tell him that God is displeased with the twin cities and will destroy them. Lot pleads with the angels to spare the city if he can find just ten Sodomite citizens who will repent and leave the cities with him. The angels agree and free both Lot and Ishmael from prison.
Meanwhile, many recaptured slaves are tortured to death on the wheel. As Queen Bera exclaims "But wait, the games have just begun," Lot appears seeking ten righteous Sodomites.
Although he has God's consent, Lot finds it impossible to persuade any Sodomite citizens to follow him, only the slaves are willing to accompany him. Even his own daughters, who believe Lot a hypocrite, at first refuse. Ildith, however, convinces them to leave, hoping that they will someday understand their father and his greatness as a leader. Shuah goes only grudgingly, telling Lot that she hopes to see him suffering as she is now that Astorath is dead.
Immediately after the Hebrews and Sodomite slaves leave, God assails Sodom with earthquakes and lightning. Queen Bera retreats with her slave Orphea to her palace, where they are killed under the collapsing pillars. Everybody flees into the streets and are crushed by collapsing towers. Not one single Sodomite lives to tell the tale.
Meanwhile Ildith now wishes she were back in Sodom. Despite her love for Lot, Ildith cannot accept his God, choosing to believe in Lot rather than in a Divine plan. Despite Lot's warnings, Ildith looks back at Sodom. God turns her into a pillar of salt just as He destroys the city with an atom bomb-like explosion. Lot collapses in grief. Maleb and Shuah rush to comfort him. He staggers off with the Hebrews, who wander the desert once more.
Cast[edit]
Stewart Granger as Lot
Anouk Aimée as Queen Bera
Pier Angeli as Ildith
Stanley Baker as Prince Astaroth
Rossana Podestà as Shuah
Rik Battaglia as Melchior
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ishmael
Scilla Gabel as Tamar
Anthony Steffen as The Captain (as Antonio de Teffi)
Gabriele Tinti as Lieutenant
Enzo Fiermonte as Eber
Daniele Vargas as Segur
Claudia Mori as Maleb
Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Alabias
Mitsuko Takara as Orphea
Massimo Pietrobon as Isaac
Mimmo Palmara as Arlok
Liana Del Balzo as Rich Hebrew woman
Francesco Tensi as 1st old man
Andrea Tagliabue as Eber's son
Alice Kessler as Dancer
Ellen Kessler as Dancer
Vittorio Artesi as Eber's other son (uncredited)
Pietro Ceccarelli as Officer in Sodom (uncredited)
Giovanna Galletti as Malik (uncredited)
Primo Moroni as 2nd old man (uncredited)
Mimmo Poli as Queen's cupbearer
Production[edit]
Joseph E. Levine was enticed into a co production with the Italian company Titanus. Levine:

All I saw was a bad script. They wanted a million dollars. I said 'let's get a good script and spent two million. I'll put up 60% of two million. The cost went up to $6 million. But not out of my pocket. I pay only 60% of two million.[6]
Sergio Leone was hired to shoot some second unit photography but he left during the shoot - either quitting or being fired. Location shooting took place near Marrakesh and the budget grew from $2 million to $5 million.[7]
Score[edit]
The film is notable for featuring the last of Miklos Rozsa's epic film scores. Rozsa, who replaced Dimitri Tiomkin, thought the film was tacky and inferior. In January, 2007, Digitmovies AE released a nearly complete version of the score on a two-CD set, which is taken from the Legend LP recording. Previously, other selections from the score were available on two CDs: one from Cambria Records and Publishing, which is taken from the composer's mono recordings and one from BMG, which is taken from the original LP.
Titles[edit]
Maurice Binder designed the title sequence that featured an orgy. He took three days to direct the sequence that was originally supposed to take one day.[8]
Reception[edit]
The movie was one of the 12 most popular films at the British box office in 1963.[9]
Time Out's review states that the film was a "low point" in the director's career and that the film represented a 1960s tackiness thankfully not seen anymore.[10]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Alain Silver and James Ursini, Whatever Happened to Robert Aldrich?, Limelight, 1995 p 260
2.Jump up ^ "Top Rental Features of 1963", Variety, 8 January 1964 p 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
3.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p229
4.Jump up ^ Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France at Box Office Story
5.Jump up ^ French box office results for Robert Aldrich films at Box Office Story
6.Jump up ^ By MURRAY SCHUMACH Special to The New,York Times. (1961, Nov 09). MOVIE PRODUCER SELLS THE PUBLIC. New York Times (1923-Current File). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/115281397?accountid=13902
7.Jump up ^ Brian Trenchard Smith on Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah at Trailers from Hell
8.Jump up ^ Christopher Frayling Ken Adam and the Art of Production Design, London and New York: Faber, 2005, p.91
9.Jump up ^ "Most Popular Films Of 1963." Times [London, England] 3 Jan. 1964: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012.
10.Jump up ^ GA [Geoff Andrew] Time Out Film; John Pym (ed.) Time Out Film Guide 2009, London: Ebury, 2008, p.986
External links[edit]
Sodom and Gomorrah at the Internet Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Robert Aldrich


Big Leaguer (1953) ·
 Apache (1954) ·
 Vera Cruz (1954) ·
 Kiss Me Deadly (1955) ·
 The Big Knife (1955) ·
 Autumn Leaves (1956) ·
 Attack (1956) ·
 Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) ·
 The Angry Hills (1959) ·
 The Last Sunset (1961) ·
 Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) ·
 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) ·
 4 for Texas (1963) ·
 Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) ·
 The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) ·
 The Dirty Dozen (1967) ·
 The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) ·
 The Killing of Sister George (1968) ·
 Too Late the Hero (1970) ·
 The Grissom Gang (1971) ·
 Ulzana's Raid (1972) ·
 Emperor of the North Pole (1973) ·
 The Longest Yard (1974) ·
 Hustle (1975) ·
 Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) ·
 The Choirboys (1977) ·
 The Frisco Kid (1979) ·
 ...All the Marbles (1981)
 

  


Categories: 1962 films
English-language films
1963 films
Titanus films
Italian films
20th Century Fox films
Films based on the Hebrew Bible
Films directed by Robert Aldrich
Religious epic films
Peplum films
Sodom and Gomorrah
Films shot in Morocco
Film scores by Miklós Rózsa




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Català
Deutsch
Français
Italiano
Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuvių
Македонски
Nederlands
日本語
Русский
Simple English
Edit links
This page was last modified on 10 April 2015, at 19:12.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah_(1962_film)

















Sodom and Gomorrah (1962 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorra (1962).jpg
Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Produced by
Joseph E. Levine
 Maurizio Lodi-Fe
Goffredo Lombardo
Written by
Giorgio Prosperi
Hugo Butler
Starring
Stewart Granger
Anouk Aimée
Pier Angeli
Stanley Baker
Rossana Podestà
Music by
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography
Alfio Contini
Silvano Ippoliti
Cyril J. Knowles
Mario Montuori
Edited by
Mario Serandrei
 Peter Tanner

Production
 company

Pathé
 SGC
Titanus

Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

4 October 1962 (Italy)
23 January 1963 (US)


Running time
 154 minutes
 111 min (cut edition)
Country
Italy/France/United States
Language
English
Budget
$4.5 million[1]
Box office
$2,500,000 (US/ Canada)[2][3]
 1,614,441 admissions (France)[4][5]
Sodom and Gomorrah — known in the USA as The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah — is a 1962 epic film which is loosely based on the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. The film was a Franco-Italian-American co-production made by Pathé, SGC and Titanus. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and produced by Maurizio Lodi-Fe, Goffredo Lombardo and Joseph E. Levine. The screenplay was by Giorgio Prosperi and Hugo Butler, the cinematography by Alfio Contini, Silvano Ippoliti, Cyril J. Knowles and Mario Montuori, the music score by Miklós Rózsa, the production design by Ken Adam and the costume design by Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni and Peter Tanner.
The film has a running time of 155 minutes. It is available on VHS and on Region 1 DVD-R.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Score
5 Titles
6 Reception
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
The twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah prosper because of their great deposits of salt, which are mined by an army of slaves. The decadent citizens, who have become wealthy by trading salt, live in luxury and use slaves as servants and for violent games of entertainment.
After a night of revelry, Astorath (Stanley Baker), the Prince of Sodom, tells slave girl Tamar (Scilla Gabel) to carry a message to the king of the Elamites, with whom he plans to overthrow his sister, Bera, Queen of Sodom (Anouk Aimée). Returning from her meeting in the desert with the Elamite leader, Tamar's is captured by a Sodomite patrol. Queen Brea demands the name of her co-conspirator. Tamar refuses to speak under interrogation and Bera has her and her two young sisters killed.
Meanwhile, Lot (Granger) leads his family and a Hebrew tribe through the desert, hoping that he can find a permanent home for his people along the fertile banks of the River Jordan. By contrast with the people of the twin cities the Hebrews are presented as a pious and austere people with high moral standards. As the Hebrews approach their destination, Lot meets the beautiful Ildith (Pier Angeli), who luxuriates in a litter while a group of slave girls in chains precede her over the rocky terrain. Lot assumes that Ildith owns these women. She tells him that she is also a slave, albeit the chief of the Queen of Sodom's body slaves. Lot tells her that owning slaves is evil. The following dialog ensues:

Ildith: "Evil? How strange you are. Where I come from, nothing is evil. Everything that gives pleasure is good."

Lot: "Where do you come from?"

Ildith: "There, not far. Just ahead: Sodom and Gomorrah."
Once Lot and his people reach the Jordan, he negotiates the use of the land on one side of the river with Queen Bera, promising her both grain and defense should Sodom's desert enemies attack. He makes one provision to their deal: any slave of Sodom who reaches the Hebrew camp will be granted asylum. She agrees, and in a surprising turn, gives Lot Ildith. Ildith is unwilling to leave the queen and her life of luxury in Sodom. Astorath is disgusted and baffled by his sister's easy terms with the Hebrews. However, he soon turns his attentions to Lot's flirtatious daughter, Shuah (Rossana Podestà).
Ildith dislikes the rough conditions of the Hebrew camp, but soon becomes a friend to Lot's daughters. She and Lot also fall in love and plan to marry. Love also blooms elsewhere in the camp as Shuah and Prince Astorath begin a secret affair. Lot's other daughter, Maleb (Claudia Mori) and his headstrong lieutenant, Ishmael (Rik Battaglia) also plan a marriage.
Lot and Ildith's wedding day celebrations are interrupted by an Elamite attack. Although the Hebrew farmers and the Sodomite soldiers fight valiantly, they are nearly defeated by the fierce nomadic warriors. As a last, desperate measure, Lot orders the dam that the Hebrews have built to be broken. His quick thinking saves the twin cities and the Hebrews, but the camp and the crops are destroyed. However, the flood waters reveal that the Hebrew camp is also the site of a vast salt deposit. Lot now believes that the Hebrews can move out of the wilderness and live among the Sodomites ("Separate, but in their full view," he cautions) by selling salt. (In the original Roadshow prints, this is where the theatrical intermission occurred.)
Some time later, Lot and Ildith now live in luxury in Sodom. Sodomites and Hebrews both revere Lot and seek his judgment. Ishmael however, believes that Lot has succumbed to luxury and instead should raise a force to liberate Sodom's mine slaves. Lot disagrees and advises Ishmael to wait, believing that the Sodomites will change their ways in time. Ishmael does not heed Lot and unsuccessfully tries to set the slaves free. He believes that the Hebrews will harbour the slaves, but they instead shut their doors on the desperate men who are soon recaptured and tortured to death. As the newly appointed minister of justice, Lot must now sentence Ishmael. However Ishmael is only one of Lot's problems, as he is confronted by the jealous Prince Astorath, who tells him that not only has he had both of Lot's daughters, but that Ildith has kept these affairs secret. An outraged Lot kills Astorath.
At this point, Queen Bera's plot becomes clear: she used the Hebrews to destroy the Elamite threat and also used Lot to rid her of her scheming brother. Lot becomes deeply remorseful that he has killed and that he has led his family and people into sin. Bera has him taken to prison.
While Lot asks God for forgiveness and guidance, two angels appear to tell him that God is displeased with the twin cities and will destroy them. Lot pleads with the angels to spare the city if he can find just ten Sodomite citizens who will repent and leave the cities with him. The angels agree and free both Lot and Ishmael from prison.
Meanwhile, many recaptured slaves are tortured to death on the wheel. As Queen Bera exclaims "But wait, the games have just begun," Lot appears seeking ten righteous Sodomites.
Although he has God's consent, Lot finds it impossible to persuade any Sodomite citizens to follow him, only the slaves are willing to accompany him. Even his own daughters, who believe Lot a hypocrite, at first refuse. Ildith, however, convinces them to leave, hoping that they will someday understand their father and his greatness as a leader. Shuah goes only grudgingly, telling Lot that she hopes to see him suffering as she is now that Astorath is dead.
Immediately after the Hebrews and Sodomite slaves leave, God assails Sodom with earthquakes and lightning. Queen Bera retreats with her slave Orphea to her palace, where they are killed under the collapsing pillars. Everybody flees into the streets and are crushed by collapsing towers. Not one single Sodomite lives to tell the tale.
Meanwhile Ildith now wishes she were back in Sodom. Despite her love for Lot, Ildith cannot accept his God, choosing to believe in Lot rather than in a Divine plan. Despite Lot's warnings, Ildith looks back at Sodom. God turns her into a pillar of salt just as He destroys the city with an atom bomb-like explosion. Lot collapses in grief. Maleb and Shuah rush to comfort him. He staggers off with the Hebrews, who wander the desert once more.
Cast[edit]
Stewart Granger as Lot
Anouk Aimée as Queen Bera
Pier Angeli as Ildith
Stanley Baker as Prince Astaroth
Rossana Podestà as Shuah
Rik Battaglia as Melchior
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ishmael
Scilla Gabel as Tamar
Anthony Steffen as The Captain (as Antonio de Teffi)
Gabriele Tinti as Lieutenant
Enzo Fiermonte as Eber
Daniele Vargas as Segur
Claudia Mori as Maleb
Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Alabias
Mitsuko Takara as Orphea
Massimo Pietrobon as Isaac
Mimmo Palmara as Arlok
Liana Del Balzo as Rich Hebrew woman
Francesco Tensi as 1st old man
Andrea Tagliabue as Eber's son
Alice Kessler as Dancer
Ellen Kessler as Dancer
Vittorio Artesi as Eber's other son (uncredited)
Pietro Ceccarelli as Officer in Sodom (uncredited)
Giovanna Galletti as Malik (uncredited)
Primo Moroni as 2nd old man (uncredited)
Mimmo Poli as Queen's cupbearer
Production[edit]
Joseph E. Levine was enticed into a co production with the Italian company Titanus. Levine:

All I saw was a bad script. They wanted a million dollars. I said 'let's get a good script and spent two million. I'll put up 60% of two million. The cost went up to $6 million. But not out of my pocket. I pay only 60% of two million.[6]
Sergio Leone was hired to shoot some second unit photography but he left during the shoot - either quitting or being fired. Location shooting took place near Marrakesh and the budget grew from $2 million to $5 million.[7]
Score[edit]
The film is notable for featuring the last of Miklos Rozsa's epic film scores. Rozsa, who replaced Dimitri Tiomkin, thought the film was tacky and inferior. In January, 2007, Digitmovies AE released a nearly complete version of the score on a two-CD set, which is taken from the Legend LP recording. Previously, other selections from the score were available on two CDs: one from Cambria Records and Publishing, which is taken from the composer's mono recordings and one from BMG, which is taken from the original LP.
Titles[edit]
Maurice Binder designed the title sequence that featured an orgy. He took three days to direct the sequence that was originally supposed to take one day.[8]
Reception[edit]
The movie was one of the 12 most popular films at the British box office in 1963.[9]
Time Out's review states that the film was a "low point" in the director's career and that the film represented a 1960s tackiness thankfully not seen anymore.[10]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Alain Silver and James Ursini, Whatever Happened to Robert Aldrich?, Limelight, 1995 p 260
2.Jump up ^ "Top Rental Features of 1963", Variety, 8 January 1964 p 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
3.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p229
4.Jump up ^ Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France at Box Office Story
5.Jump up ^ French box office results for Robert Aldrich films at Box Office Story
6.Jump up ^ By MURRAY SCHUMACH Special to The New,York Times. (1961, Nov 09). MOVIE PRODUCER SELLS THE PUBLIC. New York Times (1923-Current File). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/115281397?accountid=13902
7.Jump up ^ Brian Trenchard Smith on Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah at Trailers from Hell
8.Jump up ^ Christopher Frayling Ken Adam and the Art of Production Design, London and New York: Faber, 2005, p.91
9.Jump up ^ "Most Popular Films Of 1963." Times [London, England] 3 Jan. 1964: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012.
10.Jump up ^ GA [Geoff Andrew] Time Out Film; John Pym (ed.) Time Out Film Guide 2009, London: Ebury, 2008, p.986
External links[edit]
Sodom and Gomorrah at the Internet Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Robert Aldrich


Big Leaguer (1953) ·
 Apache (1954) ·
 Vera Cruz (1954) ·
 Kiss Me Deadly (1955) ·
 The Big Knife (1955) ·
 Autumn Leaves (1956) ·
 Attack (1956) ·
 Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) ·
 The Angry Hills (1959) ·
 The Last Sunset (1961) ·
 Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) ·
 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) ·
 4 for Texas (1963) ·
 Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) ·
 The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) ·
 The Dirty Dozen (1967) ·
 The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) ·
 The Killing of Sister George (1968) ·
 Too Late the Hero (1970) ·
 The Grissom Gang (1971) ·
 Ulzana's Raid (1972) ·
 Emperor of the North Pole (1973) ·
 The Longest Yard (1974) ·
 Hustle (1975) ·
 Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) ·
 The Choirboys (1977) ·
 The Frisco Kid (1979) ·
 ...All the Marbles (1981)
 

  


Categories: 1962 films
English-language films
1963 films
Titanus films
Italian films
20th Century Fox films
Films based on the Hebrew Bible
Films directed by Robert Aldrich
Religious epic films
Peplum films
Sodom and Gomorrah
Films shot in Morocco
Film scores by Miklós Rózsa




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Català
Deutsch
Français
Italiano
Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuvių
Македонски
Nederlands
日本語
Русский
Simple English
Edit links
This page was last modified on 10 April 2015, at 19:12.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah_(1962_film)














Demetrius and the Gladiators

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Demetrius and the Gladiators
Demetrius and the Gladiators poster.jpg
Original film poster

Directed by
Delmer Daves
Produced by
Frank Ross
Written by
Philip Dunne
Lloyd C. Douglas
Starring
Victor Mature
Susan Hayward
William Marshall
Michael Rennie
Debra Paget
Anne Bancroft
Jay Robinson
Ernest Borgnine
Barry Jones
Richard Egan
Music by
Franz Waxman
Cinematography
Milton R. Krasner
Edited by
Robert Fritch
Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

June 18, 1954


Running time
 101 min
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$1.99 million[1]
Box office
$26,000,000[2]
Demetrius and the Gladiators is a fictional 1954 sword-and-sandal drama film and a sequel to The Robe. The picture was made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was written by Philip Dunne based on characters created by Lloyd C. Douglas in The Robe.
The movie presents Victor Mature as Demetrius, a Christian slave made to fight in the Roman arena as a gladiator, and Susan Hayward as Messalina. The cast also features Ernest Borgnine, William Marshall, Michael Rennie, Jay Robinson as the depraved emperor Caligula, Debra Paget, a young Anne Bancroft in one of her earlier roles and Julie Newmar as a briefly seen dancing entertainer. The film is in Technicolor and Cinemascope.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The film begins with a clip from the previous film, showing its central characters Marcellus and Diana going to be martyred for their Christian beliefs on the order of Emperor Caligula. Before being executed, Diana hands the robe to Marcellus' servant Marcipor (David Leonard), telling him that it is "for the Big Fisherman," meaning Peter, who was a fisherman before being called as an apostle.
Peter (Michael Rennie) hands the robe to Demetrius while at the funeral of Marcellus and Diana before leaving on a journey to live in 'the north'. Caligula (Jay Robinson) becomes interested in the robe, thinking that it has magic powers and will bring him the 'eternal life' that Jesus had spoken of. He accosts his uncle Claudius (Barry Jones), wanting to know what had happened to it.
Demetrius, looking out for his Lucia (Debra Paget) and the robe and refusing to reveal its location, is arrested for assaulting a Roman soldier, and sentenced to the arena. Meanwhile, Lucia disguises herself to gain entrance to the gladiator school to see Demetrius. However, the two are forcibly separated on orders of Messalina (Susan Hayward), Claudius' wife. Lucia is then assaulted by Dardanius (Richard Egan) and the other gladiators, forcibly kissing her and trying to carry her to private chambers. Demetrius in desperation prays for God to save her, and suddenly it appears that Dardanius has broken Lucia's neck. All present are shocked at Lucia's apparent death, especially Demetrius, and he loses all his faith in Jesus Christ as God. Previously, he had avoided killing anyone in the Emperor's games, because of his religion, but all that now changes. His next time in the arena, not only does he fight, but he ferociously kills all the gladiators that took part in the attack on Lucia. The Roman spectators, including the Emperor, are thrilled. Demetrius is freed, and allowed to join the Praetorian Guard. Caligula asks if Demetrius renounces Christ; he does, and once Demetrius does this, Caligula frees him and inducts him into the guard with the rank of Tribune.
As a Tribune, Demetrius rejects the teachings of Christ (and of Isis when encountering Messalina praying to her statue), beginning an affair with Messalina. When Peter comes to visit them, he turns him away too. The affair continues for several months, and eventually Caligula finds out about it, and sends Demetrius to get the robe from the Christians.
Demetrius is taken to a small house, where he is surprised to find Lucia's body, lying on a bed. He finds out that she never had died, after all, but that when he prayed for God to save her, her sudden coma had accomplished her rescue. Now, months later, she is still unconscious. Demetrius realizes he has made a mistake, prays to the Christian God and she wakes up.
Demetrius takes the robe to the Emperor, who takes the robe down below to a prisoner. He has the prisoner killed, and tries to resurrect him. Furious that he cannot, Caligula accuses Demetrius of having brought him a fake, and that both the robe and Christ are frauds. Demetrius is horrified to learn that Caligula had a prisoner killed in order attempt to use the power of the robe to bring him back to life, and begins to make steps toward Caligula to attack him, but he is stopped by Caligula's guards and Demetrius is sent back to the arena. When the Emperor tries to have Demetrius executed, the Praetorian Guard (already angry at Caligula over worse pay and conditions) finally turns against Caligula and kills first Macro (Karl 'Killer' Davis), the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, then Caligula. Claudius is installed as Emperor by the Praetorian Guard almost immediately after Caligula is killed.
Soon after his installation, Claudius says that he is neither a god, nor would he likely become one anytime soon. Claudius says that he maintained the appearance of being weak to survive Caligula's rule, and that he would now take on the role of Emperor to the best of his ability. He gives Demetrius his final orders as a Tribune, to go to Peter and the other Christians and tell them that, as long as they do not act against the Empire, they have nothing to fear from Claudius. Messalina re-vows her constancy to her husband. Demetrius and Glycon (William Marshall) (another virtuous gladiator) take the robe to Peter, and they leave the Imperial Palace together.
Cast[edit]
Victor Mature - Demetrius
Susan Hayward - Messalina
Michael Rennie - Peter
Debra Paget - Lucia
Jay Robinson - Caligula
William Marshall - Glycon
Ernest Borgnine - Strabo
Barry Jones - Claudius
Anne Bancroft - Paula
Richard Egan - Dardanius
Charles Evans - Cassius Chaerea
Everett Glass - Kaeso
Fred Graham - Decurion
Selmer Jackson - Senator
Roy Jenson - Gladiator
Dayton Lummis - Magistrate
Paul Stader - Gladiator
George Eldredge - Chamberlain
Woody Strode - Gladiator
Jeff York - Albus
Jean Simmons - in clip from The Robe
Richard Burton - in clip from The Robe
Cameron Mitchell as voice of Jesus - in clip from The Robe
Carmen De Lavallade - Slave Girl
Julie Newmar - Primary Specialty Dancer
Paul Newlan - Potter
Reception[edit]
Demetrius and the Gladiators was a massive commercial success. In its initial release, the film earned $4.25 million in US theatrical rentals,[3][4] against a budget of less than $2 million. Overall, it grossed $26 million in North America,[2] making the 4th highest grossing film of 1954.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p249
2.^ Jump up to: a b Box Office Information for Demetrius and the Gladiators. The Numbers. Retrieved April 15, 2013
3.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p225
4.Jump up ^ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1954', Variety Weekly, January 5, 1955
External links[edit]
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the American Film Institute Catalog
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the Internet Movie Database
Demetrius and the Gladiators at AllMovie
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the TCM Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Delmer Daves


Destination Tokyo (1943) ·
 The Very Thought of You (1944) ·
 Hollywood Canteen (1944) ·
 Pride of the Marines (1945) ·
 The Red House (1947) ·
 Dark Passage (1947) ·
 To the Victor (1948) ·
 A Kiss in the Dark (1949) ·
 Task Force (1949) ·
 Broken Arrow (1950) ·
 Bird of Paradise (1951) ·
 Return of the Texan (1952) ·
 Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953) ·
 Never Let Me Go (1953) ·
 Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) ·
 Drum Beat (1954) ·
 Jubal (1956) ·
 The Last Wagon (1956) ·
 3:10 to Yuma (1957) ·
 Cowboy (1958) ·
 Kings Go Forth (1958) ·
 The Badlanders (1958) ·
 The Hanging Tree (1959) ·
 A Summer Place (1959) ·
 Parrish (1961) ·
 Susan Slade (1961) ·
 Rome Adventure (1962) ·
 Spencer's Mountain (1963) ·
 Youngblood Hawke (1964) ·
 The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965)
 

  


Categories: 1954 films
English-language films
American films
20th Century Fox films
Films about Christianity
Films about religion
American epic films
Film scores by Franz Waxman
Films set in ancient Rome
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films set in the 1st century
Films set in classical antiquity
Films directed by Delmer Daves
Religious epic films
Peplum films
Screenplays by Philip Dunne





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Català
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 02:14.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_and_the_Gladiators











Demetrius and the Gladiators

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Demetrius and the Gladiators
Demetrius and the Gladiators poster.jpg
Original film poster

Directed by
Delmer Daves
Produced by
Frank Ross
Written by
Philip Dunne
Lloyd C. Douglas
Starring
Victor Mature
Susan Hayward
William Marshall
Michael Rennie
Debra Paget
Anne Bancroft
Jay Robinson
Ernest Borgnine
Barry Jones
Richard Egan
Music by
Franz Waxman
Cinematography
Milton R. Krasner
Edited by
Robert Fritch
Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

June 18, 1954


Running time
 101 min
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$1.99 million[1]
Box office
$26,000,000[2]
Demetrius and the Gladiators is a fictional 1954 sword-and-sandal drama film and a sequel to The Robe. The picture was made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was written by Philip Dunne based on characters created by Lloyd C. Douglas in The Robe.
The movie presents Victor Mature as Demetrius, a Christian slave made to fight in the Roman arena as a gladiator, and Susan Hayward as Messalina. The cast also features Ernest Borgnine, William Marshall, Michael Rennie, Jay Robinson as the depraved emperor Caligula, Debra Paget, a young Anne Bancroft in one of her earlier roles and Julie Newmar as a briefly seen dancing entertainer. The film is in Technicolor and Cinemascope.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The film begins with a clip from the previous film, showing its central characters Marcellus and Diana going to be martyred for their Christian beliefs on the order of Emperor Caligula. Before being executed, Diana hands the robe to Marcellus' servant Marcipor (David Leonard), telling him that it is "for the Big Fisherman," meaning Peter, who was a fisherman before being called as an apostle.
Peter (Michael Rennie) hands the robe to Demetrius while at the funeral of Marcellus and Diana before leaving on a journey to live in 'the north'. Caligula (Jay Robinson) becomes interested in the robe, thinking that it has magic powers and will bring him the 'eternal life' that Jesus had spoken of. He accosts his uncle Claudius (Barry Jones), wanting to know what had happened to it.
Demetrius, looking out for his Lucia (Debra Paget) and the robe and refusing to reveal its location, is arrested for assaulting a Roman soldier, and sentenced to the arena. Meanwhile, Lucia disguises herself to gain entrance to the gladiator school to see Demetrius. However, the two are forcibly separated on orders of Messalina (Susan Hayward), Claudius' wife. Lucia is then assaulted by Dardanius (Richard Egan) and the other gladiators, forcibly kissing her and trying to carry her to private chambers. Demetrius in desperation prays for God to save her, and suddenly it appears that Dardanius has broken Lucia's neck. All present are shocked at Lucia's apparent death, especially Demetrius, and he loses all his faith in Jesus Christ as God. Previously, he had avoided killing anyone in the Emperor's games, because of his religion, but all that now changes. His next time in the arena, not only does he fight, but he ferociously kills all the gladiators that took part in the attack on Lucia. The Roman spectators, including the Emperor, are thrilled. Demetrius is freed, and allowed to join the Praetorian Guard. Caligula asks if Demetrius renounces Christ; he does, and once Demetrius does this, Caligula frees him and inducts him into the guard with the rank of Tribune.
As a Tribune, Demetrius rejects the teachings of Christ (and of Isis when encountering Messalina praying to her statue), beginning an affair with Messalina. When Peter comes to visit them, he turns him away too. The affair continues for several months, and eventually Caligula finds out about it, and sends Demetrius to get the robe from the Christians.
Demetrius is taken to a small house, where he is surprised to find Lucia's body, lying on a bed. He finds out that she never had died, after all, but that when he prayed for God to save her, her sudden coma had accomplished her rescue. Now, months later, she is still unconscious. Demetrius realizes he has made a mistake, prays to the Christian God and she wakes up.
Demetrius takes the robe to the Emperor, who takes the robe down below to a prisoner. He has the prisoner killed, and tries to resurrect him. Furious that he cannot, Caligula accuses Demetrius of having brought him a fake, and that both the robe and Christ are frauds. Demetrius is horrified to learn that Caligula had a prisoner killed in order attempt to use the power of the robe to bring him back to life, and begins to make steps toward Caligula to attack him, but he is stopped by Caligula's guards and Demetrius is sent back to the arena. When the Emperor tries to have Demetrius executed, the Praetorian Guard (already angry at Caligula over worse pay and conditions) finally turns against Caligula and kills first Macro (Karl 'Killer' Davis), the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, then Caligula. Claudius is installed as Emperor by the Praetorian Guard almost immediately after Caligula is killed.
Soon after his installation, Claudius says that he is neither a god, nor would he likely become one anytime soon. Claudius says that he maintained the appearance of being weak to survive Caligula's rule, and that he would now take on the role of Emperor to the best of his ability. He gives Demetrius his final orders as a Tribune, to go to Peter and the other Christians and tell them that, as long as they do not act against the Empire, they have nothing to fear from Claudius. Messalina re-vows her constancy to her husband. Demetrius and Glycon (William Marshall) (another virtuous gladiator) take the robe to Peter, and they leave the Imperial Palace together.
Cast[edit]
Victor Mature - Demetrius
Susan Hayward - Messalina
Michael Rennie - Peter
Debra Paget - Lucia
Jay Robinson - Caligula
William Marshall - Glycon
Ernest Borgnine - Strabo
Barry Jones - Claudius
Anne Bancroft - Paula
Richard Egan - Dardanius
Charles Evans - Cassius Chaerea
Everett Glass - Kaeso
Fred Graham - Decurion
Selmer Jackson - Senator
Roy Jenson - Gladiator
Dayton Lummis - Magistrate
Paul Stader - Gladiator
George Eldredge - Chamberlain
Woody Strode - Gladiator
Jeff York - Albus
Jean Simmons - in clip from The Robe
Richard Burton - in clip from The Robe
Cameron Mitchell as voice of Jesus - in clip from The Robe
Carmen De Lavallade - Slave Girl
Julie Newmar - Primary Specialty Dancer
Paul Newlan - Potter
Reception[edit]
Demetrius and the Gladiators was a massive commercial success. In its initial release, the film earned $4.25 million in US theatrical rentals,[3][4] against a budget of less than $2 million. Overall, it grossed $26 million in North America,[2] making the 4th highest grossing film of 1954.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p249
2.^ Jump up to: a b Box Office Information for Demetrius and the Gladiators. The Numbers. Retrieved April 15, 2013
3.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p225
4.Jump up ^ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1954', Variety Weekly, January 5, 1955
External links[edit]
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the American Film Institute Catalog
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the Internet Movie Database
Demetrius and the Gladiators at AllMovie
Demetrius and the Gladiators at the TCM Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Delmer Daves


Destination Tokyo (1943) ·
 The Very Thought of You (1944) ·
 Hollywood Canteen (1944) ·
 Pride of the Marines (1945) ·
 The Red House (1947) ·
 Dark Passage (1947) ·
 To the Victor (1948) ·
 A Kiss in the Dark (1949) ·
 Task Force (1949) ·
 Broken Arrow (1950) ·
 Bird of Paradise (1951) ·
 Return of the Texan (1952) ·
 Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953) ·
 Never Let Me Go (1953) ·
 Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) ·
 Drum Beat (1954) ·
 Jubal (1956) ·
 The Last Wagon (1956) ·
 3:10 to Yuma (1957) ·
 Cowboy (1958) ·
 Kings Go Forth (1958) ·
 The Badlanders (1958) ·
 The Hanging Tree (1959) ·
 A Summer Place (1959) ·
 Parrish (1961) ·
 Susan Slade (1961) ·
 Rome Adventure (1962) ·
 Spencer's Mountain (1963) ·
 Youngblood Hawke (1964) ·
 The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965)
 

  


Categories: 1954 films
English-language films
American films
20th Century Fox films
Films about Christianity
Films about religion
American epic films
Film scores by Franz Waxman
Films set in ancient Rome
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films set in the 1st century
Films set in classical antiquity
Films directed by Delmer Daves
Religious epic films
Peplum films
Screenplays by Philip Dunne





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Català
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 02:14.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_and_the_Gladiators












The Robe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see The Robe (disambiguation).
The Robe

Author
Lloyd C. Douglas
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Christian novel
Publisher
Peter Davies, London, 1956

Publication date
 1942
Media type
Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages
556
Followed by
The Big Fisherman
The Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in October 1942, and four weeks later rose to No. 1. It held the position for nearly a year. The Robe remained on the list for another two years, returning several other times over the next several years including when the film adaptation (featuring Richard Burton in an early role) was released in 1953.


Contents  [hide]
1 Inspiration
2 Plot
3 The film
4 Soundtrack
5 References
6 External links

Inspiration[edit]
Lloyd C. Douglas began his literary career after leaving the ministry at the age of 52. All of his novels, essays, and short stories relied on his spiritual background for thematic and creative inspiration. At the height of his popularity, Douglas was receiving on average 100 letters a week from fans. One of these letters provided the inspiration for The Robe. Hazel McCann, a department store clerk from Ohio, wrote to Douglas asking what he thought had happened to Christ's garments after the crucifixion. Douglas immediately began working on a novel based on this concept, sending each chapter to McCann as he finished it. Douglas and McCann finally met in 1941, and it is to her that Douglas has dedicated the book.[1]
Plot[edit]
The book explores the aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus through the experiences of the Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio and his Greek slave Demetrius. Prince Gaius, in an effort to rid Rome of Marcellus, banishes Marcellus to the command of the Roman garrison at Minoa, a port city in southern Palestine. In Jerusalem during Passover, Marcellus ends up carrying out the crucifixion of Jesus, but is troubled since he believes Jesus to be innocent of any crime.
Marcellus and some other soldiers throw dice to see who will take Jesus' seamless robe. Marcellus wins and asks Demetrius to take care of the robe. Following the crucifixion, Marcellus takes part in a banquet attended by Pontius Pilate. During the banquet, a drunken centurion insists that Marcellus wear Jesus' robe; reluctantly wearing the garment, Marcellus apparently suffers a nervous breakdown and returns to Rome.
Sent to Athens to recuperate, Marcellus finally gives in to Demetrius' urging and touches the robe; his mind is subsequently restored. Marcellus, now believing the robe has some sort of innate power, returns to Judea and follows the path Jesus took and meets many people whose lives Jesus had affected. Based upon their experiences first Demetrius and then Marcellus become followers of Jesus. Marcellus then returns to Rome where he must report his experiences to the emperor, Tiberius. Marcellus frees Demetrius who escapes, but later on because of his uncompromising stance regarding his Christian faith both Marcellus and his new wife Diana are executed by the new emperor, Caligula. Marcellus arranges that the robe be given to "The Big Fisherman."
The film[edit]
Main article: The Robe (film)
Despite its impressive run in publication, The Robe is more familiar today as a 1953 Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman tribune named Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus Christ. It was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, while Burton won a nomination as Best Actor. There was a sequel known as Demetrius and the Gladiators starring Victor Mature as the title character who fights in the Roman arena.
Soundtrack[edit]
"The Robe" (1953) composed by Alfred Newman conducting the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra (Varese Sarabande VSD 5295)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Newsweek
John Bear, The #1 New York Times Best Seller: Intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992
External links[edit]
Online Editions:
The Robe available freely at the Project Gutenberg of Australia website.
  


Categories: 1942 novels
American Christian novels
Novels set in Ancient Rome
Novels set in Ancient Israel
Crucifixion of Jesus
American novels adapted into films




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Ελληνικά
فارسی
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 March 2015, at 14:40.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robe











The Robe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see The Robe (disambiguation).
The Robe

Author
Lloyd C. Douglas
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Christian novel
Publisher
Peter Davies, London, 1956

Publication date
 1942
Media type
Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages
556
Followed by
The Big Fisherman
The Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in October 1942, and four weeks later rose to No. 1. It held the position for nearly a year. The Robe remained on the list for another two years, returning several other times over the next several years including when the film adaptation (featuring Richard Burton in an early role) was released in 1953.


Contents  [hide]
1 Inspiration
2 Plot
3 The film
4 Soundtrack
5 References
6 External links

Inspiration[edit]
Lloyd C. Douglas began his literary career after leaving the ministry at the age of 52. All of his novels, essays, and short stories relied on his spiritual background for thematic and creative inspiration. At the height of his popularity, Douglas was receiving on average 100 letters a week from fans. One of these letters provided the inspiration for The Robe. Hazel McCann, a department store clerk from Ohio, wrote to Douglas asking what he thought had happened to Christ's garments after the crucifixion. Douglas immediately began working on a novel based on this concept, sending each chapter to McCann as he finished it. Douglas and McCann finally met in 1941, and it is to her that Douglas has dedicated the book.[1]
Plot[edit]
The book explores the aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus through the experiences of the Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio and his Greek slave Demetrius. Prince Gaius, in an effort to rid Rome of Marcellus, banishes Marcellus to the command of the Roman garrison at Minoa, a port city in southern Palestine. In Jerusalem during Passover, Marcellus ends up carrying out the crucifixion of Jesus, but is troubled since he believes Jesus to be innocent of any crime.
Marcellus and some other soldiers throw dice to see who will take Jesus' seamless robe. Marcellus wins and asks Demetrius to take care of the robe. Following the crucifixion, Marcellus takes part in a banquet attended by Pontius Pilate. During the banquet, a drunken centurion insists that Marcellus wear Jesus' robe; reluctantly wearing the garment, Marcellus apparently suffers a nervous breakdown and returns to Rome.
Sent to Athens to recuperate, Marcellus finally gives in to Demetrius' urging and touches the robe; his mind is subsequently restored. Marcellus, now believing the robe has some sort of innate power, returns to Judea and follows the path Jesus took and meets many people whose lives Jesus had affected. Based upon their experiences first Demetrius and then Marcellus become followers of Jesus. Marcellus then returns to Rome where he must report his experiences to the emperor, Tiberius. Marcellus frees Demetrius who escapes, but later on because of his uncompromising stance regarding his Christian faith both Marcellus and his new wife Diana are executed by the new emperor, Caligula. Marcellus arranges that the robe be given to "The Big Fisherman."
The film[edit]
Main article: The Robe (film)
Despite its impressive run in publication, The Robe is more familiar today as a 1953 Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman tribune named Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus Christ. It was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, while Burton won a nomination as Best Actor. There was a sequel known as Demetrius and the Gladiators starring Victor Mature as the title character who fights in the Roman arena.
Soundtrack[edit]
"The Robe" (1953) composed by Alfred Newman conducting the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra (Varese Sarabande VSD 5295)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Newsweek
John Bear, The #1 New York Times Best Seller: Intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992
External links[edit]
Online Editions:
The Robe available freely at the Project Gutenberg of Australia website.
  


Categories: 1942 novels
American Christian novels
Novels set in Ancient Rome
Novels set in Ancient Israel
Crucifixion of Jesus
American novels adapted into films




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Ελληνικά
فارسی
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 March 2015, at 14:40.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robe














The Robe (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


The Robe
The Robe (1953 movie poster).jpg
Original CinemaScope poster

Directed by
Henry Koster
Produced by
Frank Ross
Screenplay by
Gina Kaus
Albert Maltz
Philip Dunne

Based on
The Robe
 by Lloyd C. Douglas
Starring
Richard Burton
Jean Simmons
Victor Mature
Michael Rennie

Music by
Alfred Newman
Cinematography
Leon Shamroy
Edited by
Barbara McLean
Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

September 16, 1953


Running time
 135 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$4.1 million[1]
Box office
$36 million (United States)[2]
The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.[3] Like other early CinemaScope films, The Robe was shot with Henri Chrétien's original Hypergonar Anamorphic lenses.
The picture was directed by Henry Koster and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was adapted by Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz, and Philip Dunne from the Lloyd C. Douglas novel of the same name. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman and the cinematography was by Leon Shamroy.
The first widescreen movie in more than two decades stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie, with Dean Jagger, Jay Robinson, Richard Boone, and Jeff Morrow. The Robe had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators.
The reason Lloyd Douglas said he wrote the novel The Robe was to answer a question through fiction: what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe through a dice game?


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Historical inaccuracies
3 Cast
4 Background and production
5 Reception
6 Awards and nominations
7 First telecast
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
The action takes place in Ancient Rome, Judaea, Capri, and Galilee in a time period stretching from A.D. 32 to A.D. 38[4]
Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), son of an important Roman senator (Torin Thatcher) and himself a military tribune, begins the film in a prologue that introduces the viewer to the might and scope of the Roman empire. He is notorious as a ladies’ man, but he is captivated by the reappearance of a childhood sweetheart, Diana (Jean Simmons), ward of the Emperor Tiberius (Ernest Thesiger). Diana is unofficially pledged in marriage to Tiberius' regent, Caligula (Jay Robinson).
In a slave market, Marcellus makes the mistake of bidding against Caligula for a defiant Greek slave Demetrius (Victor Mature) and winning. Angrily Caligula issues orders for Marcellus to receive a military transfer to Jerusalem in Palestine.
Marcellus has Demetrius released, and he orders him to go on his own to the Gallio home. Marcellus is surprised to find Demetrius waiting for him when he gets home. Unofficially Marcellus had freed Demetrius, but Demetrius feels honor bound to compensate Marcellus by being his servant. Demetrius accompanies Marcellus to Palestine, but before the galley sails, Diana comes to see Marcellus, pledging her love for him and her intention to intercede on his behalf with Tiberius. Marcellus declares his love for Diana and asks her to make the emperor promise not to give her in marriage to Caligula.
Marcellus rides into Jerusalem with the centurion Paulus (Jeff Morrow) on the same day as Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Demetrius locks gazes with Jesus, and feels compelled to follow him. Jesus is arrested and condemned by Pontius Pilate (Richard Boone), the procurator, who sends for Marcellus to take charge of the detail of Roman soldiers assigned to crucify him. Marcellus wins the robe worn by Jesus in a dice game and is told it will be a reminder of his first crucifixion.
Marcellus begins to feel remorse for the crucifixion of Jesus. Demetrius has had enough: he curses Marcellus and the Roman Empire and runs away. Marcellus now behaves like a madman haunted by nightmares of the crucifixion. He reports to the kindly Emperor Tiberius at Capri, who gives him an imperial commission to find and destroy the robe while gathering a list of names of Jesus' followers. At Diana's request, Tiberius leaves her free to marry Marcellus even though Tiberius believes him to be mad.
Marcellus travels to Palestine and seeks to ingratiate himself with Justus (Dean Jagger), a weaver in Cana and the Christian community that he leads. He sees examples of Christian life in Justus' miraculously healed son and in the paralytic Miriam. Marcellus finds Demetrius alone in an inn, and demands that he destroy the robe. Demetrius gives the robe to Marcellus, who refuses to touch it. He is terrified, but as the robe touches him, he is relieved from the madness of his guilt, and becomes a Christian.
Justus calls the villagers together and begins to introduce Peter when he is killed by an arrow from a detachment of Roman soldiers. Marcellus intervenes, and Paulus informs him that his orders are no longer valid; Tiberius is dead and Caligula is emperor. Marcellus informs Paulus that an imperial commission is valid even after a Roman emperor dies. Paulus tells Marcellus to make him obey via a sword duel. After a prolonged struggle Marcellus prevails. Rather than killing Paulus, Marcellus hurls his sword into a tree. Paulus, humiliated by his defeat, orders the soldiers to leave.
Peter invites Marcellus to join him and Demetrius as missionaries. Marcellus hesitates, out of guilt, but when Peter tells him of his own denial of Jesus, Marcellus confesses his role in Jesus' death. Peter points out to him that Jesus forgave him from the cross, and Marcellus pledges his life to Jesus and agrees to go with them. Their missionary journey takes them eventually, to Rome, where they must proceed "undercover" as Caligula has proscribed them.
In Rome, Caligula summons Diana from her retreat at the Gallio home to tell her that Marcellus has become a traitor to Rome by being a Christian. He takes her to the guard room where a captured Demetrius is being tortured. Diana runs out of the palace to Marcipor (David Leonard), the Gallio family slave, who is a secret Christian. Diana guesses that Marcipor is a Christian and has seen Marcellus, and she gets him to take her to Marcellus.
Marcellus and Diana are reunited, and Marcellus tells her the story of the robe and his own conversion. Diana helps Marcellus rescue Demetrius. Peter comes to the Gallio home where Demetrius has been taken and heals him. Caligula issues orders to bring Marcellus to him alive to stand trial by the end of the day.
After witnessing Peter's healing of Demetrius, the physician attending Demetrius goes to denounce them to the authorities. Marcellus' father disowns him as an enemy of Rome. Marcellus flees with Demetrius but, when Marcellus gives himself up so that Demetrius can escape, he is captured and put on trial.
Caligula makes Diana sit next to him for Marcellus' trial. Marcellus admits to being a Christian; however, he denies the charge that Christians are plotting against the state. Marcellus tries to show Caligula his opportunity to accept Christ as he tries to hand the robe to Caligula but Caligula refuses to touch it as he considers it to be "bewitched".
Caligula condemns Marcellus to death by the wish of the members of the audience based on what they've heard. Diana then accepts Christ, and seeks to join Marcellus, the man she considers to be her husband, in His Kingdom. Caligula condemns Diana to die alongside Marcellus.
Historical inaccuracies[edit]
Despite the careful attention to Roman history and culture displayed in the film, there are some inaccuracies: the emperor Tiberius' wife Julia, who had been banished from Rome by her father Augustus years before Tiberius acceded to the imperial throne, was already dead.
Cast[edit]
CreditedRichard Burton as Marcellus Gallio
Jean Simmons as Diana
Victor Mature as Demetrius
Michael Rennie as Peter
Jay Robinson as Caligula
Dean Jagger as Justus
Torin Thatcher as Senator Gallio
Richard Boone as Pontius Pilate
Betta St. John as Miriam
Jeff Morrow as Paulus
Ernest Thesiger as Tiberius
Dawn Addams as Junia
Leon Askin as Abidor
 UncreditedMichael Ansara as Judas
Helen Beverley as Rebecca
Sally Corner as Cornelia Gallio
Rosalind Ivan as Empress Julia the Elder
Donald C. Klune as Jesus of Nazareth
David Leonard as Marcipor
Cameron Mitchell as the voice of Jesus
Jay Novello as Tiro
Frank Pulaski as Quintus
Pamela Robinson as Lucia Gallio

Background and production[edit]
The Robe was originally announced for filming by RKO in the 1940s, and was set to be directed by Mervyn LeRoy,[5] but the rights were eventually sold to Twentieth Century Fox for a reported $100,000.[6]
Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the role of Demetrius.[7]
The film was advertised as "the modern miracle you see without glasses", a dig at the 3D movies of the day. Since many theaters of the day were not equipped to show a CinemaScope film, two versions of The Robe were made: one in the standard screen ratio of the day, the other in the widescreen process. Setups and some dialogue differ between the versions.
The film was usually shown on television using the standard 1.33:1 aspect ratio version that fills a standard television screen rather than the CinemaScope version. American Movie Classics may have been the first to offer telecasts of the widescreen version. Recent DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of the film, however, present the film in the original widescreen format, as well as the multitrack stereophonic soundtrack. The 2009 DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases contain a special feature that compares selected scenes between the Cinemascope version and the standard version.
When the original soundtrack album was issued on LP by Decca Records, it used a remix for only monaural sound rather than the stereo sound that was originally recorded. MCA, which acquired the rights to the American Decca recordings, issued an electronic stereo version of the mono tape. RCA Victor included a suite from the film, recorded in Dolby surround sound, in its album Captain from Castile, which honored longtime Fox musical director Alfred Newman (composer of the The Robe's musical score); Charles Gerhardt conducted London's National Philharmonic Chorus. In 2003, Varèse Sarabande released a two-CD set of the original stereophonic recording on their club label. The 2009 DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases contain isolated stereophonic score tracks.
Reception[edit]
The film earned an estimated $17.5 million in North America during its initial theatrical release.[8]
The film had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), which featured Victor Mature in the title-role, making The Robe the only Biblical epic with a sequel.
Awards and nominations[edit]
26th Academy Awards:
Wins[9]Best Art Direction (Color): Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler, George Davis; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox
Best Costume Design (Color): Charles LeMaire, Emile Santiago
NominationsBest Motion Picture: Frank Ross, Producer
Best Actor: Richard Burton
Best Cinematography (Color): Leon Shamroy
11th Golden Globe Awards:
WinsBest Motion Picture - Drama
First telecast[edit]
The film was first telecast by ABC-TV on Easter weekend in 1967, at the relatively early hour of 7:00 P.M., E.S.T, to allow for family viewing. In a highly unusual move, the film was shown with only one commercial break – a luxury not even granted to the then-annual telecasts of The Wizard of Oz.[10]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p248
2.Jump up ^ The Robe. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
3.Jump up ^ Chrissochoidis, Ilias (ed.). CinemaScope: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive. Stanford, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ The beginning date is given as the 18th year of Tiberius, and the ending date is a year after the historical year of the accession of Caligula (Jay Robinson) as Roman emperor. Diana tells Caligula that she had not heard from Marcellus for almost a year when Marcellus was in Cana of Galilee. At that time Marcellus was told by Paulus that Caligula was then the emperor.
5.Jump up ^ "Religion: Celluloid Revival". Time. April 24, 1944. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
6.Jump up ^ "STAGE AND SCREEN.". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954) (Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia). 1 August 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
7.Jump up ^ Jeff Chandler Likely for Demetrius; 'Highest Mountain' New Purchase Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 01 Aug 1952: B7.
8.Jump up ^ "All Time Domestic Champs", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
9.Jump up ^ "Oscars.org -- The Robe". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
10.Jump up ^ "Television: Mar. 24, 1967". Time. March 24, 1967. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Robe (film).
The Robe at the American Film Institute Catalog
The Robe at the Internet Movie Database
The Robe at AllMovie
The Robe at the TCM Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Henry Koster


Thea Roland (1932) ·
 Peter (1934) ·
 Little Mother (1935) ·
 The Affairs of Maupassant (1936) ·
 Catherine the Last (1936) ·
 Three Smart Girls (1936) ·
 One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) ·
 The Rage of Paris (1938) ·
 Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) ·
 First Love (1939) ·
 Spring Parade (1940) ·
 It Started with Eve (1941) ·
 Between Us Girls (1942) ·
 Music for Millions (1944) ·
 Two Sisters from Boston (1946) ·
 The Unfinished Dance (1947) ·
 The Bishop's Wife (1947) ·
 The Luck of the Irish (1948) ·
 Come to the Stable (1949) ·
 The Inspector General (1949) ·
 Wabash Avenue (1950) ·
 My Blue Heaven (1950) ·
 Harvey (1950) ·
 No Highway in the Sky (1951) ·
 Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) ·
 Elopement (1951) ·
 Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) ·
 My Cousin Rachel (1952) ·
 The Robe (1953) ·
 Désirée (1954) ·
 A Man Called Peter (1955) ·
 The Virgin Queen (1955) ·
 Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) ·
 D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) ·
 The Power and the Prize (1956) ·
 My Man Godfrey (1957) ·
 Fräulein (1958) ·
 The Naked Maja (1958) ·
 The Story of Ruth (1960) ·
 Flower Drum Song (1961) ·
 Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) ·
 Take Her, She's Mine (1963) ·
 Dear Brigitte (1965) ·
 The Singing Nun (1966)
 

  


Categories: 1953 films
English-language films
American films
20th Century Fox films
Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners
Films based on American novels
American epic films
Religious epic films
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Films set in Rome
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films set in the 1st century
Films directed by Henry Koster
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Films shot in multiple formats
Films that won the Best Costume Design Academy Award
Film scores by Alfred Newman
Films set in ancient Rome
Screenplays by Philip Dunne






Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Català
Deutsch
Español
Euskara
Français
한국어
Italiano
Lëtzebuergesch
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 03:11.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robe_(film)















The Robe (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


The Robe
The Robe (1953 movie poster).jpg
Original CinemaScope poster

Directed by
Henry Koster
Produced by
Frank Ross
Screenplay by
Gina Kaus
Albert Maltz
Philip Dunne

Based on
The Robe
 by Lloyd C. Douglas
Starring
Richard Burton
Jean Simmons
Victor Mature
Michael Rennie

Music by
Alfred Newman
Cinematography
Leon Shamroy
Edited by
Barbara McLean
Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release dates

September 16, 1953


Running time
 135 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$4.1 million[1]
Box office
$36 million (United States)[2]
The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.[3] Like other early CinemaScope films, The Robe was shot with Henri Chrétien's original Hypergonar Anamorphic lenses.
The picture was directed by Henry Koster and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was adapted by Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz, and Philip Dunne from the Lloyd C. Douglas novel of the same name. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman and the cinematography was by Leon Shamroy.
The first widescreen movie in more than two decades stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie, with Dean Jagger, Jay Robinson, Richard Boone, and Jeff Morrow. The Robe had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators.
The reason Lloyd Douglas said he wrote the novel The Robe was to answer a question through fiction: what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe through a dice game?


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Historical inaccuracies
3 Cast
4 Background and production
5 Reception
6 Awards and nominations
7 First telecast
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
The action takes place in Ancient Rome, Judaea, Capri, and Galilee in a time period stretching from A.D. 32 to A.D. 38[4]
Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), son of an important Roman senator (Torin Thatcher) and himself a military tribune, begins the film in a prologue that introduces the viewer to the might and scope of the Roman empire. He is notorious as a ladies’ man, but he is captivated by the reappearance of a childhood sweetheart, Diana (Jean Simmons), ward of the Emperor Tiberius (Ernest Thesiger). Diana is unofficially pledged in marriage to Tiberius' regent, Caligula (Jay Robinson).
In a slave market, Marcellus makes the mistake of bidding against Caligula for a defiant Greek slave Demetrius (Victor Mature) and winning. Angrily Caligula issues orders for Marcellus to receive a military transfer to Jerusalem in Palestine.
Marcellus has Demetrius released, and he orders him to go on his own to the Gallio home. Marcellus is surprised to find Demetrius waiting for him when he gets home. Unofficially Marcellus had freed Demetrius, but Demetrius feels honor bound to compensate Marcellus by being his servant. Demetrius accompanies Marcellus to Palestine, but before the galley sails, Diana comes to see Marcellus, pledging her love for him and her intention to intercede on his behalf with Tiberius. Marcellus declares his love for Diana and asks her to make the emperor promise not to give her in marriage to Caligula.
Marcellus rides into Jerusalem with the centurion Paulus (Jeff Morrow) on the same day as Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Demetrius locks gazes with Jesus, and feels compelled to follow him. Jesus is arrested and condemned by Pontius Pilate (Richard Boone), the procurator, who sends for Marcellus to take charge of the detail of Roman soldiers assigned to crucify him. Marcellus wins the robe worn by Jesus in a dice game and is told it will be a reminder of his first crucifixion.
Marcellus begins to feel remorse for the crucifixion of Jesus. Demetrius has had enough: he curses Marcellus and the Roman Empire and runs away. Marcellus now behaves like a madman haunted by nightmares of the crucifixion. He reports to the kindly Emperor Tiberius at Capri, who gives him an imperial commission to find and destroy the robe while gathering a list of names of Jesus' followers. At Diana's request, Tiberius leaves her free to marry Marcellus even though Tiberius believes him to be mad.
Marcellus travels to Palestine and seeks to ingratiate himself with Justus (Dean Jagger), a weaver in Cana and the Christian community that he leads. He sees examples of Christian life in Justus' miraculously healed son and in the paralytic Miriam. Marcellus finds Demetrius alone in an inn, and demands that he destroy the robe. Demetrius gives the robe to Marcellus, who refuses to touch it. He is terrified, but as the robe touches him, he is relieved from the madness of his guilt, and becomes a Christian.
Justus calls the villagers together and begins to introduce Peter when he is killed by an arrow from a detachment of Roman soldiers. Marcellus intervenes, and Paulus informs him that his orders are no longer valid; Tiberius is dead and Caligula is emperor. Marcellus informs Paulus that an imperial commission is valid even after a Roman emperor dies. Paulus tells Marcellus to make him obey via a sword duel. After a prolonged struggle Marcellus prevails. Rather than killing Paulus, Marcellus hurls his sword into a tree. Paulus, humiliated by his defeat, orders the soldiers to leave.
Peter invites Marcellus to join him and Demetrius as missionaries. Marcellus hesitates, out of guilt, but when Peter tells him of his own denial of Jesus, Marcellus confesses his role in Jesus' death. Peter points out to him that Jesus forgave him from the cross, and Marcellus pledges his life to Jesus and agrees to go with them. Their missionary journey takes them eventually, to Rome, where they must proceed "undercover" as Caligula has proscribed them.
In Rome, Caligula summons Diana from her retreat at the Gallio home to tell her that Marcellus has become a traitor to Rome by being a Christian. He takes her to the guard room where a captured Demetrius is being tortured. Diana runs out of the palace to Marcipor (David Leonard), the Gallio family slave, who is a secret Christian. Diana guesses that Marcipor is a Christian and has seen Marcellus, and she gets him to take her to Marcellus.
Marcellus and Diana are reunited, and Marcellus tells her the story of the robe and his own conversion. Diana helps Marcellus rescue Demetrius. Peter comes to the Gallio home where Demetrius has been taken and heals him. Caligula issues orders to bring Marcellus to him alive to stand trial by the end of the day.
After witnessing Peter's healing of Demetrius, the physician attending Demetrius goes to denounce them to the authorities. Marcellus' father disowns him as an enemy of Rome. Marcellus flees with Demetrius but, when Marcellus gives himself up so that Demetrius can escape, he is captured and put on trial.
Caligula makes Diana sit next to him for Marcellus' trial. Marcellus admits to being a Christian; however, he denies the charge that Christians are plotting against the state. Marcellus tries to show Caligula his opportunity to accept Christ as he tries to hand the robe to Caligula but Caligula refuses to touch it as he considers it to be "bewitched".
Caligula condemns Marcellus to death by the wish of the members of the audience based on what they've heard. Diana then accepts Christ, and seeks to join Marcellus, the man she considers to be her husband, in His Kingdom. Caligula condemns Diana to die alongside Marcellus.
Historical inaccuracies[edit]
Despite the careful attention to Roman history and culture displayed in the film, there are some inaccuracies: the emperor Tiberius' wife Julia, who had been banished from Rome by her father Augustus years before Tiberius acceded to the imperial throne, was already dead.
Cast[edit]
CreditedRichard Burton as Marcellus Gallio
Jean Simmons as Diana
Victor Mature as Demetrius
Michael Rennie as Peter
Jay Robinson as Caligula
Dean Jagger as Justus
Torin Thatcher as Senator Gallio
Richard Boone as Pontius Pilate
Betta St. John as Miriam
Jeff Morrow as Paulus
Ernest Thesiger as Tiberius
Dawn Addams as Junia
Leon Askin as Abidor
 UncreditedMichael Ansara as Judas
Helen Beverley as Rebecca
Sally Corner as Cornelia Gallio
Rosalind Ivan as Empress Julia the Elder
Donald C. Klune as Jesus of Nazareth
David Leonard as Marcipor
Cameron Mitchell as the voice of Jesus
Jay Novello as Tiro
Frank Pulaski as Quintus
Pamela Robinson as Lucia Gallio

Background and production[edit]
The Robe was originally announced for filming by RKO in the 1940s, and was set to be directed by Mervyn LeRoy,[5] but the rights were eventually sold to Twentieth Century Fox for a reported $100,000.[6]
Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the role of Demetrius.[7]
The film was advertised as "the modern miracle you see without glasses", a dig at the 3D movies of the day. Since many theaters of the day were not equipped to show a CinemaScope film, two versions of The Robe were made: one in the standard screen ratio of the day, the other in the widescreen process. Setups and some dialogue differ between the versions.
The film was usually shown on television using the standard 1.33:1 aspect ratio version that fills a standard television screen rather than the CinemaScope version. American Movie Classics may have been the first to offer telecasts of the widescreen version. Recent DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of the film, however, present the film in the original widescreen format, as well as the multitrack stereophonic soundtrack. The 2009 DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases contain a special feature that compares selected scenes between the Cinemascope version and the standard version.
When the original soundtrack album was issued on LP by Decca Records, it used a remix for only monaural sound rather than the stereo sound that was originally recorded. MCA, which acquired the rights to the American Decca recordings, issued an electronic stereo version of the mono tape. RCA Victor included a suite from the film, recorded in Dolby surround sound, in its album Captain from Castile, which honored longtime Fox musical director Alfred Newman (composer of the The Robe's musical score); Charles Gerhardt conducted London's National Philharmonic Chorus. In 2003, Varèse Sarabande released a two-CD set of the original stereophonic recording on their club label. The 2009 DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases contain isolated stereophonic score tracks.
Reception[edit]
The film earned an estimated $17.5 million in North America during its initial theatrical release.[8]
The film had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), which featured Victor Mature in the title-role, making The Robe the only Biblical epic with a sequel.
Awards and nominations[edit]
26th Academy Awards:
Wins[9]Best Art Direction (Color): Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler, George Davis; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox
Best Costume Design (Color): Charles LeMaire, Emile Santiago
NominationsBest Motion Picture: Frank Ross, Producer
Best Actor: Richard Burton
Best Cinematography (Color): Leon Shamroy
11th Golden Globe Awards:
WinsBest Motion Picture - Drama
First telecast[edit]
The film was first telecast by ABC-TV on Easter weekend in 1967, at the relatively early hour of 7:00 P.M., E.S.T, to allow for family viewing. In a highly unusual move, the film was shown with only one commercial break – a luxury not even granted to the then-annual telecasts of The Wizard of Oz.[10]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p248
2.Jump up ^ The Robe. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
3.Jump up ^ Chrissochoidis, Ilias (ed.). CinemaScope: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive. Stanford, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ The beginning date is given as the 18th year of Tiberius, and the ending date is a year after the historical year of the accession of Caligula (Jay Robinson) as Roman emperor. Diana tells Caligula that she had not heard from Marcellus for almost a year when Marcellus was in Cana of Galilee. At that time Marcellus was told by Paulus that Caligula was then the emperor.
5.Jump up ^ "Religion: Celluloid Revival". Time. April 24, 1944. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
6.Jump up ^ "STAGE AND SCREEN.". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954) (Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia). 1 August 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
7.Jump up ^ Jeff Chandler Likely for Demetrius; 'Highest Mountain' New Purchase Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 01 Aug 1952: B7.
8.Jump up ^ "All Time Domestic Champs", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
9.Jump up ^ "Oscars.org -- The Robe". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
10.Jump up ^ "Television: Mar. 24, 1967". Time. March 24, 1967. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Robe (film).
The Robe at the American Film Institute Catalog
The Robe at the Internet Movie Database
The Robe at AllMovie
The Robe at the TCM Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Henry Koster


Thea Roland (1932) ·
 Peter (1934) ·
 Little Mother (1935) ·
 The Affairs of Maupassant (1936) ·
 Catherine the Last (1936) ·
 Three Smart Girls (1936) ·
 One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) ·
 The Rage of Paris (1938) ·
 Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) ·
 First Love (1939) ·
 Spring Parade (1940) ·
 It Started with Eve (1941) ·
 Between Us Girls (1942) ·
 Music for Millions (1944) ·
 Two Sisters from Boston (1946) ·
 The Unfinished Dance (1947) ·
 The Bishop's Wife (1947) ·
 The Luck of the Irish (1948) ·
 Come to the Stable (1949) ·
 The Inspector General (1949) ·
 Wabash Avenue (1950) ·
 My Blue Heaven (1950) ·
 Harvey (1950) ·
 No Highway in the Sky (1951) ·
 Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) ·
 Elopement (1951) ·
 Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) ·
 My Cousin Rachel (1952) ·
 The Robe (1953) ·
 Désirée (1954) ·
 A Man Called Peter (1955) ·
 The Virgin Queen (1955) ·
 Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) ·
 D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) ·
 The Power and the Prize (1956) ·
 My Man Godfrey (1957) ·
 Fräulein (1958) ·
 The Naked Maja (1958) ·
 The Story of Ruth (1960) ·
 Flower Drum Song (1961) ·
 Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) ·
 Take Her, She's Mine (1963) ·
 Dear Brigitte (1965) ·
 The Singing Nun (1966)
 

  


Categories: 1953 films
English-language films
American films
20th Century Fox films
Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners
Films based on American novels
American epic films
Religious epic films
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Films set in Rome
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films set in the 1st century
Films directed by Henry Koster
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Films shot in multiple formats
Films that won the Best Costume Design Academy Award
Film scores by Alfred Newman
Films set in ancient Rome
Screenplays by Philip Dunne






Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Català
Deutsch
Español
Euskara
Français
한국어
Italiano
Lëtzebuergesch
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 03:11.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robe_(film)













The Greatest Story Ever Told

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the film. For other uses, see The Greatest Story Ever Told (disambiguation).

The Greatest Story Ever Told
GREATSTO.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
George Stevens
Produced by
George Stevens
Screenplay by
James Lee Barrett
 George Stevens
Starring
Max von Sydow
Dorothy McGuire
Charlton Heston
Jose Ferrer
Telly Savalas
Music by
Alfred Newman
Cinematography
Loyal Griggs
William C. Mellor
Edited by
Harold F. Kress
 Argyle Nelson, Jr.
 Frank O'Neil

Production
 company

George Stevens Productions

Distributed by
United Artists

Release dates

April 9, 1965 (UK)


Running time
 260 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$21 million[1]
Box office
$15,473,333[2]
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last film appearance of Claude Rains.


Contents  [hide]
1 Cast
2 Pre-production
3 Casting
4 Production
5 Release and reception
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Cast[edit]
The major roles in the movie were following:[citation needed]
Max von Sydow as Jesus
Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary
Charlton Heston as John the Baptist
Claude Rains as Herod the Great
Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas
Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate
Martin Landau as Caiaphas
David McCallum as Judas Iscariot
Donald Pleasence as "The Dark Hermit" (a personification of Satan)
Michael Anderson, Jr. as James the Just
Roddy McDowall as Matthew
Joanna Dunham as Mary Magdalene
Joseph Schildkraut as Nicodemus
Ed Wynn as "Old Aram"
Smaller roles (some only a few seconds) were played by Michael Ansara, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Mark Lenard, Robert Loggia, John Lupton, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Sidney Poitier, Gary Raymond, Marian Seldes, David Sheiner, Paul Stewart, John Wayne and Shelley Winters.[3][need quotation to verify]
Pre-production[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told originated as a U.S. radio series in 1947, half-hour episodes inspired by the Gospels. The series was adapted into a 1949 novel by Fulton Oursler, a senior editor at Reader's Digest.[3] Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, acquired the film rights to the Oursler novel shortly after publication,[4] but never brought it to pre-production.[5]
In 1958, when George Stevens was producing and directing The Diary of Anne Frank at 20th Century Fox, he became aware that the studio owned the rights to the Oursler property. Stevens created a company, "The Greatest Story Productions", to film the novel.[5]



 Pre-production poster from 1960, with John Wayne as the Centurion.
It took two years to write the screenplay. Stevens collaborated with Ivan Moffet and then with James Lee Barrett. It was the only time Stevens received screenplay credit for a film he directed.[5] Ray Bradbury and Reginald Rose were considered but neither participated. The poet Carl Sandburg was solicited though it is not certain if any of his contributions were included. Sandburg, however, did receive screen credit for "creative association."[5][6]
Financial excesses began to grow during pre-production. Stevens commissioned French artist André Girard to prepare 352 oil paintings of Biblical scenes to use as storyboards. Stevens also traveled to the Vatican to see Pope John XXIII for advice.[3]
In August 1961, 20th Century Fox withdrew from the project, noting that $2.3 million had been spent without any footage being shot. Stevens was given two years to find another studio or 20th Century Fox would reclaim its rights. Stevens moved the film to United Artists.[3]
Meanwhile, MGM proceeded with their own 1961 Technicolor epic about the life of Christ, King of Kings starring Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. Filmed in Spain, it was critically panned and flopped. King of Kings, when released, turned out to be nearly an hour shorter than The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Casting[edit]
For The Greatest Story Ever Told, Stevens cast Swedish actor Max von Sydow as Jesus. Von Sydow had never appeared in an English-language film and was best known for his performances in Ingmar Bergman's dramatic films.[7] Stevens wanted an unknown actor free of secular and unseemly associations in the mind of the public.[8]
The Greatest Story Ever Told featured an ensemble of well-known actors, many of them in brief, even cameo, appearances. Some critics would later complain that the large cast distracted from the solemnity, notably in the appearance of John Wayne as the Roman centurion who comments on the Crucifixion, in his well-known voice, by stating: "Truly this man was the son of God."[9][10]
Production[edit]
Stevens shot The Greatest Story Ever Told in the U.S. southwest, in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Pyramid Lake in Nevada represented the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah[11] was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California's Death Valley was the setting of Jesus' 40-day journey into the wilderness.[3][12]
Stevens explained his decision to use the U.S. rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. "I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American southwest," he said. "I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area, and it can be done better here."[3]
Forty-seven sets were constructed, on location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens' vision.[13]
To fill location scenes with extras, Stevens turned to local sources – R.O.T.C. cadets from an Arizona high school played Roman soldiers (after 550 Navajo Indians from a nearby reservation allegedly did not give a convincing performance; other sources claim they weren't on set long enough and left early to take part in a tribal election[14])[15] and Arizona Department of Welfare provided disabled state aid recipients to play the afflicted who sought Jesus' healing.[3]
Principal photography was scheduled to run three months but ran nine months or more[16] due to numerous delays and setbacks (most of which were due to Stevens' insistence on shooting dozens of retakes in every scene).[17] Joseph Schildkraut died before completing his performance as Nicodemus, requiring scenes to be rewritten around his absence. Cinematographer William C. Mellor had a fatal heart attack during production; Loyal Griggs, who won an Academy Award for his cinematography on Stevens’ 1953 Western classic Shane, was brought in to replace him. Joanna Dunham became pregnant, which required costume redesigns and carefully chosen camera angles.[3]
Much of the production was shot during the winter of 1962-1963, when Arizona had heavy snow. Actor David Sheiner, who played James the Elder, quipped in an interview about the snowdrifts: "I thought we were shooting Nanook of the North."[18] Stevens was also under pressure to hurry the John the Baptist sequence, which was shot at the Glen Canyon area – it was scheduled to become Lake Powell with the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam, and the production held up the project.[3]
Stevens brought in two veteran filmmakers. Jean Negulesco filmed sequences in the Jerusalem streets while David Lean shot the prologue featuring Herod the Great.[5] Lean cast Claude Rains as Herod.[19]
By the time shooting was completed in August 1963, Stevens had amassed six million feet of Ultra Panavision 70 film (about 1829 km or 1136 miles, roughly the radius of the Moon). The budget ran to an astounding $20 million – 2010 equivalent: approximately $142 million – plus additional editing and promotion charges),[20] making it the most expensive film shot in the U.S.[5][21]
The film was advertised on its first run as being shown in Cinerama. While it was shown on an ultra-curved screen, it was with one projector. True Cinerama required three projectors running simultaneously. A dozen other films were presented this way in the 1960s.
Release and reception[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told premiered 15 February 1965, 18 months after filming wrapped, at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. Critical reaction toward the movie was divided once it premiered. In its favor, Variety called the film "a big, powerful moving picture demonstrating vast cinematic resource." The Hollywood Reporter stated: "George Stevens has created a novel, reverent and important film with his view of this crucial event in the history of mankind."[5]
However, Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote: "The most distracting nonsense is the pop-up of familiar faces in so-called cameo roles, jarring the illusion." Shana Alexander in Life Magazine stated: "The pace was so stupefying that I felt not uplifted – but sandbagged!"[5] And John Simon – later notorious as the frequently scathing theater and film critic of New York Magazine – wrote: "God is unlucky in The Greatest Story Ever Told. His only begotten son turns out to be a bore."[22] Bruce Williamson, in Playboy Magazine, likewise called the movie "a big windy bore."[23]
Brendan Gill wrote in The New Yorker:
If the subject matter weren't sacred in the original, we would be responding to the picture in the most charitable way possible by laughing at it from start to finish; this Christian mercy being denied us, we can only sit and sullenly marvel at the energy for which, for more than four hours, the note of serene vulgarity is triumphantly sustained.[23]
Stevens told a New York Times interviewer: "I have tremendous satisfaction that the job has been done – to its completion – the way I wanted it done; the way I know it should have been done. It belongs to the audiences now…and I prefer to let them judge."[5] Reviews to the film continue to be mixed, as it currently holds a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews.[24]
The original running time was 4 hr 20 min (260 min).[22] The time was revised three times, to 3 hr 58 min (238 min); to 3 hr 17 min (197 min) for the United Kingdom, and finally 2 hr 17 min (137 min) for general U.S. release.[3] Commercially, the film was not successful (by 1983 it had grossed less than $8 million, perhaps 17 percent of the amount required to break even),[20] and its inability to connect with audiences discouraged production of biblical epics for years.[25]
The Greatest Story Ever Told was nominated for five Academy Awards:[26]
Best Musical Score
Best Cinematography (color)
Art Direction (color) (Richard Day, William J. Creber, David S. Hall (posthumous nomination), Ray Moyer, Fred M. MacLean, Norman Rockett)
Costume Design (color)
Special Visual Effects
For the 2001 DVD release, a 3 hr 19 min (199 min) version was presented along with a documentary called He Walks With Beauty, which detailed the film’s tumultuous production history. Its Blu-ray release appeared in 2011.[13]
See also[edit]
King of Kings – an earlier film about the life of Jesus, released in 1961.
Cultural depictions of Jesus
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company The Changed the Film Industry, Uni of Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 133
2.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Medved, Harry & Michael. "The Hollywood Hall of Shame." Perigree Books, 1984. ISBN 0-399-50714-0
4.Jump up ^ Henry Denker, who wrote or co-wrote many of the radio episodes, was co-recipient of the purchase money - see Hollywood Hall of Shame p. 134
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Giant" by Marilyn Ann Moss, Google Books
6.Jump up ^ The movie's opening credits include: Screenplay by James Lee Barrett and George Stevens, based on the Books of the Old and New Testaments, Other Ancient Writings, the Writings of Fulton Oursler and Henry Denker, and in Creative Association with Carl Sandburg (see Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 136)
7.Jump up ^ Walker, John. "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies." HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093507-3
8.Jump up ^ Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 138
9.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told," Turner Classic Movies
10.Jump up ^ "It is impossible for those watching the film to avoid the merry game of 'Spot the Star', and the road to Calvary in particular comes to resemble the Hollywood Boulevard 'Walk of Fame'." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 137
11.Jump up ^ There is no Sake Moab in Utah, although Medved wrote that in Hollywood Ball of Shame
12.Jump up ^ Land, Barbara; Myrick Land (1995). A short history of Reno. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-87417-262-1.
13.^ Jump up to: a b "The Greatest Story Ever Told," DVD Verdict, April 6, 2001
14.Jump up ^ <http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3656/The-Greatest-Story-Ever-Told/trivia.html
15.Jump up ^ Hollywood Hall of Shame p. 139
16.Jump up ^ John Consodine stated, "I only signed up for 15 weeks on location, but I ended up staying for 54." see Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
17.Jump up ^ "For the 'Raising of Lazarus' scene, for example, Stevens ordered more than 30 different camera setups and forced the actors through their paces 20 times." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
18.Jump up ^ "Several hundred volunteers . . braved the elements with shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and fifty butane flame throwers to remove the snow from the expensive replica of the Holy Land." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
19.Jump up ^ Skal, David J. "Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice." University Press of Kentucky, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8131-2432-2
20.^ Jump up to: a b Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 142
21.Jump up ^ "Such giants as Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia did boast bigger budgets, but they were shot on foreign soil." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 137
22.^ Jump up to: a b "Jesus Christ, cinema star," Boston Globe, 22 February 2004
23.^ Jump up to: a b quoted in Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 141
24.Jump up ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/greatest_story_ever_told/
25.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told," National Catholic Register, April 2001
26.Jump up ^ "NY Times: The Greatest Story Ever Told". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
External links[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the American Film Institute Catalog
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the Internet Movie Database
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the TCM Movie Database
The Greatest Story Ever Told at AllMovie
The Greatest Story Ever Told at Rotten Tomatoes


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by George Stevens
































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Cinerama












































































  


Categories: 1965 films
English-language films
American drama films
Films directed by George Stevens
Films shot in Arizona
Films shot in Utah
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
American epic films
Religious epic films
United Artists films
Biographical films about Jesus
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Portrayals of the Virgin Mary in film
Depictions of John the Baptist
Film scores by Alfred Newman







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Ελληνικά
Español
Français
Italiano
Latina
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Svenska
Українська
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 02:59.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Story_Ever_Told













The Greatest Story Ever Told

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the film. For other uses, see The Greatest Story Ever Told (disambiguation).

The Greatest Story Ever Told
GREATSTO.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
George Stevens
Produced by
George Stevens
Screenplay by
James Lee Barrett
 George Stevens
Starring
Max von Sydow
Dorothy McGuire
Charlton Heston
Jose Ferrer
Telly Savalas
Music by
Alfred Newman
Cinematography
Loyal Griggs
William C. Mellor
Edited by
Harold F. Kress
 Argyle Nelson, Jr.
 Frank O'Neil

Production
 company

George Stevens Productions

Distributed by
United Artists

Release dates

April 9, 1965 (UK)


Running time
 260 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$21 million[1]
Box office
$15,473,333[2]
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last film appearance of Claude Rains.


Contents  [hide]
1 Cast
2 Pre-production
3 Casting
4 Production
5 Release and reception
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Cast[edit]
The major roles in the movie were following:[citation needed]
Max von Sydow as Jesus
Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary
Charlton Heston as John the Baptist
Claude Rains as Herod the Great
Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas
Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate
Martin Landau as Caiaphas
David McCallum as Judas Iscariot
Donald Pleasence as "The Dark Hermit" (a personification of Satan)
Michael Anderson, Jr. as James the Just
Roddy McDowall as Matthew
Joanna Dunham as Mary Magdalene
Joseph Schildkraut as Nicodemus
Ed Wynn as "Old Aram"
Smaller roles (some only a few seconds) were played by Michael Ansara, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Mark Lenard, Robert Loggia, John Lupton, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Sidney Poitier, Gary Raymond, Marian Seldes, David Sheiner, Paul Stewart, John Wayne and Shelley Winters.[3][need quotation to verify]
Pre-production[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told originated as a U.S. radio series in 1947, half-hour episodes inspired by the Gospels. The series was adapted into a 1949 novel by Fulton Oursler, a senior editor at Reader's Digest.[3] Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, acquired the film rights to the Oursler novel shortly after publication,[4] but never brought it to pre-production.[5]
In 1958, when George Stevens was producing and directing The Diary of Anne Frank at 20th Century Fox, he became aware that the studio owned the rights to the Oursler property. Stevens created a company, "The Greatest Story Productions", to film the novel.[5]



 Pre-production poster from 1960, with John Wayne as the Centurion.
It took two years to write the screenplay. Stevens collaborated with Ivan Moffet and then with James Lee Barrett. It was the only time Stevens received screenplay credit for a film he directed.[5] Ray Bradbury and Reginald Rose were considered but neither participated. The poet Carl Sandburg was solicited though it is not certain if any of his contributions were included. Sandburg, however, did receive screen credit for "creative association."[5][6]
Financial excesses began to grow during pre-production. Stevens commissioned French artist André Girard to prepare 352 oil paintings of Biblical scenes to use as storyboards. Stevens also traveled to the Vatican to see Pope John XXIII for advice.[3]
In August 1961, 20th Century Fox withdrew from the project, noting that $2.3 million had been spent without any footage being shot. Stevens was given two years to find another studio or 20th Century Fox would reclaim its rights. Stevens moved the film to United Artists.[3]
Meanwhile, MGM proceeded with their own 1961 Technicolor epic about the life of Christ, King of Kings starring Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. Filmed in Spain, it was critically panned and flopped. King of Kings, when released, turned out to be nearly an hour shorter than The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Casting[edit]
For The Greatest Story Ever Told, Stevens cast Swedish actor Max von Sydow as Jesus. Von Sydow had never appeared in an English-language film and was best known for his performances in Ingmar Bergman's dramatic films.[7] Stevens wanted an unknown actor free of secular and unseemly associations in the mind of the public.[8]
The Greatest Story Ever Told featured an ensemble of well-known actors, many of them in brief, even cameo, appearances. Some critics would later complain that the large cast distracted from the solemnity, notably in the appearance of John Wayne as the Roman centurion who comments on the Crucifixion, in his well-known voice, by stating: "Truly this man was the son of God."[9][10]
Production[edit]
Stevens shot The Greatest Story Ever Told in the U.S. southwest, in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Pyramid Lake in Nevada represented the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah[11] was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California's Death Valley was the setting of Jesus' 40-day journey into the wilderness.[3][12]
Stevens explained his decision to use the U.S. rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. "I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American southwest," he said. "I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area, and it can be done better here."[3]
Forty-seven sets were constructed, on location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens' vision.[13]
To fill location scenes with extras, Stevens turned to local sources – R.O.T.C. cadets from an Arizona high school played Roman soldiers (after 550 Navajo Indians from a nearby reservation allegedly did not give a convincing performance; other sources claim they weren't on set long enough and left early to take part in a tribal election[14])[15] and Arizona Department of Welfare provided disabled state aid recipients to play the afflicted who sought Jesus' healing.[3]
Principal photography was scheduled to run three months but ran nine months or more[16] due to numerous delays and setbacks (most of which were due to Stevens' insistence on shooting dozens of retakes in every scene).[17] Joseph Schildkraut died before completing his performance as Nicodemus, requiring scenes to be rewritten around his absence. Cinematographer William C. Mellor had a fatal heart attack during production; Loyal Griggs, who won an Academy Award for his cinematography on Stevens’ 1953 Western classic Shane, was brought in to replace him. Joanna Dunham became pregnant, which required costume redesigns and carefully chosen camera angles.[3]
Much of the production was shot during the winter of 1962-1963, when Arizona had heavy snow. Actor David Sheiner, who played James the Elder, quipped in an interview about the snowdrifts: "I thought we were shooting Nanook of the North."[18] Stevens was also under pressure to hurry the John the Baptist sequence, which was shot at the Glen Canyon area – it was scheduled to become Lake Powell with the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam, and the production held up the project.[3]
Stevens brought in two veteran filmmakers. Jean Negulesco filmed sequences in the Jerusalem streets while David Lean shot the prologue featuring Herod the Great.[5] Lean cast Claude Rains as Herod.[19]
By the time shooting was completed in August 1963, Stevens had amassed six million feet of Ultra Panavision 70 film (about 1829 km or 1136 miles, roughly the radius of the Moon). The budget ran to an astounding $20 million – 2010 equivalent: approximately $142 million – plus additional editing and promotion charges),[20] making it the most expensive film shot in the U.S.[5][21]
The film was advertised on its first run as being shown in Cinerama. While it was shown on an ultra-curved screen, it was with one projector. True Cinerama required three projectors running simultaneously. A dozen other films were presented this way in the 1960s.
Release and reception[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told premiered 15 February 1965, 18 months after filming wrapped, at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. Critical reaction toward the movie was divided once it premiered. In its favor, Variety called the film "a big, powerful moving picture demonstrating vast cinematic resource." The Hollywood Reporter stated: "George Stevens has created a novel, reverent and important film with his view of this crucial event in the history of mankind."[5]
However, Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote: "The most distracting nonsense is the pop-up of familiar faces in so-called cameo roles, jarring the illusion." Shana Alexander in Life Magazine stated: "The pace was so stupefying that I felt not uplifted – but sandbagged!"[5] And John Simon – later notorious as the frequently scathing theater and film critic of New York Magazine – wrote: "God is unlucky in The Greatest Story Ever Told. His only begotten son turns out to be a bore."[22] Bruce Williamson, in Playboy Magazine, likewise called the movie "a big windy bore."[23]
Brendan Gill wrote in The New Yorker:
If the subject matter weren't sacred in the original, we would be responding to the picture in the most charitable way possible by laughing at it from start to finish; this Christian mercy being denied us, we can only sit and sullenly marvel at the energy for which, for more than four hours, the note of serene vulgarity is triumphantly sustained.[23]
Stevens told a New York Times interviewer: "I have tremendous satisfaction that the job has been done – to its completion – the way I wanted it done; the way I know it should have been done. It belongs to the audiences now…and I prefer to let them judge."[5] Reviews to the film continue to be mixed, as it currently holds a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews.[24]
The original running time was 4 hr 20 min (260 min).[22] The time was revised three times, to 3 hr 58 min (238 min); to 3 hr 17 min (197 min) for the United Kingdom, and finally 2 hr 17 min (137 min) for general U.S. release.[3] Commercially, the film was not successful (by 1983 it had grossed less than $8 million, perhaps 17 percent of the amount required to break even),[20] and its inability to connect with audiences discouraged production of biblical epics for years.[25]
The Greatest Story Ever Told was nominated for five Academy Awards:[26]
Best Musical Score
Best Cinematography (color)
Art Direction (color) (Richard Day, William J. Creber, David S. Hall (posthumous nomination), Ray Moyer, Fred M. MacLean, Norman Rockett)
Costume Design (color)
Special Visual Effects
For the 2001 DVD release, a 3 hr 19 min (199 min) version was presented along with a documentary called He Walks With Beauty, which detailed the film’s tumultuous production history. Its Blu-ray release appeared in 2011.[13]
See also[edit]
King of Kings – an earlier film about the life of Jesus, released in 1961.
Cultural depictions of Jesus
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company The Changed the Film Industry, Uni of Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 133
2.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Medved, Harry & Michael. "The Hollywood Hall of Shame." Perigree Books, 1984. ISBN 0-399-50714-0
4.Jump up ^ Henry Denker, who wrote or co-wrote many of the radio episodes, was co-recipient of the purchase money - see Hollywood Hall of Shame p. 134
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Giant" by Marilyn Ann Moss, Google Books
6.Jump up ^ The movie's opening credits include: Screenplay by James Lee Barrett and George Stevens, based on the Books of the Old and New Testaments, Other Ancient Writings, the Writings of Fulton Oursler and Henry Denker, and in Creative Association with Carl Sandburg (see Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 136)
7.Jump up ^ Walker, John. "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies." HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093507-3
8.Jump up ^ Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 138
9.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told," Turner Classic Movies
10.Jump up ^ "It is impossible for those watching the film to avoid the merry game of 'Spot the Star', and the road to Calvary in particular comes to resemble the Hollywood Boulevard 'Walk of Fame'." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 137
11.Jump up ^ There is no Sake Moab in Utah, although Medved wrote that in Hollywood Ball of Shame
12.Jump up ^ Land, Barbara; Myrick Land (1995). A short history of Reno. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-87417-262-1.
13.^ Jump up to: a b "The Greatest Story Ever Told," DVD Verdict, April 6, 2001
14.Jump up ^ <http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3656/The-Greatest-Story-Ever-Told/trivia.html
15.Jump up ^ Hollywood Hall of Shame p. 139
16.Jump up ^ John Consodine stated, "I only signed up for 15 weeks on location, but I ended up staying for 54." see Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
17.Jump up ^ "For the 'Raising of Lazarus' scene, for example, Stevens ordered more than 30 different camera setups and forced the actors through their paces 20 times." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
18.Jump up ^ "Several hundred volunteers . . braved the elements with shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and fifty butane flame throwers to remove the snow from the expensive replica of the Holy Land." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 140
19.Jump up ^ Skal, David J. "Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice." University Press of Kentucky, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8131-2432-2
20.^ Jump up to: a b Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 142
21.Jump up ^ "Such giants as Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia did boast bigger budgets, but they were shot on foreign soil." Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 137
22.^ Jump up to: a b "Jesus Christ, cinema star," Boston Globe, 22 February 2004
23.^ Jump up to: a b quoted in Hollywood Hall of Shame, p. 141
24.Jump up ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/greatest_story_ever_told/
25.Jump up ^ "The Greatest Story Ever Told," National Catholic Register, April 2001
26.Jump up ^ "NY Times: The Greatest Story Ever Told". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
External links[edit]
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the American Film Institute Catalog
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the Internet Movie Database
The Greatest Story Ever Told at the TCM Movie Database
The Greatest Story Ever Told at AllMovie
The Greatest Story Ever Told at Rotten Tomatoes


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by George Stevens
































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Cinerama












































































  


Categories: 1965 films
English-language films
American drama films
Films directed by George Stevens
Films shot in Arizona
Films shot in Utah
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
American epic films
Religious epic films
United Artists films
Biographical films about Jesus
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Portrayals of the Virgin Mary in film
Depictions of John the Baptist
Film scores by Alfred Newman







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Ελληνικά
Español
Français
Italiano
Latina
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Svenska
Українська
Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 02:59.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Story_Ever_Told















King of Kings (1961 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille film, see The King of Kings (1927 film)


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2012)

King of Kings
KingofKings.jpg
DVD cover by Reynold Brown

Directed by
Nicholas Ray
Produced by
Samuel Bronston
Written by
Philip Yordan
Ray Bradbury (uncredited)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter
Siobhán McKenna
Robert Ryan
Narrated by
Orson Welles (uncredited)
Music by
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography
Manuel Berenguer
Milton R. Krasner
Franz Planer
Edited by
Harold F. Kress
 Renée Lichtig

Production
 company

Samuel Bronston Productions

Distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release dates
 October 11, 1961

Running time
 168 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$5,037,000[1]
Box office
$13,400,000[1]
King of Kings is a 1961 American biblical epic film made by Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the film is a dramatization of the story of Jesus Christ from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection, with much dramatic license.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Primary cast
3 Production details
4 Reception 4.1 Box Office
4.2 Legacy
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In 63 BC, Pompey conquers Jerusalem and the city is sacked. He enters the Temple to seize the treasure of Solomon and massacres the priests there. He discovers that the treasure is only a collection of scrolls of the Torah. These he holds over a fire until an old priest reaches for them imploringly. Pompey relents and hands them to the old man.
Many years later, a series of rebellions break out against the authority of Rome, so the Romans crucify many of the leaders and place Herod the Great on the throne of Judea.
A carpenter named Joseph and his wife Mary, who is about to give birth, arrive in Bethlehem for the census. Not having found accommodation for the night, they take refuge in a stable, where the child, Jesus, is born. The shepherds, who have followed the Magi from the East, gather to worship him. However, Herod, informed of the birth of a child-king, orders the centurion Lucius and his men to go to Bethlehem and kill all the newborn male children.
Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt with the child. Herod dies, killed by his son Herod Antipas, who then takes power. In Nazareth, Jesus, who is now twelve years old, is working with Joseph when soldiers arrive under the command of Lucius, who realizes that Jesus escaped the massacre of the infants. But he does nothing and only asks that Mary and Joseph register their son's birth before the year's end.
Years pass and Jewish rebels led by Barabbas and Judas Iscariot prepare to attack a caravan carrying the next governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia. The ambush fails and Barabbas and Judas flee for their lives.
Pilate and Herod Antipas meet on the banks of the River Jordan, where John the Baptist preaches to the crowds. Jesus arrives here, now 30 years of age. He is baptized by John, who recognizes that he is the Messiah. Jesus goes into the desert, where he is tempted by Satan. After forty days, Jesus travels to Galilee, where he recruits his Apostles.
In Jerusalem, Herod Antipas arrests John the Baptist, who is visited by Jesus in prison. Judas leaves the rebel Barabbas and joins the Apostles. Jesus begins to preach and gather crowds, among which are Claudia, Pilate's wife, and Lucius. Herod reluctantly beheads John on a whim of his stepdaughter, Salome who despises him.
Herod, Pilate and the High Priest Caiaphas are terrorized by the works and miracles of Jesus. Barabbas plots a revolt in Jerusalem during Passover, during which time Jesus enters the holy city in triumph and goes to the Temple to preach. The rebels storm the Antonia Fortress, but the legions of Pilate become involved, ambushing and crushing the revolt, causing hundreds of casualties. Barabbas is arrested.
Jesus meets the disciples on the evening of Thursday, having supper one last time with them and after goes to pray at Gethsemane. In the meantime, Judas wants Jesus to free Judea from the Romans and to force his hand delivers him to the Jewish authorities. Jesus is brought before Caiaphas and then to Pilate. Pilate starts the trial, but sensing that the issue is one of Jewish sensibilities then sends him to Herod Antipas, who, in turn, sends him back.
Pilate is infuriated by Antipas's returning of Jesus and commands his soldiers to scourge him. The people demand the release of Barabbas and Pilate bows to their pressure and sentences Jesus to be crucified. Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns on his head, carries his cross to Golgotha where he is crucified with two thieves, one of them being the penitent thief Dismas.
Desperate because he has betrayed Jesus to his death, Judas hangs himself and his body is found by Barabbas. Jesus dies in front of his mother, the apostle John, a few soldiers, Claudia (Pilate's wife), and Lucius (who utters the fateful words: "He is truly the Christ"). His body is taken down from the cross and is carried to a rock tomb. Two days later, Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and encounters the Risen Jesus.
The film ends on the shores of Lake Tiberias when Jesus appears to the Apostles for "a final time" according to the narration, and tells them to bring his message to the ends of the world. Only his shadow is visible, forming the shape of a cross where it falls on the stretched-out fishing nets. The apostles then leave, and as the shadow of Jesus falls across the screen, it could be assumed that he is ascending to Heaven.
Primary cast[edit]
Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus
Siobhán McKenna as Mary
Robert Ryan as John the Baptist
Ron Randell as Lucius
Hurd Hatfield as Pontius Pilate
Viveca Lindfors as Claudia
Rita Gam as Herodias
Frank Thring as Herod Antipas
Royal Dano as Peter
Rip Torn as Judas Iscariot
Harry Guardino as Barabbas
Carmen Sevilla as Mary Magdalene
Brigid Bazlen as Salomé
Guy Rolfe as Caiaphas
Gregoire Aslan as Herod the Great
Luis Prendes as Penitent thief
Barry Keegan as Gestas, the Impenitent thief
Orson Welles (uncredited) as the Narrator
Production details[edit]
An earlier silent film about Jesus Christ entitled The King of Kings directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring H.B. Warner as Jesus was released in 1927. That film, however, begins when Christ is already an adult. Director Nicholas Ray's 1961 version tells the story from the beginning and places Jesus' life in the political context of Roman conquest. As Jesus becomes an active preacher and healer, his activities are contrasted with the political stance of Barabbas and his insurgents who battle against the Roman occupiers.
In contrast to other usual film versions of the life of Christ, which show Barabbas only as the murderer whose freedom is offered in exchange for Jesus' life, in King of Kings Barabbas plays a major role, depicted as an incendiary figure fighting Roman domination and as a good friend of Judas Iscariot. Judas believes that he can persuade Barabbas to embrace Christ as a liberator and that he can influence Christ to take up arms against Rome, but Barabbas becomes disillusioned after listening to the Sermon on the Mount. It is then that Judas decides to betray Christ to the Romans. When Lucius frees Barabbas, Lucius pointedly commands Barabbas to go look at Christ as he carries his cross.
The film features scenes of Jesus' miracles and his Sermon on the Mount (shot with many thousands of extras), as well as a scene where Jesus visits John the Baptist in his dungeon during his imprisonment by Herod Antipas. Ray staged the scene in such a way that John the Baptist must crawl up an incline inside the dungeon, holding out his hand to reach for Jesus' hand, a vivid example of Ray's architectural sense of composition and visual drama (Ray had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect).[citation needed]
Nicholas Ray's direction balances majestic spectacle with more mundane and small-scale drama, such as Jesus' relationships with His mother and the apostles. The Sermon on the Mount sequence is nearly at the exact center of the film, conveying the core moral and spiritual message of Jesus, which plays a pivotal role in the subplot of Barabbas's conflicted attitude towards Jesus.[citation needed]
The production was photographed in Technirama by Manuel Berenguer, Milton R. Krasner and Franz Planer, and was presented in 70mm Super Technirama at selected first-run engagements.[2] It was the first film of the life of Christ to be photographed in 70mm, which was not in use when previous films on the same subject had been made. The previous film version of Christ's life, a church-sponsored film called Day of Triumph, had been filmed in standard "spherical" widescreen in 1954 by much the same people who filmed television's The Living Christ Series.[3]
Not credited at the time, Orson Welles did the voiceover of the narration, written by Ray Bradbury.[4] Welles insisted on pronouncing the word 'apostles' with a hard 't'.
Reception[edit]



Brigid Bazlen portrays Salome, seen here dancing in order to incite King Herod with lust into giving her "anything [she] wants" — the head of John the Baptist.
At the time of its release, the film gained negative reviews from major publications such as Time magazine[5] and New York Times's Bosley Crowther. The latter felt that the movie had "the nature of an illustrated lecture" and was a "peculiarly impersonal film that constructs a great deal of random action around Jesus and does very little to construct a living personality for Him."[6]
However, its reputation has since improved, with such critics as Leonard Maltin giving the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. Musicians such as Grammy Award-winning Art Greenhaw have cited the movie as being an influence in their work and even their favorite film of all time.[7] The film holds a "fresh" 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.[8]
King of Kings is also memorable for the music score by composer Miklós Rózsa, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.[9] Rózsa's most recent work at the time was the score for MGM's hugely successful religious epic Ben-Hur (1959), for which he won his third Oscar. Rózsa composed the scores for many of MGM's epic films, including Quo Vadis? (1951).
Box Office[edit]
According to MGM records, the film earned $8 million in North America and $5.4 million overseas, earning a profit of $1,621,000.[1] According to the Internet Movie Database, the film had a budget of $6,000,000, and made $25,000,000 worldwide as of 1989, based on total worldwide cinema showings, video rentals, and video sales.
Legacy[edit]
Most films at the time did not show Jesus' face, preferring to do shots of his hands (as in Ben-Hur) or over-the-shoulder views. King of Kings was the first large-budget major studio sound film in English to actually show Christ's face. Jeffrey Hunter's youthful, matinee idol appearance (although he was 33 when cast) caused some to nickname the film "I Was a Teenage Jesus",[10] a parodic reference to the 1957 horror film I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Christianity portal
The King of Kings – 1927 film also about Jesus, but otherwise not related
The Greatest Story Ever Told – 1965 star-studded Hollywood epic about the life of Jesus Christ
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2.Jump up ^ "King of Kings (1961)". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
3.Jump up ^ "Day of Triumph (1954)". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
4.Jump up ^ "King of Kings (1961) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5.Jump up ^ "$ign of the Cross – TIME". TIME.com. 27 October 1961. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
6.Jump up ^ Bosley Crowther, King of Kings (1961), The New York Times, October 12, 1961, Accessed December 25, 2010.
7.Jump up ^ Mesquite News (Texas) newspaper, 1994 Volume
8.Jump up ^ "King of Kings". 30 October 1961. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
9.Jump up ^ Awards for King of Kings. Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
10.Jump up ^ Gwilym Beckerlegge, From Sacred Text to Internet, Ashgate, 2001, p.268.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to King of Kings.
King of Kings at the Internet Movie Database
King of Kings at Rotten Tomatoes
King of Kings at AllMovie


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Nicholas Ray


They Live by Night (1949) ·
 Knock on Any Door (1949) ·
 A Woman's Secret (1949) ·
 In a Lonely Place (1950) ·
 Born to Be Bad (1950) ·
 Flying Leathernecks (1951) ·
 On Dangerous Ground (1952) ·
 The Lusty Men (1952) ·
 Johnny Guitar (1954) ·
 Run for Cover (1955) ·
 Rebel Without a Cause (1955) ·
 Hot Blood (1956) ·
 Bigger Than Life (1956) ·
 The True Story of Jesse James (1957) ·
 Bitter Victory (1957) ·
 Wind Across the Everglades (1958) ·
 Party Girl (1958) ·
 The Savage Innocents (1960) ·
 King of Kings (1961) ·
 55 Days at Peking (1963) ·
 We Can't Go Home Again (1976) ·
 Lightning Over Water (1980)
 

  


Categories: English-language films
1961 films
1960s drama films
American films
Biographical films about Jesus
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Films based on the Gospels
Films based on the New Testament
Films about Christianity
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
Films directed by Nicholas Ray
Films set in the 1st century
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films shot in Madrid
Films shot in Spain
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Portrayals of the Virgin Mary in film
Religious epic films
Samuel Bronston Productions films
Film scores by Miklós Rózsa
Depictions of John the Baptist








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Български
Català
Deutsch
Español
فارسی
Français
Italiano
Latina
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 April 2015, at 19:09.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Kings_(1961_film)















King of Kings (1961 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille film, see The King of Kings (1927 film)


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2012)

King of Kings
KingofKings.jpg
DVD cover by Reynold Brown

Directed by
Nicholas Ray
Produced by
Samuel Bronston
Written by
Philip Yordan
Ray Bradbury (uncredited)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter
Siobhán McKenna
Robert Ryan
Narrated by
Orson Welles (uncredited)
Music by
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography
Manuel Berenguer
Milton R. Krasner
Franz Planer
Edited by
Harold F. Kress
 Renée Lichtig

Production
 company

Samuel Bronston Productions

Distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release dates
 October 11, 1961

Running time
 168 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$5,037,000[1]
Box office
$13,400,000[1]
King of Kings is a 1961 American biblical epic film made by Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the film is a dramatization of the story of Jesus Christ from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection, with much dramatic license.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Primary cast
3 Production details
4 Reception 4.1 Box Office
4.2 Legacy
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In 63 BC, Pompey conquers Jerusalem and the city is sacked. He enters the Temple to seize the treasure of Solomon and massacres the priests there. He discovers that the treasure is only a collection of scrolls of the Torah. These he holds over a fire until an old priest reaches for them imploringly. Pompey relents and hands them to the old man.
Many years later, a series of rebellions break out against the authority of Rome, so the Romans crucify many of the leaders and place Herod the Great on the throne of Judea.
A carpenter named Joseph and his wife Mary, who is about to give birth, arrive in Bethlehem for the census. Not having found accommodation for the night, they take refuge in a stable, where the child, Jesus, is born. The shepherds, who have followed the Magi from the East, gather to worship him. However, Herod, informed of the birth of a child-king, orders the centurion Lucius and his men to go to Bethlehem and kill all the newborn male children.
Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt with the child. Herod dies, killed by his son Herod Antipas, who then takes power. In Nazareth, Jesus, who is now twelve years old, is working with Joseph when soldiers arrive under the command of Lucius, who realizes that Jesus escaped the massacre of the infants. But he does nothing and only asks that Mary and Joseph register their son's birth before the year's end.
Years pass and Jewish rebels led by Barabbas and Judas Iscariot prepare to attack a caravan carrying the next governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia. The ambush fails and Barabbas and Judas flee for their lives.
Pilate and Herod Antipas meet on the banks of the River Jordan, where John the Baptist preaches to the crowds. Jesus arrives here, now 30 years of age. He is baptized by John, who recognizes that he is the Messiah. Jesus goes into the desert, where he is tempted by Satan. After forty days, Jesus travels to Galilee, where he recruits his Apostles.
In Jerusalem, Herod Antipas arrests John the Baptist, who is visited by Jesus in prison. Judas leaves the rebel Barabbas and joins the Apostles. Jesus begins to preach and gather crowds, among which are Claudia, Pilate's wife, and Lucius. Herod reluctantly beheads John on a whim of his stepdaughter, Salome who despises him.
Herod, Pilate and the High Priest Caiaphas are terrorized by the works and miracles of Jesus. Barabbas plots a revolt in Jerusalem during Passover, during which time Jesus enters the holy city in triumph and goes to the Temple to preach. The rebels storm the Antonia Fortress, but the legions of Pilate become involved, ambushing and crushing the revolt, causing hundreds of casualties. Barabbas is arrested.
Jesus meets the disciples on the evening of Thursday, having supper one last time with them and after goes to pray at Gethsemane. In the meantime, Judas wants Jesus to free Judea from the Romans and to force his hand delivers him to the Jewish authorities. Jesus is brought before Caiaphas and then to Pilate. Pilate starts the trial, but sensing that the issue is one of Jewish sensibilities then sends him to Herod Antipas, who, in turn, sends him back.
Pilate is infuriated by Antipas's returning of Jesus and commands his soldiers to scourge him. The people demand the release of Barabbas and Pilate bows to their pressure and sentences Jesus to be crucified. Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns on his head, carries his cross to Golgotha where he is crucified with two thieves, one of them being the penitent thief Dismas.
Desperate because he has betrayed Jesus to his death, Judas hangs himself and his body is found by Barabbas. Jesus dies in front of his mother, the apostle John, a few soldiers, Claudia (Pilate's wife), and Lucius (who utters the fateful words: "He is truly the Christ"). His body is taken down from the cross and is carried to a rock tomb. Two days later, Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and encounters the Risen Jesus.
The film ends on the shores of Lake Tiberias when Jesus appears to the Apostles for "a final time" according to the narration, and tells them to bring his message to the ends of the world. Only his shadow is visible, forming the shape of a cross where it falls on the stretched-out fishing nets. The apostles then leave, and as the shadow of Jesus falls across the screen, it could be assumed that he is ascending to Heaven.
Primary cast[edit]
Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus
Siobhán McKenna as Mary
Robert Ryan as John the Baptist
Ron Randell as Lucius
Hurd Hatfield as Pontius Pilate
Viveca Lindfors as Claudia
Rita Gam as Herodias
Frank Thring as Herod Antipas
Royal Dano as Peter
Rip Torn as Judas Iscariot
Harry Guardino as Barabbas
Carmen Sevilla as Mary Magdalene
Brigid Bazlen as Salomé
Guy Rolfe as Caiaphas
Gregoire Aslan as Herod the Great
Luis Prendes as Penitent thief
Barry Keegan as Gestas, the Impenitent thief
Orson Welles (uncredited) as the Narrator
Production details[edit]
An earlier silent film about Jesus Christ entitled The King of Kings directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring H.B. Warner as Jesus was released in 1927. That film, however, begins when Christ is already an adult. Director Nicholas Ray's 1961 version tells the story from the beginning and places Jesus' life in the political context of Roman conquest. As Jesus becomes an active preacher and healer, his activities are contrasted with the political stance of Barabbas and his insurgents who battle against the Roman occupiers.
In contrast to other usual film versions of the life of Christ, which show Barabbas only as the murderer whose freedom is offered in exchange for Jesus' life, in King of Kings Barabbas plays a major role, depicted as an incendiary figure fighting Roman domination and as a good friend of Judas Iscariot. Judas believes that he can persuade Barabbas to embrace Christ as a liberator and that he can influence Christ to take up arms against Rome, but Barabbas becomes disillusioned after listening to the Sermon on the Mount. It is then that Judas decides to betray Christ to the Romans. When Lucius frees Barabbas, Lucius pointedly commands Barabbas to go look at Christ as he carries his cross.
The film features scenes of Jesus' miracles and his Sermon on the Mount (shot with many thousands of extras), as well as a scene where Jesus visits John the Baptist in his dungeon during his imprisonment by Herod Antipas. Ray staged the scene in such a way that John the Baptist must crawl up an incline inside the dungeon, holding out his hand to reach for Jesus' hand, a vivid example of Ray's architectural sense of composition and visual drama (Ray had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect).[citation needed]
Nicholas Ray's direction balances majestic spectacle with more mundane and small-scale drama, such as Jesus' relationships with His mother and the apostles. The Sermon on the Mount sequence is nearly at the exact center of the film, conveying the core moral and spiritual message of Jesus, which plays a pivotal role in the subplot of Barabbas's conflicted attitude towards Jesus.[citation needed]
The production was photographed in Technirama by Manuel Berenguer, Milton R. Krasner and Franz Planer, and was presented in 70mm Super Technirama at selected first-run engagements.[2] It was the first film of the life of Christ to be photographed in 70mm, which was not in use when previous films on the same subject had been made. The previous film version of Christ's life, a church-sponsored film called Day of Triumph, had been filmed in standard "spherical" widescreen in 1954 by much the same people who filmed television's The Living Christ Series.[3]
Not credited at the time, Orson Welles did the voiceover of the narration, written by Ray Bradbury.[4] Welles insisted on pronouncing the word 'apostles' with a hard 't'.
Reception[edit]



Brigid Bazlen portrays Salome, seen here dancing in order to incite King Herod with lust into giving her "anything [she] wants" — the head of John the Baptist.
At the time of its release, the film gained negative reviews from major publications such as Time magazine[5] and New York Times's Bosley Crowther. The latter felt that the movie had "the nature of an illustrated lecture" and was a "peculiarly impersonal film that constructs a great deal of random action around Jesus and does very little to construct a living personality for Him."[6]
However, its reputation has since improved, with such critics as Leonard Maltin giving the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. Musicians such as Grammy Award-winning Art Greenhaw have cited the movie as being an influence in their work and even their favorite film of all time.[7] The film holds a "fresh" 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.[8]
King of Kings is also memorable for the music score by composer Miklós Rózsa, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.[9] Rózsa's most recent work at the time was the score for MGM's hugely successful religious epic Ben-Hur (1959), for which he won his third Oscar. Rózsa composed the scores for many of MGM's epic films, including Quo Vadis? (1951).
Box Office[edit]
According to MGM records, the film earned $8 million in North America and $5.4 million overseas, earning a profit of $1,621,000.[1] According to the Internet Movie Database, the film had a budget of $6,000,000, and made $25,000,000 worldwide as of 1989, based on total worldwide cinema showings, video rentals, and video sales.
Legacy[edit]
Most films at the time did not show Jesus' face, preferring to do shots of his hands (as in Ben-Hur) or over-the-shoulder views. King of Kings was the first large-budget major studio sound film in English to actually show Christ's face. Jeffrey Hunter's youthful, matinee idol appearance (although he was 33 when cast) caused some to nickname the film "I Was a Teenage Jesus",[10] a parodic reference to the 1957 horror film I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Christianity portal
The King of Kings – 1927 film also about Jesus, but otherwise not related
The Greatest Story Ever Told – 1965 star-studded Hollywood epic about the life of Jesus Christ
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2.Jump up ^ "King of Kings (1961)". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
3.Jump up ^ "Day of Triumph (1954)". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
4.Jump up ^ "King of Kings (1961) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5.Jump up ^ "$ign of the Cross – TIME". TIME.com. 27 October 1961. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
6.Jump up ^ Bosley Crowther, King of Kings (1961), The New York Times, October 12, 1961, Accessed December 25, 2010.
7.Jump up ^ Mesquite News (Texas) newspaper, 1994 Volume
8.Jump up ^ "King of Kings". 30 October 1961. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
9.Jump up ^ Awards for King of Kings. Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
10.Jump up ^ Gwilym Beckerlegge, From Sacred Text to Internet, Ashgate, 2001, p.268.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to King of Kings.
King of Kings at the Internet Movie Database
King of Kings at Rotten Tomatoes
King of Kings at AllMovie


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Nicholas Ray


They Live by Night (1949) ·
 Knock on Any Door (1949) ·
 A Woman's Secret (1949) ·
 In a Lonely Place (1950) ·
 Born to Be Bad (1950) ·
 Flying Leathernecks (1951) ·
 On Dangerous Ground (1952) ·
 The Lusty Men (1952) ·
 Johnny Guitar (1954) ·
 Run for Cover (1955) ·
 Rebel Without a Cause (1955) ·
 Hot Blood (1956) ·
 Bigger Than Life (1956) ·
 The True Story of Jesse James (1957) ·
 Bitter Victory (1957) ·
 Wind Across the Everglades (1958) ·
 Party Girl (1958) ·
 The Savage Innocents (1960) ·
 King of Kings (1961) ·
 55 Days at Peking (1963) ·
 We Can't Go Home Again (1976) ·
 Lightning Over Water (1980)
 

  


Categories: English-language films
1961 films
1960s drama films
American films
Biographical films about Jesus
Film portrayals of Jesus' death and resurrection
Films based on the Gospels
Films based on the New Testament
Films about Christianity
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
Films directed by Nicholas Ray
Films set in the 1st century
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films set in the Roman Empire
Films shot in Madrid
Films shot in Spain
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Portrayals of the Virgin Mary in film
Religious epic films
Samuel Bronston Productions films
Film scores by Miklós Rózsa
Depictions of John the Baptist








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Български
Català
Deutsch
Español
فارسی
Français
Italiano
Latina
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 April 2015, at 19:09.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Kings_(1961_film)