Friday, December 30, 2005

Index of Jesus Films

There are links here for each film for Blog Posts, Articles / Film reviews of mine elsewhere, and any other particularly useful information. If you're trying to find every post that mentions a particular film, please use Blogger's search function, putting the name of a desired film in quotes, or use Google putting "site:biblefilms.blogspot.com" after the word or phrase you are searching for.

Scripture Citation Guide for the Gospels
Mexican Jesus Films
Nativity Films
Lucifer, Movie Star



Last updated 1st April 2007
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Thursday, December 29, 2005

Index of Other New Testament Films

Here are are links for my blog posts, articles and film reviews hosted elsewhere, and any other particularly usful information. At the top of the page there is a grey bar which contains Blogger's "search" function. Please use this if you want an exhaustive list of posts that mention a particular film, putting the name of that film in quote marks.

General discussion of New Testament Films
The Jerusalem Council in Acts and Galatians
The Versions of The Last Days of Pompeii



Last updated 1st April 2007
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Index of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Films

Here are links for each film for Blog Posts, Articles / Film reviews of mine elsewhere, and any other particularly useful information. Please use Blogger's search function, putting the name of a desired film in quotes, to find all posts that mention a particular film.

Overview of Genesis Films
Overview of Samson Films
Overview of Ruth Films
Overview of Esther Films

(1903) Moses in the Bullrushes

(1903) Samson and Delilah

(1905) Daniel in the Lion's Den

(1908) David and Goliath

(1909) Life of Moses

(1909) Noah's Ark

(1909) Saul and David

(1910) Esther and Mordecai
Blog post

(1910) The Marriage of Esther
Blog post

(1911) David et Saul (David and Saul)
Blog post 1, Blog Post 2

(1913) La Mort de Saül(The Death of Saul)
Blog post 1, Blog Post 2

(1916) Intolerance

(1919) The Undertow
Blog post

(1922) Sodom and Gomorrah [Queen of Sin]

(1923) The Ten Commandments
Blog post

(1929) Noah's Ark

(1936) The Green Pastures
Blog post/review

(1948) Queen Esther
Blog post

(1949) Samson and Delilah
Scene Guide

(1951) David and Bathsheba
Blog post, Scene Guide, Review

(1956) The Ten Commandments
Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Spoof


(1958) The Living Bible
Abraham, Man of Faith
Gideon, The Liberator
Ruth, A Faithful Woman
Elijah, A Fearless Prophet

(1959) Solomon and Sheba

(1959) David and Goliath

(1960) Esther and the King
Scene Guide, Blog post 1, Blog post 2

(1960) The Story of Ruth
Review, Scene Guide,
Blog post

(1966) The Bible. In the Beginning
Blog post 1

(1974) Moses and Aaron [Moses und Aron]
Blog post 1, Blog post 2

(1975) Moses [the Lawgiver]

(1978-79) Greatest Heroes of the Bible

(1980) Wholly Moses

(1984) Samson and Delilah
Review

(1985) King David
Blog post 1

(1986) Esther
Blog post

(1986) Genesis

(1992) Golem, l'esprit de l'exil (Golem, Spirit of the Exile)
Blog post

(1993) Abraham
Blog post 1, Review, Scene Guide

(1994) Jacob

(1994-98) Testament: Bible in Animation
Blog post on Ruth
Review of Elijah
Review of Jonah

(1995) Joseph

(1995) Moses
Scene Guide - part 1, Scene Guide - part 2

(1996) Samson and Delilah
Scene Guide

(1997) David
Review, Scene Guide

(1997) Solomon
Review, Scene Guide

(1998) Genesis

(1998) Jeremiah

(1998) The Prince of Egypt

(1999) Esther
Blog post

(1999) Noah's Ark

(1999) La Genèse

(2000) In the Begining

(2000) Joseph - King of Dreams

(2005) The Ten Commandments - The Musical
Blog post

(2006) The Ten Commandments
Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Part 1 scene guide, Part 2 scene guide,
Review

(2006) One Night with the King
Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Blog post 3, Blog post 4, Blog post 5, Blog post 6, Blog post 7, Scene Guide, Review

(2007) The Ten
Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Blog post 3, Blog post 4, Blog post 5, Blog post 6, Blog post 7,

(2007) Friends and Heroes
Review, Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Blog post 3,

(2007) Margate Exodus
Blog post 1

(2007) The Ten Commandments (Animated)
Blog post 1

(2008) David
Blog post 1, Blog post 2,


Last updated 1st April 2007
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Thursday, December 22, 2005

The Nativity Story - Central Page

My Review for this film is here.

There have been so many posts on The Nativity Story that I thought it would be worth putting links to all my posts on it, plus any other relevant ones, all in one place.

Internal Links
New Film On Nativity In Works
Hardwicke In Negotiations To Direct The Nativity
Writer Mike Rich On The Nativity
Keisha Castle Hughes To Play Mary In The Nativity
Script Review For The Nativity
Nativity Name Change
Lords of Dogtown
Scene Analysis
Similarities with Joseph of Nazareth

Nativity News vol.1 - Nativity Blog, central page, CT article
Nativity News vol.2 - Official Website, First Featurette, Teaser trailer,Time article.
Nativity News vol.3 - Thirteen review
Nativity News vol.4 - Photo Book
Nativity News vol.5 - Second Featurette
Nativity News vol.6 - CT interview with Mike Rich
Nativity News vol.7 - Interview with Mychael Danna
Nativity News vol.8 - EW Interview Hardwicke, Haertland Debut, Sacred Songs CD
Nativity News vol.9 - Interview with Alex Siddig, second nativity blog
Nativity News vol.10 - Theatrical Trailer, Third Featurette, Novelisation, DVD Documentary
Nativity News vol.11 - "Resources" website, Castle Hughes pregnant.
Nativity News vol.12 - Pauline Press books, Outreach screenings, PG rating.
Nativity News vol.13 - Pastor Screening, Outreach materials.
Nativity News vol.14 - Poster, numerous interviews and overviews
Nativity News vol.15 - Premiere, early reviews,Newsweek, clips
Nativity News vol.16 - Hughes pregnant? Time, Variety an LA Times articles, Isacc interview
Nativity News vol.17 - Reviews
Nativity News vol.18 - Reviews box office blame
Nativity News vol.19 - DVD release
Nativity News vol. 20 - Special Edition DVD, Chattaway comentary, CT post mortem

External Links
Official Website
IMDB Page
Nativity Blog
Another Nativity Blog


Cast and Crew
Shohreh Aghdashloo .... Elizabeth
Hiam Abbass .... Anna - mother of Mary
Keisha Castle-Hughes .... Mary
Eriq Ebouaney .... Balthasar
Ciarán Hinds .... King Herod
Oscar Isaac .... Joseph
Mary Matilyn Mouser .... Child (voice)
Matt Patresi .... Roman Soldier
Ted Rusoff .... Old Shepherd
Gabriele Scharnitzky .... Shyla Yvonne Sciò
Alexander Siddig .... Gabriel
Shaun Toub .... Joaquim
Tim Van Rellim .... Jerusalem Soldier #1
Shelby Young .... Naomi (voice)
Lynnanne Zager .... Voice (uncredited)

Director .... Catherine Hardwicke
Writer .... Mike Rich
Producers .... Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey
Original .... Mychael Danna
Cinematography .... Elliot Davis

Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
Slant
Variety
filmcritic.com
Hollywood Reporter
Shadows on the Wall
IGN.com
CNN
Los Angeles Times [Kenneth Turan]
Washington Post
New York Times
San Francisco Chronicle [Mick LaSalle]
The New York Times
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Boston Globe
Decent Films - faith on film [Steven D. Greydanus]
Eric D. Snider
Christianity Today [Peter T. Chattaway]
Christianity Today [David Neff]
Looking Closer [Jeffrey Overstreet]
Darrel Manson
Frederica Mathewes-Green

LAST UPDATED ON 7th DECEMBER 2006.
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Old Posts on The Passion of the Christ

I'm writing this in Feb 2007, rather than the date shown, but I've chosen that date to reflect that fact that the articles it links to were written before this blog came into existence.

Now that Blogger has given me the chance to use labels, it made sense to have a The Passion of the Christ label, but as my main wrting on this film is held elsewhere that would't be able to be picked up by the labeller.

So I wrote a fairly lengthy preview piece on the film at the end of 2003 which looked at the history of Jesus films and how Gibson's film fitted into that. That got published at Open Heaven sometime later (once the enw website was released). I then wrote a review when the film came out. So here are the links:

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

All Labels

Here is an alphabetical list of all labels used on this site so far. They are a mix of film titles, biblical characters and various other groups of posts that I thought might be useful. Labels in italics represent film (or series) titles.

You can also view this data broken down into labels by character name, Jesus Film labels, Old Testament / Hebrew Bible film labels, and New Testament film labels.

Abraham Jonah
Adam and Eve Joseph of Nazareth
Atti Degli Apostoli King of Kings
BBC's The Passion King of Kings (The - 1927)
Bible (The - Huston) Last Temptation of Christ
Bible Collection (The) Life and Passion of Jesus Christ
Bible Films in Production Life of Brian
Biblical Studies Carnivals Lists
Book of Life Living Bible
BooksLiving Bible Acts
Children (films for)Living Bible Jesus
Christ the Lord Living Christ Series
Christ the Man Mary (Abel Ferrara)
Close to Jesus Series Mary Magdalene
Color of the Cross Miracle Maker
Creation StoryMoses
Cross (The - 2001) Moses (1996)
DavidMoses the Lawgiver
Dayasagar Nativity - Mary Joseph
Documentaries Nativity Story (The)
DVD NewsNoah
ElijahOne Night With the King
Epic Stories of the Bible Other Films
Esther Passion - Films and Religion (The)
Evan Almighty Passion Films Faith and Fury (The)
Friends and Heroes Passion of the Christ
From the Manger to the Cross Paul
GideonPeter
Godspell Peter and Paul
Golgotha Real Old Testament
Gospel According to St. Matthew Resurrection (The)
Gospel of John Risen - The Story of the First Easter
Greatest Story Ever Told RoGoPaG
Hail Mary Ruth
Historical Jesus Samson
Il Messia Silver Screen Beats
Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo Solomon
Inquiry (The Final) Son of Man (1969)
Jacob Son of Man (Jezile - 2006)
Jesus (1979) St. Peter
Jesus (1999) Ten (The - 2007)
Jesus Christ Superstar Ten Commandments (1923)
Jesus Films Podcast Ten Commandments (1956)
Jesus of Montreal Ten Commandments (2006)
Jesus of Nazareth Ten Commandments (2007)
Jesus SeminarTestament: Bible in Animation
Jezile (Son of Man 2006) UK Living Bible
Last updated 27th July 2007
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Labels by Character's Name

Here's a list of all the character's name labels. You can also view all labels, Jesus Films labels, Old Testament / Hebrew Bible film labels, and New Testament film labels.

Abraham
Adam and Eve
Creation
David
Elijah
Esther
Gideon
Jacob
Jesus - See all Jesus film labels.
Jonah
Moses
Nativity - Mary Joseph
Noah
Paul
Peter
Ruth
Samson
Solomon

Last updated 27th July 2007
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New Testament Labels

Here is an alphabetical list of all the New Testament film labels used on this site so far - it's not meant to represent a complete list of New Testament films . I do have a fuller list of those films in my New Testament Film Index.

You can also view all labels, labels by character name, Jesus Films labels, and Old Testament / Hebrew Bible film labels.

Atti Degli Apostoli
Living Bible Acts
Paul (all films about Paul)
Peter (all films about Peter)
Peter and Paul
St. Peter
Bible Collection (The)
Friends and Heroes
Living Bible

Last updated 27th July 2007
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Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Labels

Here is an alphabetical list of all the labels for films based on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) used on this site so far. In order to prevent the list getting too ungainly, I've grouped some films together by the lead character.

You can also view all labels, labels by character name, Jesus Films labels, and New Testament film labels.
Abraham Moses
Adam and Eve Moses (1996)
Bible (The - Huston) Moses the Lawgiver
Bible Collection (The) Noah
Creation One Night With the King
David Real Old Testament
Elijah Ruth
Epic Stories of the Bible Samson
Esther Solomon
Evan Almighty Ten (The - 2007)
Friends and Heroes Ten Commandments (1923)
Gideon Ten Commandments (1956)
Jacob Ten Commandments (2006)
Jonah Ten Commandments (2007)
Living Bible Testament
Last updated 27th July 2007
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Jesus Film Labels

Here is an alphabetical list of all the Jesus film labels used on this site so far.

You can also view all labels, labels by character name, Old Testament / Hebrew Bible film labels, and New Testament film labels.

BBC's The Passion Jesus of Montreal
Bible Collection (The) Jesus of Nazareth
Book of Life Jezile (Son of Man 2006)
Christ the Lord Joseph of Nazareth
Christ the Man King of Kings
Close to Jesus Series King of Kings (The - 1927)
Color of the Cross Last Temptation of Christ
Cross (The - 2001) Life and Passion of Jesus Christ
Dayasagar Life of Brian
Friends and Heroes Living Bible
From the Manger to the Cross Living Bible Jesus
Godspell Living Christ Series
Golgotha Mary (Abel Ferrara)
Gospel According to St. Matthew Mary Magdalene
Gospel of John Miracle Maker
Greatest Story Ever Told Nativity - Mary Joseph
Hail Mary Nativity Story (The)
Il Messia Passion of the Christ
Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo Resurrection (The)
Inquiry (The Final) Risen - The Story of the First Easter
Jesus (1979) RoGoPaG
Jesus (1999) Silver Screen Beats
Jesus Christ Superstar Son of Man (1969)
Jesus Films Podcast UK Living Bible

Last updated 27th July 2007
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Friday, December 16, 2005

Book Index

This page is currently under construction so please bear with me. Links will be added shorty

Books About Bible Films in General
Jesus at the Movies - Barnes Tatum
Savior on the Silver Screen - Stern, Jefford and Debona
Movie Christs and Anti-Christs - Malone
Biblical Epics - Babington and Evans
Divine Images - Kinnard and Davis
Bible on Film - Campbell and Pitts
Reading the Gospels in the Dark - Walsh

Books About Directors
Scorsese on Scorsese
An Open Book - John Huston

Books made into Bible Films
Last Temptation - Nikos Kazantzakis
Greatest Story Ever Told - Ousler
King of Kings - Yordan
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Thursday, December 1, 2005

About This Site

Hi, and welcome to the Bible Films Blog - the largest source of information about Bible Films on the internet.

If you're new here then please check out the links in the header bar. There are indexed lists of different films, each of which contains links to the relevant posts on that particular film. There's also a few free downloads, notably the 30 Film Scene Guide Spreadsheet, which puts the different scenes from 30 Jesus films side by side to enable comparison, and 4 sets of course notes for a "Jesus in Film" course I run.

There's also plenty of info in the sidebars including my bio, links to various sites about forthcoming bible films, and few other pieces of writing I've done elsewhere, and of course a blogroll of various friends and useful sites from all over the web.

If you'd like to contact me, please do. It would be great to here from you, whether you'd just like to say hello, or you're after some information, or even if you'd like to come to speak to your group.

Hope you find this site useful.

Matt Page
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Wednesday, November 9, 2005

1907 Ben Hur


The new 4 disc box-set of Ben Hur includes the full version of the 1925 version, but it also includes a few snippets from the 1907 version. It's kind of a shame that they didn't include all of this film too, at 15 minutes long it would hardly have stretched the potential of the 4 DVDs.

Still it's great to have even this, and as it's there as part of a documentary you get some useful background information as well. One such random fact is that this version, the original I suppose, didn't stage it's own chariot race, as the 2 later re-makes would do. Instead they took a camera down to an annual chariot race competition and recorded part of that.

The 1907 version is best known as the film that shaped movie copyright laws. Kalem failed to gain permission from the Wallace estate, and, as a result, were sued for $25,000 for copyright infringement. This groundbreaking case set a precedent for all future adaptations.

It's also noteworthy for being directed by Sidney Olcott who would return to the tale of Christ 5 years later to shoot From the Manager to the Cross. There's more information about this film at Wikipedia

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when it first occurred - i.e. it's not a true blog post!
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Tuesday, November 1, 2005

First Few Episodes of The Living Christ Series

Since The Living Christ Series is about 6 hours long, and comes in half hour episodes, I'm going to post my thoughts a few episodes at a time, rather than wait until I've waded through the whole thing and publish a mega-post listing all my thoughts on the series in one go.

I decided to save the birth narratives from the start. I rarely get much out of them in the various films, and this one looked like it might be incredibly kitsch, so I'll come back to those later. First the contents (Bible references are only a guide - where an episode exists in two or all of the synoptics I'll tend to cite it from Mark even if the filmed version actually corresponds more closely with Matthew or Luke):

Episode 4
Temptation (Matt 4:1-11)
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit (Mark 1:21-28)
*Peter's Mother in Law Healed (Matt 8:14-15)
†Healing of a Lame Girl (No specific passage)

Episode 5
Calling of the 12 (Mark 3:13-17)
Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12)
Salt and Light (Matt 5:13-16)
Satan Cannot Cast out Satan (Mark 3:20-30)
Prayer like a Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-8)
Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-4)

Episode 6
Turn the Other Cheek (Matt 5:38-42)
Love your Enemies (Matt 5:43-47)
Question from John the Baptist (Matt 1:1-5)
Widow of Nain's Son (Luke 7:11-17)
Calling of Matthew (Mark 2:13-17)
Healing of a Paralytic (Mark 2:1-12)

Episode 7
Centurion's Servant (Matt 8:5-13)
Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11)
Gospel Manifesto (Luke 4:18-19)
Nicodemus Visits Jesus (John 3:1-21)
Woman of Samaria (John 4:4-29)
Light on a Stand (Mark 4:21-22)
Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

A few thoughts:
*In my original notes I had bracketed this event, and I can't remember how this episode was depicted. This is a shame as this event is rarely shown in Jesus films. In fact off the top of my head I can't think of another one that does.

†Scipture only recalls the healing of one lame person specifically; the man that was healed in the pool of Bethsaida, and even then it is unclear whether he was simply lame or closer to paralysed. It also only records the healing of one girl - Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:21-43). However, the gospels note Jesus healing "the lame" (in general) a number of times, and several films have used this to invent a specific healing story, (for example the Roger Young's Jesus mini-series).

It's interesting how episodes 4-6 are solely based on the synoptics, whereas episode 7 is largely John. In particular the wedding at Cana is usually thought to be the start of Jesus's ministry (due to Jesus saying his time has not yet come in John 2:4), but here it appears more than halfway through. I know many people were impressed at how Jesus of Nazareth blended John's gospel with the synoptics, but introducing events specific to John later in the story so that Jesus' secrecy over his identity was no contradictory so much as sequential. That film missed out the wedding at Cana althogether though.

Finally the Widow of Nain's son is another largely ignored miracle, only From the Manager to the Cross and the 1979 Jesus film cover this. Jairus' daughter is far more popular, possibly as it's a rare opportunity to bring a girl into the action (the only two people called a "girl" in the gospels discuss are Jairus's daughter and Salome). The raising of Lazarus occurs in most Jesus films, and usually functions as a turning point in the action,

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when it first occurred - i.e. it's not a true blog post!
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

New Ben Hur DVD on the way

Looks like I'm the lucky winner of the new 4 disc DVD boxset of Ben-Hur. One of my favourite blogs, Jeffrey Overstreet's Looking Closer ran a competition and I came out a winner. This really shows the generosity of heart that is so typical of Overstreet. Given the subjective nature of the competition he didn't need to pick a winner that would involve him posting to another continent. Kind of makes me doubly grateful.


For what it's worth, one of the things that most excites me about this boxed-set is that it also contains the full 1925 version of Ben Hur (itself a remake of an earlier 1907 film). Plus there is a whole host of other extras that look very exciting too.

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when it first occurred - i.e. it's not a true blog post!
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Thursday, October 6, 2005

Genesis Films


My article on Genesis films is up at the Open Heaven website. We're about to embark on a series of talks on it so I thought I would catch up on them all and see if I can whet anyone's appetite to watch some of them as well. We'll use a few clips in our gatherings and I plan to use the various takes on Cain and Abel at our cell group (home group).

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when the review was first posted - i.e. it's not a true blog post!
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Saturday, September 3, 2005

Living Christ/Bible Films

I've been trying to find some information on "Cathedral Films" in general and the Living Christ/Living Bible series in particular.

IMDB lists the production date for this series as 1951. It also seems that there were two series made about the same time with similar names.

1 - The Living Christ series which was made about 1951, and starring Robert Wilson, 12x30 minute episodes discussed below.

2 - The Living Bible Series was made about 1952 (so unrelated to the paraphrase of the bible), and seems to star Nelson Leigh, 24 or 26 episodes. Some of these are available on DVD.

I've found this interview which relates to the casting of "Bob" Wilson in I Beheld His Glory. This may indicate that this film was shot before the series and that Day of Triumph was shot after it. There are plenty of details on this page which includes a few pictures from a number of other films including From the Manger to the Cross

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when much of it was first noted down in a discussion at the Arts and Faith discussion forum
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Monday, August 15, 2005

The Living Christ Series - Intro

I first came across this series of films at the Arts and Faith Discussion Forum about a year ago when someone posted a link to some spoof Jesus film shorts. Sadly it appears these are no longer available.

There were 4 clips and two of them definitely seemed to star Robert Wilson from I Beheld His Glory (1952), but the other two I couldn't quite work out. The question of the identity of the actor/film of the 2nd and 4th clips in this link has bugged me for almost a year.

I'd also heard of a film called the Living Bible, which I'd not really been that interested in and assumed was a 70s tie in with the translation / paraphrase of the same name. Nevertheless, it came up cheap on eBay the other day so I bid for it.

It turns out that what was actually on the discs was something called The Living Christ series, and this was indeed the film used in the spoofs above. It would appear that the 12 half hour episodes started being released individually 1951 as films shown to church youth groups. The films were made by Catholic film company "Cathedral Films", and became so successful that they created two film spin offs, I Beheld His Glory in 1952, and Day of Triumph in 1954, although the IMDB lists both films as being 1953.

Day of Triumph is often credited with being the first American Jesus "Talkie", coming 27 years after Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings in 1927. This may now be due a revision depending on how you classify a "film". If it is just moving pictures shot onto celluloid then the first Living Christ episodes deserve that claim. That said Day of Triumph was the first American Jesus film to gain cinema release in the sound era, and was also the first film in that era that was feature length, so I'll leave it to the reader to decide.

I am surprised that neither Campbell and Pitts's "The Bible on Film" nor Kinnard & Davis's "Divine Images" seem to mention this series.

Matt

N.B. - This post was back-dated to when much of it was first noted down in a discussion at the Arts and Faith discussion forum
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