Duration: 30:38

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B71dCORS9cQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlH4BGhRdE
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Cecil B. DeMille's 1935 medieval-melodrama epic played fast and loose with history, geography and what some would call the boundaries of good taste in his characteristically over-the-top style ...but also (at least according to Hollywood legend) would win him the coveted right to shoot "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS" on-location 20 years later by way of the Egyptian government specifically making an exception on the grounds that "THE CRUSADES" had depicted Arabs and Muslims in a positive (or, perhaps, simply more enjoyable?) fashion than most other Western productions.
Whether that account is any truer to the history of DeMille's own life than his treatment of history itself; "THE CRUSADES" is a fascinating document of Hollywood mythmaking in the early sound era, a rip-roaring romantic castles n' catapults epic that set the template for big, soaring swordplay action for decades to come. With Henry Wilcoxon, Loretta Young and Ian Keith smoldering and flexing as King Richard, Princess Berengaria and Saladin.
Call it high camp, low history, the depths of Hollywood sizzle or the heights of cinematic showmanship; what's undeniable is that this movie... EXISTS!

#CecilBDemille #Crusader #MovieBob