Day of Triumph

I had the pleasure of attending a seminar this weekend given by the producer's son, Father Jim Friedrich. The seminar was "Jesus in the Movies." This film was blacklisted in the 1950s, so it was not widely seen. It is quite true to the scriptures. Christ looks "older" than 33, in fact,t he whole film has a very 1950s feel to it. But it is quite enjoyable. There is an especially wonderful scene between Mary Magdalene and her servant. Lee J Cobb and Mike Connors give very good performances. In the opening scene, the first word is said by Jesus, "Listen." It is powerful and compelling. This film is not easy to find, but worth looking for.

This obscure film of the life of Christ seems fairly decent for the time it came out since before the 1960's no one represented Jesus openly and realistically, Robert Wilson's portrayal of Christ wasn't that bad even though at times he did seem melancholic. The interesting thing about Wilson is that he along with Danny Quinn(son of legend Anthony Quinn) are the only two actors to portray as Jesus in more than one movie.Lee J.Cobb's performance was well enough to give this picture a dramatic run thru since he retells the events that happened along with Andrew.Perhaps this is the only movie other than 'I Beheld his Glory' that shows a passive a naive Jesus. Robert Powell's Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth was nearly as good as Robert Wilson's Christ.

At the firat sigh, a comfortable film. Because you know the story, because Robert Wilson has experience of his role in some other films, because , after so many adaptations of the Gospels, nothing can be new in 2020, from a movie made in 1954. But , it has few great virtues. The first is honesty. It is a profound honest film, not looking for easy solutions or to impress but for rebirth the faith and consolidate it. It is well acted, too,giving a real realistic Pilate of Pont, an interesting webb frame for well known events . It is provocative in the sense of remind the pieces defining the faith and the illusion to controll the other. And it has an inspired intro. So, just beautiful.

The first time I saw this was about 17 years ago, then a year later it was on again. Since then nothing. Growing up in the 60's it was fun to pick out many actors that I had seen on other shows, some from Superman. The thing I remember most though is that the two times I have seen this the ending brought tears to my eyes.

"Day of Triumph", a low-budget, church-sponsored film about the life of Christ, was the first Technicolor, English-speaking sound film in which one actually saw and heard an actor playing Jesus Christ (whose face was never shown in such films as "Ben-Hur" or "The Robe".) Once shown on TV annually, it now seems even worse than ever. Filmed on cheesy-looking sets, "Day of Triumph" features unknown Robert Wilson as a Jesus who looks like somebody made up for a small town religious pageant. His performance is completely forgettable and makes Jeffrey Hunter in "King of Kings" look like Laurence Olivier (not that Hunter was bad at all in "King of Kings"; in fact he was quite good; he just wasn't an Olivier).

Noted actor Lee J.Cobb, who gets more screen time than anyone as Zarok, confidant of Judas, and a sort of well-meaning high priest, makes a heroic effort under the circumstances, demonstrating how a great actor can bring class to a religious film that looks and sounds like a cheap B-movie. Judas is played like a villain in a silent melodrama (his "I have sinned!" after his realization that Christ is to be crucified takes first prize for melodramatic overacting) and everyone else is just plain bland. One wonders what director Irving Pichel could have been thinking.