Too Concrete?

Is Christ too sacred to appear in a movie? He was played by Actor H. B. Warner in Cecil B. DeMille's famed King of Kings, made in 1927 and still shown some 1,200 times a year in the U.S. alone. Since then, Hollywood has tended to show Christ only as a shadow, a light, a symbol, a back or a vague outline.

Last week Churchcraft Pictures, which makes religious films for distribution to churches, completed a nationwide survey on whether or not the figure of Christ should be used on the screen. Yes, said four out of five pastors, parochial-school heads and Sunday-school superintendents. Ordinary churchgoers agreed, almost as emphatically.

Actor H. B. Warner, 70, disagreed. He thinks that sound has changed things, and that times are not what they were when the silent King of Kings was made. Said he: "Where you have the actor's voice, the characterization is too concrete. I hate the idea of a real Christ talking in any motion picture. The industry has not yet reached a height where it should take such a step."

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