The King of Kings **** (1927, H B Warner, Jacqueline Logan, Joseph Schildkraut, Ernest Torrence, Victor Varconi, Dorothy Cumming, Robert Edeson, William Boyd, James Neill) – Classic Movie Review 12,238

‘Supreme in Theme! Gigantic in Execution!’

‘Harness my zebras – gift of the Nubian King! This Carpenter shall learn that he cannot hold a man from Mary Magdalene!’

A silent Biblical epic that opens with an orgy! The King of Kings (1927) could only be a Cecil B DeMille production. It has two two-colour Technicolor sequences, the opening and resurrection scenes, in the two-colour process invented by Herbert Kalmus.

Logan plays Mary Magdalene, living in outrageous ostentation, with Judas as her lover. After grabbing our attention, DeMille finally gets to the main narrative of the events that lead to Jesus’s Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. H B Warner gives a sincere and thoughtful performance as Christ, with Dorothy Cumming as Mary, Ernest Torrence as Peter and Joseph Schildkraut as Judas.

The King of Kings is spectacularly filmed, particularly the Crucifixion (filmed in two-strip Technicolor) and Jesus’s appearance to the disciples afterwards. It is noted also for the scene where Christ cures a blind girl.

No need to heed John Steinbeck’s sour warning: ‘Saw the film – loved the book’.

In 1928 DeMille prepared and released a sound version with a score by Hugo Riesenfeld and added sound effects.

After many years of incomplete versions circulating, the restored 2004 DVD reveals the movie in its full, great majesty, with a new score by Donald Sosin.

It was a box-office hit, and became the second in DeMille’s original biblical trilogy, preceded by The Ten Commandments (1923) and followed by The Sign of the Cross (1932). DeMille also later remade The Ten Commandments (1956).

It is remade as King of Kings (1961).

It runs 155 minutes.

The two-tone, or two-colour Technicolor process is properly called Technicolor Process 2 (1922) and is often wrongly called two-strip Technicolor today.

It was the first film premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on 18 May 1927 and screened there again on 24 May 1977 to commemorate the cinema’s 50th anniversary.

The spectacular giant gate built for this film was reused in King Kong (1933) and was among the sets torched for the burning of Atlanta in Gone with the Wind (1939). Other sets and costumes were re-used for the 1965 Elvis Presley film, Harum Scarum.

Elementary and high school kids were dismissed early to attend afternoon screenings.

It was seen by about 500 million people between 1927 and the remake King of Kings in 1961.

The cast are H B Warner, Jacqueline Logan, Joseph Schildkraut, Ernest Torrence, Victor Varconi, Dorothy Cumming, Robert Edeson, William Boyd, James Neill, Rudolph Schildkraut, Joseph Striker, Sidney D’Albrook, David Imboden, Charles Belcher, Clayton Packard, Robert Ellsworth, Charles Requa, John T Prince, Sam De Grasse, Casson Ferguson, Majel Coleman, Montagu Love, Michael D Moore, Theodore Kosloff, George Siegmann, Julia Faye, Josephine Norman, Kenneth Thomson, Alan Brooks, Viola Louie, Muriel McCormac, Clarence Burton, Jim Mason, May Robson, Dot Farley, Hector Sarno, Leon Holmes, Otto Lederer, Bryant Washburn, Lionel Belmore, Monte Collins, Luca Flamma, Sojin, William Costello, Noble Johnson, Jim Farley, and André Cheron.

It is written by Jeannie Macpherson, who came up with such gems as: ‘I am LUST! Hold me fast, Mary – my arms are the gates of life! I am GREED! I drain hearts, but I fill thy purse – let Him not destroy me! Keep me, Mary – I am PRIDE! Through me thou hast enslaved Kings! We are GLUTTONY–INDOLENCE–ENVY–ANGER! We teach thee to forget, and to hate, and to consume!’

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,238

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