Themes: Immortality, Heroic Mission, Message From God
Main Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Hurd Hatfield, Siobhan McKenna, Ron Randell, Harry Guardino, Viveca Lindfors, Rip Torn
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 165 minutes
Plot
One major film star referred to director Nicholas Ray as a "loser," because of Ray's alleged willingness to let his more temperamental actors walk all over him. Evidently, Ray had a very compliant and cooperative cast in King of Kings, inasmuch as the film emerged as one of the most disciplined Biblical epics ever made. Jeffrey Hunter is cast as Jesus Christ, delivering a wholly credible performance in this most taxing of roles (never mind the wags who referred to the film as "I Was a Teenage Jesus"). Siobhan McKenna is a radiant if somewhat overaged Mary; Hurd Hatfield offers a properly preening Pontius Pilate; Rip Torn portrays Judas more for the tragedy than the treachery; Robert Ryan (a personal favorite of Ray's) is one of the best John the Baptists you're ever likely to see; and Harry Guardino convincingly interprets Barabbas as a firebrand political extremist. The only false note in the casting is the MGM-dictated selection of teenaged Brigid Bazlen as Salome. The best aspect of the film is its handling of the days after the Resurrection; the "Jesus sightings" are offered as secondhand information, so as to retain some of the mystery inherent in the Scriptures. King of Kings was previously filmed in 1927 by Cecil B. DeMille, with a middle-aged H.B. Warner as Jesus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rita Gam - Herodias; Frank Thring - Herod Antipas; Carmen Sevilia - Mary Magdalene; Brigid Bazlen - Salome; Guy Rolfe - Caiphas; Maurice Marsac - Nicodemus; Gregoire Aslan - King Herod; Royal Dano - Peter; Edric Connor - Balthazar; Robert Ryan - John the Baptist; Orson Welles - Narrator [uncredited]; George Coulouris - Camel Driver; Conrado SanMartin - Gen. Pompey; Gerard Tichy - Joseph; Luis Prendes - Good Thief; David Davies - Burly Man; Ruben Rojo - Matthew; Fernando Sancho - Madman; Michael Wager - Thomas; Adriano Rimoldi - Melchior; Barry Keegan - Bad Thief; Rafael Luis Calvo - Simon of Cyrene; Ted de Corsia - Innkeeper/Complainer; Felix de Pomes - Joseph of Arimathea; Jose Nieto - Caspar; Francisco Moran - Blind Man
Credit
Jaime Prades - Associate Producer, Betty Utey - Choreography, Georges Wakhévitch - Costume Designer, Carlo Lastricati - First Assistant Director, José Lopez Rodero - First Assistant Director, Nicholas Ray - Director, Harold Kress - Editor, Renee Lichtig - Editor, Miklos Rozsa - Composer (Music Score), Charles Parker - Makeup, Mario Van Riel - Makeup, Georges Wakhévitch - Production Designer, Milton Krasner - Cinematographer, Franz Planer - Cinematographer, Manuel Berenguer - Cinematographer, Samuel Bronston - Producer, Enrique Alarcon - Set Designer, Georges Wakhévitch - Set Designer, Lee Le Blanc - Special Effects, Alex C. Weldon - Special Effects, Philip Yordan - Screenwriter
