The following is a chapter from Screen Jesus, our regular contributor Rev Peter Malone’s in-depth study of depictions of Jesus on screen, both silver and television, over the history of the cinematic arts. The book is available from Scarecrow Press or from your favorite book retailer. We will be featuring on ongoing series of excerpts from the book courtesy of Rev. Malone.
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The Great Commandment
In 1939 Rev. James K. Friedrich produced The Great Commandment, an 80 minute feature set in 30 AD and focusing on life in a small village ‘between Jerusalem and Jericho’ which was a centre for Zealots. It was directed by Irving Pichel and starred some Hollywood actors including John Beal and Albert Dekker. The American accents make the film seem too contemporary for non-American audiences as does some of the dialogue (“Is this your idea of a joke?’”). The musical score sometimes anticipates the scores of Miklos Rosza for King of Kings. The film plays like an effective costume drama of the 1930s.
The initial information is about Pilate, his oppressive laws and imposition of taxes. The focus is on two brothers, one a hothead who wants revolution now and dies for it, the other a student of the scriptures under his authoritarian rabbi father who is looking for a strong leader. When he hears of Jesus, he imagines that he will have an army and rid the country of Romans. He journeys to Galilee, meets Andrew and listens to Jesus (especially texts from Matthew about taking up one’s cross as well as the Beatitudes). Jesus also heals a blind man. When Joel offers his sword and allegiance, Jesus tells him that those who live by the sword will perish by it. Befriended by Judas who persuades him that Jesus could be talked into revolt, he returns to his village where his father, sceptical and sneering asks about the greatest law and is answered by the parable of the Good Samaritan. This has a profound effect on Joel who, after the Romans massacre the zealots, puts Jesus’ teaching about loving enemies into practice by tending to the wounded centurion. The village is spared while Joel is interned for his own safety. When the centurion comes to free him, he has just put Jesus to death and is amazed that his life was saved by a disciple of the man he had crucified.
There is a romantic sub-plot which, after some tangles, leads to a happy ending. Jesus is not seen on screen. Rather, his preaching, healings and his parable are voiced off-screen by director Irving Pichel, because Joseph Breen, administrator of the Production Code raised difficulties with a full-on presentation of Jesus. Although made only twelve years after De Mille, it shows the strength of cinema techniques developed during the 1930s and is more akin to the 1961 King of Kings. Jesus has a strong and dignified enunciation (with the use of ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ language) and, although he is present only after an hour of the film, he and his message make an impact. The film was released in 1941.
The Lawton Story/The Prince of Peace/The Pilgrimage Play
During the late 40s and early 50s some American church organisations did make feature films of Jesus. In the late 40s, The Lawton Story was filmed in Oklahoma. It showed how the citizens of Lawton prepared for a Passion Play, its effects on their lives and the play itself. (Scenes were later edited for The Prince of Peace which had an international distribution amongst church groups.)
However, there was something of a breakthrough in screen presentations of Jesus in The Pilgrimage Play in 1949. It was directed in Hollywood by studio director, Frank R. Strayer who, in the late 1930s and early 1940s made twelve Blondie films. However, The Pilgrimage Play was not a studio production and it did not receive mainstream release. It was a filmed play of the life of Jesus but what made it different was that Nelson Leigh played Jesus fully on screen rather than a voice off-screen or the visuals being limited to a hand or an arm as in the biblical films of the 1950s. And it was made in colour.
Leigh’s Jesus is suitably serious, smiles slightly sometimes but is played in the grand manner of the superior rabbi rather than in any more personalised way. The framework of the film is having Peter in prison recounting the life of Jesus before he himself is executed. The scenes are more like tableau than action and the screenplay consists of large chunks of the Gospels recited in a solemn way as if this is how Jesus spoke all the time. This image of Jesus would have corresponded to the devout theological perspectives of the period, an emphasis on the way that the divine influenced the human in Jesus. Another factor for those who saw the film when it was made is that this was the first talking Jesus in colour. There was no precedent and it was just over twenty years since Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings with its Jesus in silent film mode.
Audiences on the lookout for interesting differences in Jesus films will notice the strong emphasis given to the role and influence of Nicodemus, especially at Jesus’ trial. Another feature of Jesus’ trial is the calling of Judas as a witness but his being excluded by Nicodemus quoting the law that someone who betrays another cannot give testimony.
The film has a great deal of Jesus’ teaching, some miracles, a Da Vinci-like Last Supper and some grim moments of the passion (though, of course, everything pales in the retrospect of The Passion of the Christ).
The emerging television programs in the US began to dramatise biblical stories. An example is a 1952 Studio One performance of The Nativity, based on the medieval Miracle Play cycles (directed by Franklin Schaffner who was to win an Oscar as Best Director, 1970, for Patton). (Both The Pilgrimage Play and The Nativity are in the public domain and can be found on the Internet Archive.)
I Beheld His Glory
In 1952 James K. Friedrich produced a 55 minute drama, I Beheld His Glory, using a flashback device for a centurion (played by George Macready) who is sent by Thomas to tell the story of Jesus to a group of men about Jesus (Robert Wilson). They have heard stories about him but do not really know the truth about him. He tells the story of Jesus from his arrival in Jerusalem to his appearance after the resurrection.
The film includes the Last Supper, Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, his words from the cross and his appearance to Mary Magdalene. There was some criticism that the small budget meant some poor backdrops and scenic effects. Robert Wilson, played Jesus, face-on, in a way which would not be commerciay acceptable for another ten years. I Beheld His Glory is an elaboration of a series of 30 minute films on the Gospels.
