Harold B. Lee Library

The Crusades

Starring: Loretta Young, Henry Wilcoxon, Ian Keith, C. Aubrey Smith, Katherine DeMille.

The campaign of Richard the Lionheart to capture Jerusalem from the Saracen king Saladin is complicated by Saladin’s holding Berengaria, Richard’s wife, hostage. Compressing three crusades into one provides DeMille with an epic medieval account of the Holy Wars that the New York Times judged to be “the true quality of a screen epic. It is rich in the kind of excitement that pulls an audience irresistibly to the edge of its seat.” DeMille’s even-handed portrayal of Muslims made it easier for the producer-director when he negotiated with Egyptian leaders to film The Ten Commandments on location in the 1950s. Items from the DeMille Papers in Special Collections will be shown.

Paramount. 1935. 127 mins. Director: Cecil B. DeMille.

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