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Thanks to the great restoration work done on Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 KING OF KINGS I am seeing it today better than it has ever been seen.
In part that is because this presentation of the picture includes the restoration of the original 2 color Technicolor and hand colored sequences (the latter having been used only in one copy of the film due to the expense) but more importantly because where in the past only at best five first rate copies of any picture could be produced today thanks to Digital technology each copy of a picture showcases the film at its very best.
There will always be those who decry the new however as one who worked with 16mm for decades who saw motion pictures revived in 35mm format I say authoritatively these pictures have never looked and sounded as good as they do now.
This is especially important with a picture such as 1927’s KING OF KINGS which due to its subject matter had to be necessity not only live up to the expectations of its audience but also surpass them.
Criterion gave this picture a DVD release some time back. That was fine.
This release surpasses that.
Jesus of Nazareth spoke the twelve words which Kurt Vonnegut has called, “The only antidote to the poison of ‘an eye for van eye,’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth.'” Those twelve words are: “Forgive us our trespasses (debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Those words are, admittedly, easier said than done.
As well those we forgive often see forgiveness as weakness.
It is not.
It takes more strength than any of us possess to turn the other cheek however, with God’s grace, we can do it.
We may find ourselves crucified in the process as Jesus was crucified.
So be it.
When the apostle Peter was crucified he said, “I am not worthy of being crucified right side up. Please crucify me upside down.”
This story is impossible many say.
“We’re an impossibility in an impossible universe,” Ray Bradbury said. “There’s really no split between science and religion. When facts stop, faith has to take over.”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/06/impossibility/
Yes, it does.
A huge thank you to FLICKER ALLEY, BLACKHAWK FILMS and all involved in bringing this picture back to us.
A note on the Roadshow version over the shortened re-release version. The Roadshow runs 161 mins. The re-release runs 115 mins.
The Roadshow was shown at top live theatre prices,
The re-release was shown at regular movie prices which were considerably less.
Pictures were routinely shortened so an extra show could be squeezed in.
We still don’t have a complete version of the Roadshow of Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON or George Cukor’s A STAR IS BORN.
A great deal of work went into restoring David Lean’s LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.
We are fortunate that the roadshow version of KING OF KINGS (1927) is here.
Marc Wanamaker’s commentary enhanced my appreciation considerably. (Roadshow Version)
–Reg Hartt
Why the film was shortened:
The King of Kings January 19, 2022
The King of Kings, 1927
A Rare Book of Photographs by William Mortensen
With a cast of thousands and over-the-top scenery, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film The King of Kings recounts the final episodes of the life of Christ. The film remains as impressive now as it was on May 18, 1927, the day it premiered as the first movie shown at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Throughout the making of the film in 1926 and 1927, photographer William Mortensen (American, 1897–1965) shot nearly 5,000 images. These photographs included close-up portrait studies of the principal actors (H. B. Warner as Jesus, Jacqueline Logan as Mary Magdalene, Joseph Schildkraut as Judas, and others), restaged scenes, and—unprecedented for the time—stills taken on set during the filming of the most spectacular sequences. So impressed was DeMille with the results that he commissioned Mortensen to produce prints for a privately published book with 60 tipped-in photographs and a production run of 50 copies. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has just acquired a rare example, now on display in the newly renovated Anne Wilkes Tucker Photography Study Center.
Taking the Picture / Making the Picture
Like turn-of-the-20th-century Pictorialist photographers, Mortensen (born 125 years ago this week) believed his original negatives to be merely a starting point that, through retouching, drawing, hand-coloring, and other manipulation, could reach their full expressive potential. “Getting the image onto the negative,” he wrote, “is only taking the picture: in printing, one comes to making the picture.” Indeed, his photographs often appear more like drawings or etchings—a characteristic anathema to his purist contemporaries such as Ansel Adams, who called him “the Anti-Christ.” Despite the derision of photographers in the period’s budding Modernist circles, Mortensen’s heavily manipulated images enjoyed enormous success in the late 1920s and 1930s. He published more than a dozen books (most of which are available in the Museum’s Hirsch Library), and his images were widely exhibited and reproduced. After falling out of favor for much of the 20th century, Mortensen’s photographs have now reemerged as precursors of the staged tableaux and Photoshopped images common in recent years.
The Photographs Tell the Story
With his background as a painter and photographer of Hollywood sets and as the in-house photographer for Wescosco (Western Costume Co.), Mortensen had already developed a romantic sensibility and stylistic predilection for theatricality that proved to be a perfect visual language for translating the broad gestures, exaggerated expressions, and grand spectacle characteristic of DeMille’s movies. The book that DeMille commissioned bears titles and biblical passages in Old English letterpress opposite each picture—but Mortensen’s photographs alone could tell the story.
An Intriguing Inscription
The MFAH copy of The King of Kings, one of only four known in public collections, is inscribed by DeMille to journalist John J. Flinn, “one who understands, and with thanks for the splendid help of your son.” One wonders what DeMille truly thought about the “splendid help” of Flinn’s son, John C. Flinn, president of Pathé Exchange, which owned the film. It was the younger Flinn who pushed the director to cut The King of Kings from 155 minutes to just 112, who required DeMille to remove scenes that were criticized as ahistorical and anti-Semitic before wide distribution in the United States, and who determined that the film would not be distributed in “those areas (particularly Poland, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and Roumania) where race hatred might be engendered.”
Stay Tuned
The acquisition of the elaborately produced volume of The King of Kings adds an important body of work to the Museum’s existing collection of photographs by Mortensen—beauty shots, costume pieces, and political images, many of which were 2018 gifts of Mortensen authority, enthusiast, and gallerist Stephen Romano. Perhaps surprisingly, at the same time that Mortensen was making the deeply reverent photographs found in The King of Kings, he began work on a very different project in which his masterful if unusual technique gave expression to a brew of theatricality, eroticism, and grotesquery. As museum curators, we are always on the lookout for the next acquisition, and pictures from Mortensen’s planned Pictorial History of Witchcraft and Demonology are definitely on our desiderata list. Stay tuned.
https://www.mfah.org/blogs/inside-mfah/the-king-of-kings
Flicker Alley The King of Kings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kings_(1927_film)
Regular price $56.00 CAD Sale price $49.00 CAD
2-DISC BLU-RAY EDITION
Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films are honored to present, in its domestic Blu-ray debut, Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic The King of Kings, including both the silent 1927 Roadshow version and the 1928 sound release reconstruction.
A production of unprecedented scale, The King of Kings followed DeMille’s 1923 epic The Ten Commandments, employing cutting edge filmmaking techniques to bring the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the screen. Boasting technicolor segments, sophisticated hand coloring process and synchronized sound effects, The King of Kings is an enduring cinematic marvel.
This deluxe Blu-ray edition is made possible thanks to the dedicated restoration efforts of Blackhawk Films with the support of Cecilia DeMille Presley. The King of Kings roadshow version features a new orchestral score composed and conducted by Robert Israel based on the original 1928 Hugo Riesenfeld musical accompaniment.
BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:
- Audio Commentary by Marc Wanamaker (Roadshow Version) – Explore the history and enduring legacy of The King of Kings with historian Marc Wanamaker
- 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio Options – On Robert Israel’s new orchestral score (roadshow version)
- Two Scores for the 1928 General Release – The original orchestral score by Hugo Riesenfeld and an organ score by Christian Elliott
- The Making of ‘The King of Kings’ – Twenty minutes of behind the scenes footage from throughout the production with commentary by Marc Wanamaker
- ‘The King of Kings’ Set Visit – Part of the publicity campaign, various members of the film industry were given an opportunity to tour the set during production
- ‘The King of Kings’ Premieres in Germany – Footage from the film’s premiere in Germany
- Pathé Week on Broadway – A promotional cartoon short from 1927 that officially announces the release of The King of Kings
- Negative A / Negative B – A featurette exploring the filming process that led to multiple negatives
- Technicolor – A look into the innovative process behind the film’s color sequences
- Hand Coloring Onto the Film – A look at the painstaking process used to colorize individual elements of various scenes
- Extensive Galleries – Behind the scenes stills, concept art, posters, and documentation collected from archives all over the world
- Souvenir Booklet – Featuring an introduction, notes on the restoration, and details of alternate versions by Serge Bromberg
- English SDH Subtitles
- Reversible Cover Artwork
- Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
- All Region Encoding (A,B,C)
Release Date: May 12, 2025
Format: Blu-ray
Region: ALL REGION
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Year: 1927 / 1928
Language: Silent (English Intertitles)
Length: 161 mins. / 115 mins.
UPC: 6-17311-00889-4
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Robert Bucklin was one of the foremost forensic scientists of his day. The television series QUINCY was based on his life. This peer reviewed piece is essential reading:
The Legal and Medical Aspects of the Trial and Death of Christ by Robert Bucklin, M.D., J.D. Las Vegas, Nevada
https://www.shroud.com/bucklin2.htm
An Autopsy on the Man of the Shroud
by Robert Bucklin, M.D., J.D. Las Vegas, Nevada
https://www.shroud.com/bucklin.htm
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