San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
CATCH A CLASSIC
Easter Classics
TCM, beginning at 5:15 a.m.
MOVIES!, beginning at 11 a.m.
Happy Easter! To help you celebrate, Turner Classic Movies and MOVIES! have lineups of films representing both themes of faith and general springtime happiness.
TCM’s day begins earlier, with The Green Pastures (1936), which depicts various Bible stories as visualized by Black characters. Rex Ingram plays several roles to lead the cast, which also includes Oscar Polk and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. After that is The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952), billed as a fact-based look at the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima reported in 1917 Portugal. After a break to re-air last night’s Noir Alley title (1954’s Pushover), the Easter celebration continues with Godspell (1973), which is based on the 1971 off-Broadway musical and enacts various parables from the Gospel of Matthew. Next, Max von Sydow portrays Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the religious epic also featuring Dorothy McGuire,
Charlton Heston and Claude Rains among its large ensemble cast. Following that is another famous biblical epic: the Best Picture Oscar-nominated The Robe (1953), led by Best Actor nominee Richard Burton. Moving into primetime, the lineup features Easter Parade (1948), the beloved musical led by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire,
accompanied by classic Irving Berlin tunes like “Easter Parade,” “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and “We’re a Couple of Swells.” TCM’s Easter lineup concludes with another faith-based epic: King of Kings (1961), which tells the story of Jesus (portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter).
MOVIES! celebrates the holiday with two epic religious miniseries. First is 1977’s Jesus of Nazareth (pictured), an eighthour production that originally aired on NBC in the U.S. (MOVIES! is showing it in two four-hour parts.) Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the British/Italian coproduction dramatizes the life of Christ (Robert Powell) by blending elements from all four Gospel accounts. The large ensemble cast also features Olivia Hussey as Mary, Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene, Emmy nominee James Farentino as Simon Peter and Michael York as John the Baptist, among many others. After that is the 1974 British miniseries Moses the Lawgiver, another British/Italian production featuring many of the writers, cast and crew who would later make Jesus of Nazareth. The six-part drama tells the story of Exodus, led by Burt Lancaster as Moses and Anthony Quayle as Aaron.