YES, MR.DEMILLE (1959)

118 Yes, Mr. DeMille he must have money. He sees in Christ a chance to improve upon his personal fortunes. But before he realizes it, Magdalene accepts Christ, and her character begins to change as she turns away from Judas. Judas resents this. He grows to hate "the simple carpenter" and one day soon he would play his trump card—betray Christ for a fee. "My heart sank at the possibilities of this plot/' Dan Lord recalled in his memoirs years later. DeMille had turned to Mary Magdalene with joyful fury. He converted her into a perfumed and silken seductress, "gor- geously dressed by four slave girls/' A velvet cape swirled piquantly over her bare white shoulders, hiding none too suc- cessfully a jewel-studded bra, as she rides off in a chariot drawn by six zebras to follow the lowly carpenter of Nazareth, Hollywood watched the struggle between DeMille and the Evangelists with lively interest. He had no intention of getting in hot water over a matter as delicate as this; if Magdalene was evil it was because the Bible made her so. He was simply adding a few trimmings, a little zip, as he did for Poppaea, the first classical graduate of his school of glamour. At the first rumblings from a religious group, he let it be known he was approaching his subject with "reverence marked by a deep sense of responsibility " He said The King of Kings would not be filmed without the guidance of the clergy, and asked churches to pick their representatives. The Federated Churches of America sent Dr. George Reid Andrews, and the National Catholic Welfare Council selected Father Lord. Dr. Alkow, a rabbi, took up residence at the studio as an expert on Jewish customs, along with Bruce Barton, son of a prominent minister. DeMille did not confer with them as a group but worked out objections with each separately, preferring not to let the