• Bible Films Blog

    Looking at film interpretations of the stories in the Bible - past, present and future, as well as preparation for a future work on Straub/Huillet's Moses und Aron and a few bits and pieces on biblical studies.


    Name:
    Matt Page

    Location:
    U.K.












    Monday, March 29, 2010

    Who is Your Favourite Herod?

    Over at NT Blog, Mark Goodacre asks "Who is Your Favourite Herod Antipas?" Mark is torn between Josh Moshtel's campy turn in 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar and Jose Ferrer in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

    I think my favourite portrayal of Herod Anitpas is Frank Thring's turn in 1961's King of Kings (pictured). Thring was a veteran of numerous historical epics, including Ben Hur, and El Cid, and, as anachronistic as it is, I like his murder of his father, Herod the Great. In honesty, though, I'm not willing to commit 100% to Thring until I've checked the relevant chapter in Adele Reinhartz's "Jesus of Hollywood".

    Incidentally, In trying to find a decent photo of Thring in the role (I cropped the above to make Thring more prominent, but you can see the full picture here) I also turned up Thring shredding ex-neighbours star Craig Maclachlan in an interview, and numerous images on Jeffrey Hunter Movies. The latter site is definitely worth checking out as they have scanned in three articles about the film from 1961.

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    2 Comments:

    • At 3:34 pm, March 29, 2010, Blogger Juliette said…

      Christopher Plummer is still my favourite, but Josh Mostel is very good too, as is the Herod Antipas in The Passion of the Christ, who is a bit like a cross between Mostel and Plummer. Best Herod the Great easily Peter Ustinov!

       
    • At 10:43 am, April 08, 2010, Blogger Matt Page said…

      I quite like Claude Raines too, and the one in Jesus (1999) who might be really badly acted, or the actor might be trying to play him as an insecure phony, in which case it's pretty spot on!

      Matt

       

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