DeMille's silent King of Kings and this film. One star Joseph Schildkraut had the rare distinction of playing in both Cecil B. A whole group of players from previous Stevens films got some bit parts and more like Van Heflin, Shelley Winters, Sal Mineo, and Ed Wynn. You could not have gotten away with an all white cast in a film like this by 1965. Sidney Poitier played a silent part as Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus with his cross on the way to Calvary. Personally I think Donald Pleasance is quite a bit better than what Gibson did.
The personification of the Devil is something Mel Gibson borrowed for his film. Also given a large amount of time is Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate, Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary and Donald Pleasance as the Prince of Darkness. Charlton Heston as John the Baptist has the longest amount of screen time other than Von Sydow. But with one glaring exception you do pay attention to the roles, not who's playing them.
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No doubt about the presence of a whole lot of movie names helped bring in the bucks. George Stevens's film is looking pretty good now.
And who knew in 1965 that we would get The Last Temptation of Christ and the Passion of the Christ in our future. Too some degree that is true, but being a stargazer myself I'll never find fault with a film for that. When first released George Stevens's version of the Gospel was dismissed as too long, too reverential, too soon after the sound version of The King of Kings was released, and too many stars in the cast taking one's attention from the story.