Review of La spada e la croce

There are many interesting aspects on this, and I would suggest that they are all favourable. Even the music, which is rather disturbing at first, completely changes character in the middle of the film as the presence of Jesus enters the stage. Like in "Ben Hur" a few years later, you never see his face, and maybe the makers of that film got the idea from here. No matter what you may think about the liberties taken here with the gospels, Yvonne de Carlo as always makes a terrific performance, both as actress and dancer - and there are several invigorating ballet scenes here, in whicvh Yvonne de Carlo even almost outshines Rita Hayworth - actually, Yvonne da Carlo made something of a continuation of Rita Hayworth's career after Rita left Hollywood after her divorce from Orson Welles. The story is good, it is a well composed script, which also puts some quality to the entire film. There is no theology here, Barabbas and his thieves and criminals with the Romans and their generals are treated with the same human interest as the Hebrews, and it does not include Mary Magdalene's later encounter with Jesus after the supposed resurrection - there is no resurrection here. In brief, nothing bad could be said about it, only appreciative observations of excellent details, - but Yvonne de Carlo is the jewel in the crown of this film.