The King of Kings (1927) on Netflix
Mary Magdalene, a courtesan, rides out in a zebra-drawn chariot to bring Judas Iscariot back. Judas follows Jesus, who heals a little girl and a demon-possessed boy.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/102,728 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mary Magdalene lives as a courtesan, entertaining many men. Learning that Judas Iscariot is staying with a carpenter, she sets out in a chariot drawn by zebras to bring him back. She arrives and talks with Judas, who says he follows Jesus only in the hope of being made a high official once Jesus becomes king of kings. Jesus casts out of her the Seven Deadly Sins, heals a boy possessed by a demon, raises Lazarus, and heals little children; when a girl asks whether he can heal broken legs and he says yes, she hands him a legless doll, which he repairs. Peter is the Giant apostle, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a mother to all his followers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The King of Kings (1927)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Cecil B. DeMille kept H. B. Warner, his Jesus, virtually a recluse for the roughly year-long shoot: the actor could not be seen in cafes or theaters, could not smoke in the studio, and retired alone to a small closed room between scenes.
- Dorothy Cumming, who played Mary the mother of Jesus, signed a DeMille contract on August 21, 1926 that regulated her private life for seven years, barring her from divorcing her husband or playing a prostitute.
- DeMille wanted Gloria Swanson to play Mary Magdalene, but she was preparing her first film with United Artists and would not be available to work with him.
- Before The King of Kings, DeMille spent over $50,000 on research and story preparation for a Noah epic called The Deluge, then canceled it on learning that Warner Bros. were planning Noah's Ark and had registered it with the Will Hays office.
- The Memphis Board of Censors ordered 900 feet of the scourging and crucifixion cut; when the Lyric Theatre showed the film uncut in 1928 under guidance from Pathé, its manager was arrested, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals ultimately ruled the board's cuts legal and final.
- In the United Kingdom the film was initially banned by the London County Council under a rule against showing a materialized Christ, and the ban led to a revision of the local censorship rules.
- The King of Kings was the first film to premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, on May 18, 1927, and it was screened there again on May 24, 1977 for the theater's 50th anniversary.
- In 1928 actress Valeska Surratt and scholar Mirza Ahmad Sohrab sued DeMille for stealing the scenario; the case went to trial in February 1930 and was settled, and Surratt appeared to have been unofficially blacklisted afterwards.
