The Pilgrimage Play

There are much better versions of The Pilgrimage Play on screen. This one lacks the emotional depths that the modern versions brings. This film feels like a play on screen instead of a movie, it's not grand.

I will say this film is for Christians only - I can't see others watching this and enjoying it as purely cinema.

Nelson Leigh does play Jesus well, he's the only one that seems to take the film seriously and to heart. The other actors in this film seem more like zombies and just saying the line rather than acting them out.

I don't recommend this film - watch a more modern version of this story if you want to see a film on the adult life of Jesus.

4/10.

The Hollywood Bowl presents a holiday production about Jesus Christ in his final days. The film was on my Holiday Family Classics with Santa Claus on the DVD box. Anyway the quality is not high perhaps because of age and it is in color too. The cast is largely unknown to me. I don't recognize any of their names. Still this film is better suited for Easter and Passover than Christmas. While the color is better than black and white for today's audiences, black and white would have been better suited to help preserve the film quality. Although I am surprised that the Hollywood Bowl would produce a biblical production but I shouldn't be. We never get many close-ups of the cast on screen to see them become the roles.

This 92-minute film is of a staged production of "The Pilgrimage Play," written in 1920 and first produced, directed by and acted in by Christine Wetherill Stevenson. The credits say that this 1949 film is of the play "as presented by the Hollywood Bowl Association through The Pilgrimage Play Foundation." Thus, this film is a piece of history in itself. And it's about a play that was a prominent piece of history for more than four decades. And that play also had a lot to do with the founding of two prominent Hollywood venues - the Hollywood Bowl and the nearby present-day Ford outdoor theater. More on that after this brief review of the film and play.

The story here is about the last three years of the life of Jesus Christ. It opens around 64 AD in a jail scene in Rome where Simon Peter is incarcerated. It's during the reign of Nero, who executed Peter that year after accusing the Christians of having started the fires that destroyed much of Rome. After a prison guard has spoken harshly with Peter, two cellmates wonder at Peter's calm and peaceful demeanor. So, he asks them if they've heard of Jesus Christ, and when they say they haven't, he begins to tell them the story - the source of his peace and calm.

From there on, one scene after another shows Jesus with his apostles and various crowds. There is an occasional return to Peter telling the story to his two cell mates. The dialogue is very true to the Scriptures in the Bible. And, as Peter starts to tell the story, he recites nearly verbatim the opening of John's Gospel -- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God...." The scenes then show Christ teaching, telling parables, and healing the blind; and the story ends with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

I have seen most of the films about Jesus. This may be the only one that is a major video recording of a play. The feature films have panoramas and scenes with regular action and movements. But here, the small bands of people or crowds are mostly questioning Jesus or listening to him as he speaks many of the lines of scripture. This film, by itself, is very well done for a stage setting. If anything, the scenes of this play give a more real sense - than do most of the regular movies - of the captive attention given by crowds to Jesus, as described in the Bible.

As for the cast, all of them give good performances. Nelson Leigh does a very good job in the role of Jesus. But, when I recently got the DVD of this film, I wasn't familiar with a single one of the cast. So, in checking their bios and film credits on IMDb, I found that I have seen and rated some 200 films that the various actors have appeared in. Nelson Leigh was in 20 movies that I have rated and/or reviewed. I've watched and rated 17 films that Stephen Chase and Tudor Owen were in. And 34 films with John Doucette and 33 with Crane Whitley. Many of the roles of these actors were uncredited which means that they were bit parts. And yet, the top six actors of this cast had many, many credits. Leigh had 176 credits, Chase had 153, Penn had 116, Hale had 150, Owen had 116, and Doucette had 289.

Most of this cast were stage actors, and some of them had no other film credits than this one. But, most of the lead actors also made movies and appeared in TV series. They all were in a number of big hit movies and/or TV shows and series. Some big hit films with one or more of this cast were "Les Miserable" of 1935 and 1962, "High Noon" of 1952, "Julius Caesar" of 1953, "A Star is Born" of 1954, "Rebel Without a Cause" of 1955, "Gunfight at the O. K. Corral" of 1957, "Ben-Hur" of 1959, "To Kill a Mockingbird" of 1962, "True Grit" of 1969, and "Patton" of 1970.

Now, about the Hollywood Bowl and Ford outdoor theaters. Christine Wetherill Stevenson (1878-1922) was an heiress of the Pittsburg Paint Company. In 1920 she wrote the script for this play, based on the four gospels of the Bible. She was instrumental in purchasing the 60 acres for the Theatre Arts Alliance that eventually became the Hollywood Bowl. But, because of a difference over performing religious plays, she and actor Harry Ellis Reed found a 29-acre site just across the way in Cahuenga Pass. She bought it, and they built The Pilgrimage Play theatre.

Stevenson directed the play and acted in it for its first three years, but died after taking ill when visiting her sister in Pennsylvania. She was just 44 years old. The cast then performed the play for her family, who had not seen it before. In July 1924, the Wetherill family gave the rights, equipment, and theatre grounds to the city of Los Angeles. The Pilgrimage Play continued to be performed for more than 40 years, interrupted once by a fire that destroyed the theater. It was rebuilt and continued until 1964. A lawsuit led to the ending of the play, because it was a religious theme sponsored by the County of Los Angeles. The theater was rebuilt and renovated and renamed after John Anson Ford, a long-time member of the county board of supervisors.

The Pilgrimage Play had become known worldwide and a number of actors got their starts in it. Fay Wray was a teenager in the play during the 1920s, before she became a star after "King Kong" of 1933. And Robert Vaughn was 22 in his acting debut as Judas in 1955 - before his first TV series appearances.

I really lucked out getting this movie in a recent DVD box set entitled : " Historic Classics" - 50 Movie Pack at Best Buy. I can not tell you how impressed I was seeing Nelson Leigh play Jesus.

This movie was made in 1949, and even though it was low budget with a no-name cast, it was a remarkable version of the greatest story ever told. I highly recommend "The Pilgrimage Play" to all Christians of every denomination. Once you get into this picture, you will most likely be glued to the end.

The story takes place in a prison where Peter tells two other prisoners the story of Jesus. This movie is very fast paced and so enjoyable to watch. Hats off to all the people responsible for making this grand picture. This DVD will be a hidden gem in my movie collection.

A film for Sunday school. It is the easy conclusion, not completely unfair but not the must honest.

Because it is a film of its time, not remarkable - it is filmed on stage - , not having a big budget or offering premises of blockbuster. It is the story of saint Apostle Peter about the Lord, in prison, behind his execution on cross. And, maybe surprising, it works more than well.

Sure, many critics are right about this film. But , in nice way, it is just a decent reflection of the life and work and sacrifice of Christ. A good point - the intervention of Nicodemus in Savior trial. Modest, off course, but real interesting for the manner to propose the story so familiar for you.

In short, just a good job with meritory sparkles.