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Mary Magdalene (Jacqueline Logan, left) is depicted as a prostitute early in the film

It is also striking to see how DeMille—who solicited the endorsements of not only Catholics and Protestants, but also Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Christian Scientists—tweaks the story to avoid accusations of anti-Semitism. An opening title card informs us that Jews in the first century were "under the complete subjection of Rome," and their high priest, Caiaphas (Rudolph Schildkraut), was appointed by the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate (Victor Varconi). Later, when Caiaphas bribes a crowd to call for the death of Jesus, DeMille adapts and revises Matthew 27:25 so that Caiaphas declares, "If thou, imperial Pilate, wouldst wash thy hands of this Man's death, let it be upon me—and me alone!" In this scene, DeMille explicitly lays the blame for Jesus' death on a single man, and not, as some people have interpreted that controversial passage, on the Jews as a whole.

The King of Kings was released just a few months before The Jazz Singer revolutionized the use of sound in motion pictures, so in the years that followed, DeMille reissued his film, cutting it down to just under two hours and giving it a permanent soundtrack featuring an orchestral score by Hugo Riesenfeld and just a few sound effects. For years, this edited version of the film was pretty much the only one you could see. But now, the Criterion label—which specializes in restoring films of historical significance—has made both the edited version and the longer, 155-minute "roadshow" version available in a two-disc set. (For more about the two versions, click here.)

And for those familiar only with the shorter version of the film, the original, longer version is a revelation. Most significantly, it enhances the role of Judas, and his efforts to exploit the ministry of Christ for political purposes. The original film also suggests it was Judas who tried to cast a demon out of a possessed boy but failed, presumably because he wasn't a "real" disciple, before Jesus came along and did the job properly ( Mark 9:14-29).

Other roles are enhanced, too. The Virgin Mary comforts the mother of one of the thieves at Calvary, and can now be seen directing Jesus's attention to Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb; Pilate's wife (Majel Coleman) makes an appearance; and the scene in which Peter (Ernest Torrence) denies Christ has been fully restored. In keeping with DeMille's creative rearranging of biblical stories, the longer film also includes a sequence that brilliantly combines the conversion of the tax collector Matthew (Mark 2:14), the exchange in which Jesus advocates paying taxes to Caesar (Mark 12:13-17), and the episode in which Jesus pays the Temple tax with a coin that Peter finds inside the mouth of a fish (Matthew 17:24-27). DeMille plays this last bit for laughs, as two soldiers go fishing in search of even more money; one shakes a fish next to his ear, hoping to hear some loose change.

Not all the enhancements are positive. In the shorter version, everything is black-and-white until the Resurrection, which is shown in full two-strip Technicolor; but the longer version shows Mary Magdalene's opening banquet in Technicolor, too, which unfortunately puts this utterly bogus sequence on the same visually impressive level as Easter Sunday. Still, in nearly every other way, the "roadshow" version is a vast improvement.

The Criterion DVD includes a number of other goodies in addition to the films themselves. The shorter version of the film has an alternate audio track featuring brand-new pipe-organ music by Timothy J. Tikker, similar to what many silent films have when released on video, and the longer version has a brand-new orchestra-and-synthesizer score by Donald Sosin, too; it is interesting to see which score uses which hymns, and when.

The set also includes essays, publicity stills (including one of DeMille and six bankers posing with an actor dressed as a money changer!), footage of silent-era superstars D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks visiting the set, and the original theatrical trailers, one of which says the film's "scenes of magnificence, tragedy, triumph, hurricanes, earthquakes and great mobs in panic are attracting crowds of every age, taste and inclination."

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