Main Cast: Loretta Young, Henry Wilcoxon, Ian Keith, C. Aubrey Smith, Katherine de Mille
Release Year: 1935
Country: US
Run Time: 123 minutes
Plot
The Holy Wars are given the usual overblown Cecil B. DeMille treatment in The Crusades. It all begins in the 12th-century AD, when Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Saracens, and the Christians are slaughtered or sold into slavery. A holy man known as The Hermit (C. Aubrey Smith) rallies the rulers of England and Europe to launch a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem in the name of Christianity. Among those embarking upon this massive undertaking is England's King Richard the Lion-Hearted (played as a swaggering roughneck by Henry Wilcoxon), who finances his knights by marrying wealthy French princess Berengaria (Loretta Young) sight unseen. Saladin (Ian Keith), the elegant and well-spoken ruler of the Saracens, attempts to stave off the crusaders by kidnapping Berengaria and holding her hostage. Sensing that he can never win against so formidable a collection of foes, Saladin eventually opens the gates of Jerusalem to all but Richard the Lion-Hearted, with whom he has a personal score to settle. In the film's most memorable scene, the fundamental difference between the boorish Richard and the cultured Saladin is demonstrated when the Saracen ruler delicately cleaves Berengaria's silk scarf in twain with his gleaming sword. It took a great deal of nerve to depict the film's hero as a thuggish brute and the nominal villain as the most sympathetic character in the story, but DeMille gets away with it in The Crusades, and still has time left over to deliver his usual quota of thrills, pageantry, convoluted history and campy dialogue. And yes, that is Ann Sheridan as a Christian captive in the opening scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
It's dreadful history and it's questionable as art, but The Crusades definitely scores as sheer entertainment. This is a big old-fashioned religious-historical epic in the classic Cecil B. DeMille manner, which means of course that facts can just be damned. DeMille had absolutely no interest in a history lesson; he just liked to take basic historical figures and events and use them as pawns in his own enjoyable chess game. Like many other DeMille products, he's also more interested in the spectacle and the action sequences than he is in the story that these elements are hung upon. Oh, he knows he needs a story; his interest in it doesn't extend to much more than making sure it makes some sort of sense and ties things together in a manner he deems satisfactory. Thus, we get a film in which the religious overtones of the Crusades are paid lip service but are subservient to the difficult romance between Loretta Young and Henry Wilcoxon. As is also usual with the director, there's a lot of lump dialogue to get through along the way. That said, the screenplay does have a couple of interesting points, notably the portrayal of Richard the Lion-Hearted as an uncouth brute and of the Muslim Saladin as refined and civilized. That's enough to keep things going between action sequences, which are quite wonderful; the battle at Acre is truly deserving of the adjective "spectacular." There's all the pomp and glamour and over-the-top visual delight one could wish -- more than enough to overcome any rough spots in the script. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
