The Greatest Story Ever Miscast
Posted on December 23rd, 2006 in Uncategorized by Eugene Finerman ||
I will be having a traditional Christmas. No, I won’t be hanging from Mel Gibson’s tree but I will be watching Turner Classic Movies.
Among my favorite movies of the season is “King of Kings”. It is quite a spectacle, opening with a grandiloquent narration by Orson Welles –”And lo, the Romans descending like a plague of locust…” setting the scene of a brutalized, oppressed people in need of a liberating Messiah.
But then we get to see the Messiah. It’s Jeffrey Hunter: “Whoa, Dude! Let’s go surfing on the Sea of Galilee!” I was a little disappointed that the rest of cast was inconsistent with “Beach Blanket Bible“. Imagine Troy Donahue as John the Baptist, Annette as Mary Magdalene and James Darren as “Moon Doggie” Pilate. Buddy Hackett and Keenan Wynn could have been the High Priests.
“And with two hamburgers and one cheese pizza He was able to feed 5,000.”
Aside from the ludicrous casting of Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus, “King of Kings” also had Robert Ryan as John the Baptist. Mr. Ryan actually was a fine actor but he specialized in playing soft-spoken psychopaths. I was rather anxious that his John the Baptist would try drowning his converts.
Now before I am denounced for persecuting Jeffrey Hunter, I will concede that Jesus is a hard role to cast. Jesus is usually played by aesthetic-looking souls: H.B. Warner, Max von Sydow (yumping yimminy) and Robert Powell. However, they don’t exactly seem sturdy enough to be carpenters; perhaps that is why Jesus sought a less physical second career.
Jeffrey Hunter was not really a bad actor; it is just that “All-American boys” were rather rare in first century Judea. You might know that Hunter was the original Captain Kirk in “StarTrek” and starred in the pilot. However, some scheduling problems required him to abandon the role which then was given to William Shatner.
Ironically, Mr. Shatner would have made a more plausible Jesus–at least in filling the role of a stocky Semite. However, it might have been difficult to find 12 Apostles who could stand Shatner.
December 23rd, 2006 at 4:11 pm
And Nimoy as Peter, perhaps?
December 23rd, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Nimoy’s ancestors did see the original production–and they evidently were not impressed.
The road show–starting in St. Paul–got much better reviews and a far bigger audience.
In “King of Kings” Peter was played by character actor Royal Dano, who usually portrayed half-demented prospectors. Of course, that could have described St. Peter.
December 24th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
The most incongruous thing about this movie is really the director, Nick Ray. One wonders if he nailed as many cast members in this movie as he did in, say, “Rebel Without a Cause”. I don’t know anything about Ray’s religious beliefs but you would have to classify his love life as pagan.
December 24th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
“Revel Without a Pause”?
I know that Ray had an affair with Natalie Wood. (Fortunately, he didn’t direct “Miracle on 34th Street”.) Who else? I hope not Sal Mineo or Jim Backus.
December 24th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Dean and Mineo, so I’ve heard. No one’s around to confirm or deny, unfortunately, but I think you’re safe about Backus.