Judge — May 21, 1927 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1 more, though no hint that r turned water into wine), the betrayal, the crucifixion, and a wholly unjustified though quite typical elaboration of the earth- quake, mentioned = only _ in Matthew, which is recorded as accompanying the death of Christ “And the earth did quake, s the Gospel, “and the rocks rent.’”” Which, b translated into the universal guage of the cinema, means, ap- parently, a thunderstorm and a eyelone and a horrendous _part- ing of the earth with v masses of rock, carrying countless people and trees, plunging into the abyss. o movie director (certainly none with the record of “The Ten Commandments” behind him) could resist this temptation to serve with trimmings a cataclysm of nature however faky. H B. Warner’s performance, * though good, adds nothing to one’s conception of the tradi- tional re except. in one episode, na when Jesus drives the money changers from the temple. In this, the one in- stance in Scripture in which Jesus is recorded as showing other than compassion for His fellow men, His impersonator might easily have come a cropper. Instead, the mixture of indignation and understanding that blazes from Warner's eyes as he calmly drives the offending merchants before him seems to me a masterpiece of creative acting. (The irony of including this famous incident in a picture costing more than $2,000,000 and hopefully dedi- cated to profits in proportion probably didn’t occur to him.) Rudolph Schildkraut, as Cai- aphas, the High Priest, is the arch villain of the piece. He does a good job within the limita- tions of his part, which are those of the average movie villain. Joseph Schildkraut, his son, plays a very ordinary Juda i traordinary energy. Logan, as Mary Magd plies the only hint of sex « in the picture, a brief and not ob- trusive one near the beginning. To sum up, “The King of Kings,” though it is indubitably a movie in spirit as well as in fact, does its medium proud. And if it is objected that it crucifies Our Lord afresh in the interest of Material Success, well “let him who is without sin among “What can have happened to them? Do you suppose they've had an accident?” you first cast a stone... . “More likely Jim is having tire trouble again; he doesn't seem to learn by experience. I savitched over to Kelly-Springfields long ago.” ADV. 21 comicbooks.com