EVERYBODY’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 308, 20 March 1928, Page 15

EVERYBODY’S

“THE KING OF KINGS” ‘■The King of Kings" is attracting largo audiences to Everybody’s Theatre. _ Blase critics call it “The Gospel according to Be Mille.” Of course, whose else should it be? Every man makes his own interpretation of the Gospel—even when he learns by rote what he receives from his priest or pastor. Reason demands this of intelligent thinking. De Mille seeks to give us his pictorial conception of the chief characters in the Four Gospels. Ho does not wish to alter a single line of that “faith once for all delivered to the saints.” But —he wants to visualise the scenes, so that we may each examine again the foundations on which our convictions rest. Magdalene on the screen requires Christ on the screen, so that reality may deepen. Watch the proud, beautiful courtesan in her dazzling . surroundings, scorning the leering banqueters, playing with her leopard—and angry at the absence of her lover Judas, and scoffing that a “Carpenter” should hold him from her—dashing off with her gilded chariot and team of zebras in furious haste, only to ftp broiYrht up sharp by the cutting contrast of the sordid dwellings amid which she finds the Master of the Human Heart! Judas is ignored. Every wile, every faculty is summoned to overawe “this Carpenter”—who in His turn does nothing but look through her! Very gradually, but inevitably, those looking at the screen can sense the gradual melting of the hard pleasureloving woman—the “fountains of the deep” break up, and she “who came to scoff, remains to pray!” The episode is unforgettable. From then until the film is ended, one looks for the Magdalene, grateful for her increasing devotion and her holier affection. The beautiful musical score which has been specially arranged and synchronised by Mr. Howard Moody, is interpreted by a symphony orchestra specially engaged for the season, which includes Miss Gladys Vincent, Miss Isobel Langlands and Mr. Francis Bate.