"Truly, This Man Was The Son Of God!!!!!!!!"

                     I just don't know, girls, movie lines seem to be popping out of my head this
Good Friday!   The above had to be one of the most memorable in the annals of Biblical
epics.  I can still remember when "The Greatest Story Ever Told" came out in 1965; it
played, for it seemed like two years, at the Clairidge Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey
(en route to my Aunt Martha and Uncle Jack's in nearby Cedar Grove) which was one
of the Garden State's big reserved seat houses.  When it finally came to the RKO Albany
(or International 70, as it was later renamed) my mother took me to see it, and while I
recall it vividly, there is one reason why I will not see this film a second time.

                     In this film is dramatized the Slaughter Of The Holy Innocents, which was
the attempt by Herod, shortly after Jesus' birth, to rid the world of the Messiah, by slaughtering
all male children two years old, and under.  By today's standards, I am sure it was not bloody or
graphic, but I do remember, the throngs of women clutching their children, facing the Army as it
faced them, then charged; the crying, the screaming, etc. It was enough for me to duck under the
seat. I was still a child, then, and the idea that someone would slaughter innocent children was
repugnant to me.  It still is, but even more so because when you are a child you have no context
for comprehension.

                       But we all remember the scene of the Crucifixion (not as moving as the one in
the 1959 "Ben-Hur") when Christ dies, the storm comes, and John  Wayne, as the Centurion, utters
that famous line. Trouble is, he utters it in John Wayne fashion, or like some bad impersonator doing
a campy John Wayne send up, so the reverence of the moment gets somewhat lost.  I read that during
the shooting of the film George Stevens tried everything with Wayne to get him to deliver a more
reverential reading, but let's face it, Wayne, for all his talent, was not exactly an inventive actor, so there
was not much Stevens could do.  And so we have this result, which is indelibly memorable, if not for all
the right reasons!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Who could imagine John Wayne and Good Friday going together?  Yet, thanks to
this scene, they do.  If the film is aired over the next few days, catch it for this specific moment.  Not to
mention the scenically gorgeous shots of what is unmistakably Monument Valley in Utah, passing itself off
as the Holy Land!!!!!!!!!!

                          It may be "The Greatest Story Ever Told," but, lambs, I am telling you, it is the
most frenzied of all Biblical epics!!!!!!!   Blink, and you will miss a star!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            Happy Good Friday to all my stars, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!