O Pescador da Galiléia

I like the film the technicolor is bold, the scenery is so great. And the acting superb. I have it on tape and I watch it maybe twice a year. I saw it in the theater when it first came out. It made John Saxon one of my favorites. His smoldering good looks and the romance of his love for Fara make the story even more exciting. I liked the story line no one today wants to make an epic movie about the effects of Jesus on their lives. At the time this movie was made people enjoyed those types of movies and were not afraid to make them. I would recommend this movie to anyone. It has wonderful cast, and the story is quite believable. I have never gotten tired of watching it.

Howard Keel says in his posthumously published memoirs that he grabbed the part of Simon Peter in The Big Fisherman to prove his versatility as an actor. Musicals were pretty much done by that time and he was free of his MGM contract.

He got the role after John Wayne turned the part down. That one was an eye opener I have to say. My conception of St. Peter has always been that of a big hale and hearty man used to working in the outdoors. We see an older Peter in Quo Vadis with Finlay Currie and now we have a younger one in Keel.

Still I can't believe that Frank Borzage wanted John Wayne. After coming off that disaster in The Barbarian and the Geisha, the Duke wisely turned this one down.

Keel does give a good performance as Peter. Other than Keel the player best remembered for this film is Ray Stricklyn as the evil young Arab prince.

It's good to remember that this is a fictional story about a biblical figure though some scenes of events described in the Bible are in the film. Nevertheless there are some plot flaws. Peter goes among the Arabs here and this was six centuries before Mohammed came on the scene. If you were to follow the logic of the film, the Arab people would have been converted to Christianity. Now maybe it would have saved us all a lot of bloodshed over the centuries had they, still even in a work of fiction that's a bit much to swallow.

Keel liked making the film and had high hopes for it. Unfortunately it ran up against Ben-Hur another filmed biblically based novel this time with the protagonist being a fictional character. Additionally The Big Fisherman got lost somewhere in the corporate doings of Buena Vista Films and the Walt Disney studio. Back in the Fifties, Buena Vista did distribute films not necessarily with the Walt Disney brand on them. It's been seen on television a few times, I saw it again about 12 years ago. It should be seen in theaters though. Like Ben-Hur something is lost even with a letter box version.

But can you imagine John Wayne as St. Peter? Turn that one over in your minds.

OK, I admit it. I am a long time friend of the heir to the estate of the composer, Albert Hay Malotte, who wrote the score for this movie.

Even if that were not true, I would still like to see this movie brought back and distributed on DVD.

We may start by hounding the Disney Music Company. Maybe they can give us more information on the movie rights.

WALT Disney MUSIC COMPANY

C/O Disney MUSIC PUBLISHING

ATTN: JULIE ENZER

500 SO BUENA VISTA, MC 6173

BURBANK , CA, 91521

Tel. (818) 569-3241

Despite what is written in "Did you know?" section, this movie is not connected to "The Robe" or "Demetrius and the Gladiators". It just has one character (the leading role, "the big fisherman", i.e. Saint Peter, the Apostle) in common, nothing else. At most, it could be considered a prequel of "The Robe", since the action precedes the events told in "The Robe". More, "the Big Fisherman" is a different kind of movie than "The Robe" and "Demetrius..."; it is built differently, it is shot differently, and so on. Yet, if you have enjoyed "The Robe" and "Demetrius...", you should enjoy this one, too. It has not the grandeur of the other two, but it is more alert.

I am a film producer and director. I have always had a soft spot for this underrated Biblical epic, which I saw in 70mm at the time of its release.

This was the first film shot in Super Panavision 70, the spherical (non-anamorphic) 70mm format. In the film's titles it is called Panavision 70.

There are many production values which deserve mention. The acting is uniformly good, but the particular stand-outs include the cinematography and Albert Hay Malotte's fine music score.

My contacts in the motion picture industry inform me that Disney has no plans whatsoever to re-release the film in any commercial format. The studio does not consider the film to have sufficient marketing potential.