King of Kings (1961 film)

King of Kings is a 1961 American epic religious film directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by Samuel Bronston for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Adapted from the New Testament, the film tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection. It stars Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus, with Siobhán McKenna, Robert Ryan, Viveca Lindfors, Ron Randell, Hurd Hatfield, Carmen Sevilla and Rip Torn and is narrated by Orson Welles.

Throughout the 1950s, John Farrow began developing a proposed film project based on the life of Jesus, tentatively titled Son of Man. In November 1958, actual development started when Farrow partnered with Samuel Bronston following their collaboration on John Paul Jones (1959). By the next year, Farrow left the project due to creative differences, and Nicholas Ray was hired as director. Ray then hired screenwriter Philip Yordan to write a new script. Filming commenced in April 1960 and wrapped in October 1960.

Financing of the film was initially provided by Pierre S. du Pont III and other private investors. During production, Bronston signed guarantee bonds with MGM, By November 1951, it was reported that the project was under development at the Nassour Studios and that Farrow was conducting a search for an actor for the title role. When asked of the requirements he desired, Farrow replied, "High personal character and a good actor."

However, by August 1953, Farrow was contracted to direct The Sea Chase (1955) with Warner Bros. In February 1954, the Los Angeles Times reported that Farrow was likely to begin development on Son of Man following the completion of The Sea Chase. It was speculated that it would be shot in England and that Jesus would not be shown directly, although Farrow did not confirm these statements. Shooting was scheduled to begin by summer 1954. It was ultimately set aside when, in April 1955, Farrow signed to direct Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), from which he was later fired after nearly a week of shooting.

In January 1956, Variety reported that Farrow was in negotiations with RKO Pictures to finance and distribute Son of Man. Two months later, in March, Farrow began a search for an unknown actor to portray Jesus on the condition that he would not appear in another film, television, or stage production for up to 20 years. However, these plans were again postponed when, in October 1957, Farrow signed on to direct John Paul Jones (1959) for Samuel Bronston. A year later, Farrow and Bronston formed a production company, Brofar, as they planned to produce a second project.

In November 1958, it was reported that Bronston and Farrow were collaborating on a film project based on the life of Jesus. In May 1959, it was reported that Sonya Levien had been hired to write the final script. However, by October 1959, Farrow had left the project over creative differences. Farrow later explained that in the context of Jesus's trial, Bronston wanted him to "whitewash the Jewish leaders, and lay blame entirely on the Romans. I refused to make these changes. I quit." Additionally, associate producer Alan Brown stated the "script was not really a script, it was the Four Gospels put down, and Sam called me and said, 'I cannot even understand this, it's all Thee and Thou and everything else.

In November 1959, Nicholas Ray signed on to direct the project. With set construction nearly complete, Ray asked screenwriter Philip Yordan, whom he previously worked with on Johnny Guitar (1954) to rewrite the script. Ray explained, "I asked for him and made concessions to have him. They had asked me to write it. I didn't feel up to the responsibility; I am as impatient with the other writer on my own screenplay as with others."

Yordan recalled, "I didn't want to go to Spain, but he asked me to just come over there for the weekend. The picture was called Son of Man. Terrible title, and someone had taken chapters of the Bible and sort of tried to make it play, but it was awful." He then recommended re-titling the script to King of Kings, but was reminded the title had been used for the 1927 film of the life of Jesus directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Yordan retorted the title was in the public domain, and it was later discovered DeMille had not registered the title. Yordan promptly registered the title with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Yordan wrote a new script in six weeks, which Bronston liked so much that he encouraged him to stay in Madrid. There, Yordan later co-wrote the script for El Cid (1961). Yordan did not find writing the script to be difficult, observing that "Christ was a loner. He's not much different than my usual character. The Western character. It's the same character. The man alone."

To assure the script was faithful to the Gospels, Bronston hired several Biblical scholars, which included playwright Diego Fabbri and theologian professor George Kilpatrick, who wrote the books The Origins of the Gospel According to St. Matthew (1946) and The Trial of Jesus (1953). On March 8, 1960, Pope John XXIII approved the film's script while he met with Bronston at the Vatican. Even during filming, Ray continued to work on the script with Yordan and Kilpatrick, who remained on hand as a consultant. Ray wrote to Bronston that thanks to Kilpatrick, he had solved the dramatic problem of how to depict the trial of Jesus.

Casting

thumb|right|400px|Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus in King of Kings

Several actors were considered to play the role of Jesus. In May 1959, it was reported that Alec Guinness had met with Bronston to discuss playing the role. Nicholas Ray, as director, considered Peter Cushing, Tom Fleming, Christopher Plummer, and Max von Sydow (who would later play the role in The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965) for the role of Jesus.

On April 21, 1960, Jeffrey Hunter was cast as Jesus. The idea to cast Hunter came from John Ford, who suggested him to Nicholas Ray after directing Hunter in The Searchers (1956). Ray was familiar with Hunter, having directed him in The True Story of Jesse James (1957). Bronston agreed mainly because of Hunter's striking eyes, explaining that "I really chose him for his eyes. It was important that the man playing Christ have memorable eyes." After he finished filming for Hell to Eternity (1960), Hunter was given the script and took the role.

Other prominent actors were pursued for supporting roles. In April 1960, it was reported that Orson Welles and Richard Burton were cast as Herod the Great and Herod Antipas respectively. Alternately, on April 21, the day of Hunter's casting, it was reported that Burton was attached to play a centurion and that James Mason was being considered for Pontius Pilate. In the following month, however, Burton left the role when he was refused top billing.

In May 1960, Grace Kelly turned down the offer to portray Mary, mother of Jesus. The role later went to Siobhán McKenna, while Hurd Hatfield was cast as Pontius Pilate. That same month, it was announced that Viveca Lindfors, Rita Gam, Frank Thring, and Ron Randell had joined the cast. Several of the supporting parts were cast with local English-speaking Spanish actors whom Bronston collected through a "workshop" program.

Filming

In 1959, Bronston had established his eponymous production studio in Spain where he noticed that the rugged countryside resembled Judea. Principal photography began on April 24, 1960, at the Sevilla and Chamartín Studios, near Madrid, where 396 sets were constructed for the film. The set used for the Second Temple, constructed at the Sevilla studios, was blown down during a hurricane. Bronston surveyed the site and ordered it to be rebuilt, which was completed in three months.

The film was shot on multiple locations throughout Spain. The Venta de Frascuelas near the rocky terrains of Chinchón was used for the Sermon on the Mount. The Adaja in El Fresno was used to represent the Jordan River. In Almería, the Rambla de Lanujar used for the wilderness where Jesus was tempted. The Añover de Tajo in province of Toledo substituted for the Mount of Olives. The municipalities of Manzanares el Real and Navacerrada were used for the scenes set in Nazareth and Golgotha, respectively.

For the film, Bronston continued his pre-selling financial method, through which private investors financed the film's production budget. According to Variety, Pierre S. du Pont III contributed nearly $1.4 million of the film's initial $7 million production budget. In September 1960, Arthur Resse, who had been serving as a horse trainer, was killed in an automobile accident, which also injured actor Harry Guardino (who was portraying Barabbas) as the two were en route from a location outside Aranjuez. Around this time, Ray, who was overwhelmed with the production woes, was temporarily replaced by Charles Walters. On October 4, 1960, principal photography was completed. Welles insisted on pronouncing the word 'apostles' with a hard 't' instead of the normally silent 't'.

Bradbury wrote an ending in which the resurrected Jesus commissions the disciples to preach the Gospel. Then, he elevates as he walks towards the horizontal shores of Galilee leaving only his visible footprints to be covered with blowing dust. The disciples would also leave footprints in all four directions to be covered with dust. That ending, however, was deemed too expensive to be filmed. The version used in the final film was a shadow of Jesus, which looms larger to form a cross with the fishing nets left along the shore. The scene was used as test footage for lighting and was incorporated into the film without Ray's involvement.

On April 21, 1961, the film's first sneak preview was screened at the Kachina Theater in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bronston, Vogel, Siegel, and other MGM executives attended the screening. The film ran two hours and forty-five minutes. The Sermon on the Mount received one of the most positive test audience responses. After the sneak preview, MGM felt another scene of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene was needed, which was filmed at the MGM-British Studios near London on May 8.

Music

Miklós Rózsa was hired to compose the score, which was recorded using a 74-piece symphony orchestra and a choir of 50 people. The film premiered at the Loew's State Theatre in New York City on October 11, 1961. It began roadshow engagements in 22 key cities throughout the United States.

Home media

King of Kings was released by Warner Home Video as a DVD on October 5, 1999, and February 6, 2003, as a Blu-ray on July 28, 2009, and as a Region 1 widescreen disc on March 29, 2011. It has since been available for online streaming and download through Amazon, Apple iTunes Store and Vudu.

Reception

Critical reaction

Time wrote a negative review describing the film as "[i]ncontestably the corniest, phoniest, ickiest and most monstrously vulgar of all the big Bible stories Hollywood has told in the last decade". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that the movie had "the nature of an illustrated lecture" and was a "peculiarly impersonal film that constructs a great deal of random action around Jesus and does very little to construct a living personality for Him." Robert J. Landry of Variety praised the film as "a major motion picture by any standard" that not only "succeeds as spectacle" but also "succeeds in touching the heart." Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It is not great art, nor is it the definitive photoplay about Jesus (will there ever be one?), but it is at least permeated by a soberness of purpose that, allowing for ordinary human fallibility, can be tacitly felt and respected. Technically, of course, it is far glossier than the C.B. DeMille movie of 1927, and very probably at least its equal in effectiveness. Dramatically, I think, it falls somewhere between the theatrical entertainment that was Ben-Hur and the spiritual but spiritless Francis of Assisi."

Harrison's Reports awarded its top grade of "Excellent" and declared that the film "will not only stamp its enduring imprint on the glorious history book of the motion picture industry, but will leave its memorable impact on the minds of all those millions who see it." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post, however, panned the film as "a picture which never should have been made" because of the portrayal of Jesus as "a universal, non-controversial figure," explaining that "to excise His dynamic, revolutionary concepts is to make His journey on earth a hollow ritual, a pointless fairy tale, an essay on How to Live Dangerously and Still Win." The Monthly Film Bulletin stated: "As, simply, a version of the infinitely well-known story, it has some curious interpolations (Christ's visit to John the Baptist in his cell) and omissions. The overwhelming failure, though, is in finding any kind of style, in imagery, dialogue or music, which goes beyond the most insipidly conventional kind of Bible illustrations."

Among later reviews, Leonard Maltin's home video guide awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, and Geoff Andrew called it "one of the most interesting screen versions of the Gospels," adding that "some of the performances appear to lack depth, but one can't deny the effectiveness of Miklós Rózsa's fine score, and of Ray's simple but elegant visuals which achieve a stirring dramatic power untainted by pompous bombast." Musicians such as Grammy Award-winning Art Greenhaw have cited the movie as being an influence in their work and even their favorite film of all time. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, King of Kings holds an approval rating of 80% based on 20 reviews with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With enough narrative depth to anchor the expected spectacle, King of Kings is a true blessing for fans of Biblical epics."

Filmink argued "Hunter‘s performance is absolutely fine... To be fair, Jesus isn’t much of a role (even Max Von Sydow struggled to make it interesting) and Hunter’s calmness (or lack of personality if you want to be mean) suits how the filmmakers want to play it."

The film's music score, composed by Miklós Rózsa, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. That same year, Rózsa was also nominated in the same category for his score of El Cid, which likewise was produced by Bronston.

Box office

According to MGM's records, King of Kings earned $8 million in North America and $5.4 million overseas, earning a profit of $1,621,000.

References

Bibliography

External links

King of Kings at AllMovie
of Kings page at A Tribute to Jeffrey Hunter website