While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the RCA Photophone sound-on-film process.Featuring the opening and resurrection scenes in two-color Technicolor, the film is the second in DeMille's Biblical trilogy, preceded by The Ten Commandments (1923) and followed by The Sign of the Cross (1932).Peter is introduced as the Giant apostle, and we see the future gospel writer Mark as a child who is healed by Jesus.Caiaphas the High Priest is also angry at Judas for having led people to a man whom he sees as a false prophet.Noticeably at the Last Supper, when Jesus distributes the bread and wine saying that they are his body and blood, Judas refuses to eat or drink.The tree where Judas had hanged himself, with the rope used to bind Jesus's wrists, is swallowed up amidst bursts of hellfire.The tumult ends when Mary looks up at heaven and asks God to forgive the world for the death of their son.The movie has two Technicolor sequences, the beginning and the resurrection scene, which use the two-color process invented by Herbert Kalmus.[8] Photoplay described the film as "Cecil B. DeMille's finest motion picture effort" and thought he took "the most difficult and exalted theme in the world's history—the story of Jesus Christ—and transcribed it intelligently and ably to the screen.It is a sincere and reverent visualization of the last three years in the life of Christ, produced on a scale of tasteful magnificence, finely acted by the scores in it, and possessed of moments of poignant beauty and unapproachable drama.The Memphis Board of Censors ordered cut 900 feet of the film depicting the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus, but the Lyric Theatre in Memphis, under guidance provided by Pathé, showed the film uncut starting on March 5, 1928, which led to the arrest of the theatre manager Vincent Carline.
The King of Kings
(Mute Print without Synchronized Score)