Jesus at the Movies
A Guide to the First Hundred Years

This film was produced by the Lem Company in 1912, one of the leading American production companies of the era. Remarkably, it was filmed on location in Egypt and Palestine and it exhibits high production value for its time. The title of the film accurately describes the framework within which the story of Jesus is told, from manger to cross, from birth to death. With only snippets of gospel text to explain what appears on the screen, the viewer must have prior familiarity with the Jesus story to fully appreciate many of the incidental moments on the screen that are not explained in writing.

What has become known in our day of television and cablevision as the "electronic church" as its origins in these turn-of-the-century occasions when film was used to communicate a Christian message. The New York Dramatic Mirror evaluated the film primarily in terms of its cinematic qualities and commended it for its "general artistic excellence" with the exception of the visual awkwardness of the walking on the water scene.

That the film eventually found public acceptance is supported by the fact that it was periodically reissued.

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