THE CRUSADES: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1935) Kino Lorber
In the waning years of his reign as
England’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill was asked by a reporter how he
thought he would be judged by history. Churchill’s sly, if diplomatic response,
was - ‘favorably’…as he intended to write it! But it does point to a
crucial aspect of all human history…or rather, what we perceive it to be;
namely, that it is oft writ from the vantage of the victor, and, owing to this
triumphant slant, cannot help but paint a portrait in which one side in this
ongoing conflict of human toil and bing-bang gets more ‘favorable’ press than
the other side. For decades now, film historians have been mulling over the ‘historical’
validity of content exorcised in the films of Cecile B. DeMille, of course, to
completely overlook the obvious – that DeMille, for all his tyranny on the set,
was a highly moral man who endeavored NOT to make historically accurate documentaries
on the human saga, but rather highly profitable and incredibly entertaining
pictures in which the palette of history was merely meant to satisfy his exquisite
need for colorful spectacles and pageantry. So, to suggest some insidious bias
in DeMille’s modus operandi to tell a good yarn is as ludicrous as to infer
that Mr. Steven Spielberg has been unkind and racially insensitive to aliens
from another world.
It is, in fact, that other-worldly
status of both DeMille – a legend in his own time – and his works – many of
which have gone on to have a monumental and far-reaching afterlife, that, I
suspect, continues to irk the self-righteously ‘woke’ and sanctimoniously
critical, who ply this renaissance man and his formidable craftsmanship with a
broad-brush of critical race theory, only to come to the misguided notion that
DeMille was somehow conspiring to derail and dement the historical record whiling
pushing ahead with his own white/conservative agenda. How gauche of them. How
shameful too, and how incredibly misguided and insulting!
DeMille’s The Crusades (1935)
is perhaps not as well known today as some of the director’s other masterworks,
possibly, as it skews from his métier for Bible-fiction tales from antiquity while
still anchored firmly to his zeal for epic entertainment. There has been far
too much criticism of The Crusades for its ‘either/or’ depiction of this
story’s hero, Richard I – the Lionheart (played with great command by C.B. fav,
Henry Wilcoxon) and Saladin – the Sultan of Islam (given a rather affecting and
dimensional presence by Ian Keith). The liberalized critique here is that the
villain of the piece paints an unflattering - nee ‘racist’ skew against Muslim
culture. It does not! And DeMille, more intent on telling a tall tale than
regaling us with ‘history’, further muddies this claim by introducing an dubious,
erotic triangle between Rich’, Saladin and Berengaria, the Princess of Navarre
(Loretta Young, looking utterly haunting in her blonde tresses).
Behind the scenes, it was hardly
joy galore. Young, who had just returned from a passionate rendezvous with a ‘then’
married Clark Gable while shooting 1935’s Call of the Wild, began The
Crusades with vim and verve, only to realize mid-way through the picture
she was carry Gable’s illegitimate child. Remember, this was 1935, with the
potential of illicit sex and a bastard offspring threatening to derail not only
one’s reputation, but also one’s career. The Puritanical nature of society
then, rather miraculously, did not extend entirely to its popular entertainments,
although Hollywood – under duress from special interest groups lobbying for
government intervention into their more salacious exposés - eventually elected
to self-govern its morality…or, at the very least, what it perceived as ‘permissible’
to put on the screen. DeMille, who only several years before had been allowed
to shoot a decidedly nude Claudette Colbert with her nipples barely cresting
over a foam bath of ass’s milk, and, was given carte blanche to depict a ‘lesbian
orgy’ (very tastefully achieved) for his epics, The Sign of the Cross
(1932) and Cleopatra (1934), was far more circumspect herein, in the
various sexual proclivities of the participants giving it their all for The
Crusades.
As per the picture’s historical
accuracy: DeMille had purchased the rights to historian, Harold Lamb’s
similarly titled book, first published in 1931, assigning Lamb to writers,
Waldemar Young and Dudley Nichols to polish the prose into a manageable
screenplay. As there were seven crusades all told, DeMille elected to
concentrate on number three, and, the year 1187 – though DeMille was not above
cherry-picking intriguing bits from the other six to insert at his discretion –
for flourish, pomp and circumstance. Hence, C. Aubrey Smith’s ‘hermit’ spanned
the gamut of toxic zealots who had stirred Europe to its war-mongering frenzy. DeMille
always considered The Crusades one of his finest achievements, although
initially there was some consternation in Paramount’s front offices about its
colossal $1 million dollar budget. In hindsight, DeMille has acquired a
negative reputation for being profligate with Paramount’s money. Superficially,
it is easy to see why, as every ounce of energy and glamor is evident on
celluloid. However, digging a little deeper into this claim, one finds DeMille
highly conscientious of the responsibility to make his magnificent product while
remaining in line with the studio’s budgetary constraints, and even, endeavoring
to create such splendor while finding ingenious ways to cut corners and shave
thousands off the allotted funds in order to save the studio money. In this
case, both sets and costumes were slightly altered and reused from prior
historical epics.
Plot wise, DeMille plunges his
audience into the fall of Jerusalem to the Saracen. After illustrating the
destruction of religious icons and Christian churches, we meet King Richard the
Lionheart, a man of action, though bereft of any deeper contemplation –
religious or otherwise. A hermit from Jerusalem sets about to stir the fervor for
‘divine retribution’ and restore the Holy City to its Christian faith. Richard
enlists in the cause, but only to escape his betrothal to the King of France's
sister, Princess Alice of France (Katherine DeMille, - Cecil’s adopted daughter).
Richard does not love Alice, who follows him into battle. Meanwhile, Richard's evil
brother, Prince John (Ramsay Hill) and Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat (Joseph
Schildkraut – one of Tinsel Town’s irrefutably slick and stylish baddies) are
conspiring to do away with Richard and place John on the throne. En route to
the war, Richard meets Berengaria, Princess of Navarre whom he weds, mercenarily
to procure food for his men from her father's cattle and grain. Berengaria is
thus forced to accompany Richard to the Holy Land. During their attempts to scale
the walls of Acre, the allies clumsily assemble to plot their strategy. Richard
receives word John has seized the throne of England. Philip II of France (C. Henry Gordon), is
enraged at Richard's rejection of Alice. In spite, Richard proclaims Berengaria
Queen of England. Brokering a meeting with the Muslim Sultan, Saladin, Richard
become perturbed when Saladin is almost immediately love-struck by Berengaria's
beauty and bravery. Saladin declares Richard his sworn enemy and vows the
crusaders will never enter Jerusalem.
Fearing the negative impact of her
presence, Berengaria attempts to martyr herself for the cause. Instead, she is
wounded and taken as Saladin’s prisoner. Alas, Saladin is not such a bad egg.
Nor, as it turns out, is Berengaria as devoted to her husband. A quiet, but
mutual affection brews between the Sultan and his charge. Unknowing of this
development, Richard and his armies storm Acre to rescue the Queen of England.
Meanwhile, Conrad hatches a plot to murder Richard, believing he has a
confidant in Saladin. Instead, appalled by his treason, Saladin orders Conrad’s
execution. Berengaria offers herself to Saladin if he will spare Richard. In reply,
Saladin sends his soldiers to defend Richard against Conrad’s murderous
revenge. Brought to Saladin, Richard agrees
to a truce. While Christians will be allowed to return to the Holy Land, Richard
must never enter its walls again. Humbled, a newly reformed Richard prays to
God for guidance. He then encounters Berengaria on the road to the Holy City.
She explains, Saladin has freed her and the rest of the Christians. Upon her pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, Berengaria vows to return to Richard as his loyal wife.
The Crusades was not the hit that either Paramount
or DeMille were hoping. Despite his best efforts to prune the budget, and
largely due to two crippling bouts of illness that sidelined DeMille during the
shoot (though he continued to give commands for advancing its production from
his bedside), The Crusades ran $336,000 over its initial $1.2 million
dollar budget. The critics were ruthless in their condemnation of the artistic
liberties DeMille had taken to condense seven crusades into a single war, advanced
on religious persecution with a faux ‘romance’ factored in to humanize the tale.
But even this might not have been enough to tank the picture’s prospects at the
box office. Instead, fate intervened with the death of England’s King George V.
In reply, the nation shuddered all ‘amusements’ – including theaters – for three
months of mourning. The edict affected not just England, but its commonwealth;
Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, New Guiana and the British East Indies.
By the time The Crusades was allowed to play in these venues, all of Paramount’s
clever marketing had long since been forgotten, thus leaving the picture to ‘fend’
for itself without any fanfare. DeMille,
who had poured much of himself, and all his craftsmanship into it was chagrined
by the fiscal belly-flop, though he would continue to regard The Crusades
as one of his finest efforts.
Viewed today, The Crusades
remains a highly entertaining picture, buoyed by DeMille’s verve for spectacle.
If the story somehow fails to achieve an intimacy between its on-screen characters
and the audience – a claim, virtually all of DeMille’s movies are, at some
level, guilty of – then, at least, the moving tableaus he presents to us as
faux history, nevertheless create one mind-boggling image laden upon the next,
with Victor Milner’s gorgeous B&W cinematography providing the most nourishing
sumptuousness to mildly obfuscate and effectively counterbalance DeMille’s lack
of emotional content. Given the fact, The Crusades is just shy of
celebrating its 90th anniversary, and, also the fact original
elements still survive, though at the mercy of several exchanges in ownership
over the decades, a hi-def rendering ought to have yielded some fairly
impressive results. And while Universal, the custodians of The Crusades,
did endeavor to restore and remaster the image all the way back in 1997, they
have done virtually nothing since to upgrade the master, directly exported to
Kino Lorber for this newly released Blu-ray. This disc boots up with the old
Uni home video logo from 1995-99, so what’s here is decidedly from that vintage
in home video mastering and disc authoring. Does it look bad?
Well, no…and yes. There is some minor
gate weave, and, also, built-in image flickering, more disturbing in scenes
that incorporate rear projection, and, for which more recent advances in film-to-video
mastering could have so easily corrected to create a more stable image. While
contrast is generally excellent, and fine details are impressive in close-up,
there are a handful of scenes that appear quite soft (rather than softly
focused) with indistinguishable details. Film grain is inconsistently rendered.
It’s thick to the point of distraction in some scenes, appearing almost natural
in others, and practically nonexistent in others still. There is also the issue
of window-boxing several of the inserted title cards scattered throughout the
story. DeMille was fond of using these stagnant inserts to provide connective
tissue to advance the passage of time. Interestingly, only some of these title
cards are window-boxed. The decision behind this is rather bizarre and decidedly
inconsistent and distracting. The 2.0 DTS audio is adequate for this presentation
with minimal hiss and no pop. It sounds dated, but excellent.
Now, for a comment I wish I did not have
to make. This disc features an audio commentary from filmmakers, Allan Arkush
and Daniel Kremer. I don’t particularly mind that they waste the first half-hour
just dishing dirt on DeMille, rambling needlessly about some of his other
movies and failing to stay on topic with regards to covering the making of this
film. I am not all that impressed either – as I would expect more from one
filmmaker discussing another film maker’s work. Furthermore, Arkush and Kremer
are not very subtle in their lack of respect for DeMille’s filmmaking talents,
finding them archaic and dull. It begs the question, could Kino not have found commentators
who actually appreciated DeMille in general, and this movie in particular, to
engage us with a more fruitful discussion about his work? But Arkush and Kremer
have also chosen to politicize their comments – something I absolutely abhor. Kremer
actually goes so far as to glibly suggest he still ‘likes’ Claudette Colbert,
despite the fact he later discovered she was staunchly conservative and
therefore, in his eyes, ‘not perfect’. Dear messrs Kremer and Arkush: I don’t
care that your views are liberally bias. I only wish you would keep them to
yourselves as they have NO place in film commentary, especially one in which
the actress being discussed does NOT appear! I digress. This disc also contains a
theatrical trailer. Bottom line: given that Universal has solid elements in its
asset management library, releasing The Crusades to Kino from digital
files that are now decades behind the times in video restoration, mastering and
authorship is just…well…cheap and disappointing. I could say the same for
Arkush and Kremer’s commentary, but I won’t get personal. Judge and buy
accordingly.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the
best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
0 – the commentary isn’t worth your time.
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