The King of Kings

Infobox Film
name = King of Kings


caption =
imdb_rating =
director = Cecil B. DeMille
producer = Cecil B. DeMille
writers = Jeannie Macpherson
starring = H.B. Warner
Dorothy Cumming
Ernest Torrence
Joseph Schildkraut
James Neill
music = Hugo Riesenfeld
cinematography = J. Peverell Marley
F.J. Westerberg
editing = Anne Bauchens
Harold McLernon
distributor = Pathé Exchange
released = April 19 1927
runtime = 115 min.
country = USA
language = Silent film
English/Aramaic intertitles
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:27430
imdb_id = 0018054

"The King of Kings" (1927) is a silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is a religious movie about the last weeks of Jesus before his crucifixion. H. B. Warner starred as Jesus. One of the last sequences of the movie --the Resurrection -- is in Technicolor.

Plot

The film opens as Mary Magdalene entertains many men around her. Upon learning that Judas is with a carpenter she rides out on her chariot drawn by zebras to get him back. Peter is introduced as the Giant apostle, and we see the gospel writer Mark as a child who is healed by Jesus. Our first sight of Jesus is through the eyesight of a little girl, whom he has healed. He is surrounded by a halo. Mary arrives afterwards and talks to Judas, who reveals that he is only staying with Jesus in hopes of being made a king after Jesus becomes the king of kings, and the seven demons are cast out of her in a multiple exposure sequence. Jesus is also shown resurrecting Lazarus and healing the little children. At the very end of the film Jesus is shown ascending inside a house, which then changes into the tops of modern skyscrapers. "I am with you always" appears on the screen. Nearly all of the film's intertitles are quotes (or paraphrases) from Scripture.

Cast

*H.B. Warner as Christ
*Dorothy Cumming as Mary
*Ernest Torrence as Peter
*Joseph Schildkraut as Judas
*Jacqueline Logan as Mary Magdalene

Production details

A giant gate built for this film was later famously used in 1933's "King Kong", and was among the sets torched for the "burning of Atlanta" in 1939's "Gone with the Wind".

"The King of Kings" was the first movie that premiered at the legendary Cinema Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, CA on May 18, 1927.

Sally Rand, before becoming notorious for dancing nude behind a "bubble" in the 1930s (the origin of the term "bubble dancer" for a striptease artist), was an extra in the film.

Ayn Rand was an extra in the film, and met her future husband Frank O'Connor on set.

In order to preserve the spiritual nature of the film DeMille made his stars enter contracts that prohibited them from doing anything "Unbiblical for a five year period. These activities included attending ball games, playing cards, frequenting night clubs, swimming, and riding in convertibles. In spite of this the actor portraying Jesus became involved in an affair with an extra on the set of the film

External links

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* [http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=266&eid=390&section=essay Criterion Collection essay by Peter Matthews]