EVERYBODY’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 313, 26 March 1928, Page 13

EVERYBODY’S

“THE KING OF KINGS” By the very nature of its subject, Cecil B. de Mille’s “The King- of Kings” is a film apart—one which cannot be compared with anything heretofore projected on the screen. Its very spiritual significance lifts it above the customary plane of those measured by box office rules. It makes a magnificent sermon, which needs no translating into the mother tongues of the nations. The message of the gospel expands into mute but eloquent expression under the moving celluloid. “The King of Kings,” however, cannot be called entertainment. Its appeal is not in any sense of the theatre. That is not de Mille’s way of handling such a subject. Approaching the Bible reverently with the lofty purpose of recording the last year of Jesus and his ministry, he has accomplished the crowning achievement of his career. Taking the sailent points of the New Testament, the director has brought forth all of its dramatic and spiritual import. With bold but sympathetic strokes he does away with any symbolic representation, and depicts Jesus as a flesh and blood figure. It took courage, also, to record other departures from the accepted conventions. Heretofore it has been held as approaching sacrilege to depict Christ carrying the Cross to Golgotha. But de Mille handles the theme so reverently that any thought of trespassing upon sacred ground cannot be encouraged for an instant. “The King of Kings” is now being presented twice daily at Everybody’s Theatre. A special orchestra under Mr. Howard Moody makes most appropriate use of such beautiful music as “The Pilgrim’s Chorus,” “The Hallelujah Chorus,” and “Lead, Kind’v Light.”