Article on Jesus Films and The Redeemer

Brendan O'Regan dropped me a line to say hello and to let me know about his site Faith Arts. It also has a blog associated with it which I think I'll be keeping tabs on from now on. Lots of stuff about religion in popular culture, including some things I've not come across before.

There's also an article on Jesus films which I've added to my sidebar. In it it mentions a film I'm not really familiar with - The Redeemer (1965). Here's what Roy Kinnard and Tim Davis have to say about it in "Divine Images":

The Redeemer (Empire Pictures, 1965) was a Spanish production filmed in 1959 under the title Los Mysterios Del Rosario (The Mysteries of the Rosary). Produced by Rev. Patrick Payton, it was shot near Madrid and examined the last three days of the life of Christ (Luis Álvarez). Jesus' face is never shown on-screen, and the familiar voice of Hollywood veteran Macdonald Carey overdubbed Jesus's dialogue in the re-edited American version, which was narrated by Sebastian Cabot

I did get another email recently asking me about this film / group of films. It seems this film was also known as El Redentor in Spain as well as several other titles listed on the IMDb. I don't know a great deal about them. The name Luis Álvarez does ring a bell, but I'm not at all sure why. It is available from Amazon on VHS as part of The Life of Christ: The Amazing Trilogy For what it's worth I suspect that the film's producer is actually Father Patrick Peyton who is best known for coining the phrase "the family that prays together, stays together".