The Prince of Peace
Encyclopedia
- This is about a film. For the religious figure, see JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
The Prince of Peace, also known as The Lawton Story, was a film that later made the exploitation
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
rounds under the production of Kroger Babb
Kroger Babb
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb was an American film and television producer and showman. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show tradition...
. The film was based on a passion play
Passion play
A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
created in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Filmed in Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
, it was presented in various forms in the years following its debut. The film also acted as the attempted introduction of the child actress Ginger Prince
Ginger Prince
Ginger Prince was a child actress, best known for her roles in a handful of Hallmark Productions pictures. She starred in three of Kroger Babb's productions...
as a replacement for Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
.
Plot and production
The film's story revolves around a six year old girl (Prince) who becomes the positive influence in her town of Lawton. The girl, who lives with her grandfather in a small house, successfully convinces her great uncle, a ruthless mortgageMortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
lender, to see the performance of a passion play in Lawton, when the uncle is moved by the performance and changes his greedy and sinful ways. The scenes with Prince, filmed over a six day period by William Beaudine
William Beaudine
William Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:...
in Lawton, were interspersed with scenes from nearly four hours of footage of the real-life residents of Lawton annual performance of the crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
of Jesus Christ.
Similar to other roadshow
RoadShow
RoadShow , formerly known as "資訊娛樂共同睇" [paraphrased as Integrated View of Information and Entertainment]) is the first "Multi-Media On Board" service on transit vehicles in the world. It was launched by Kowloon Motor Bus Company on 26 November 2000...
-style film productions, such as Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
, presenters of the film often sold Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s following performances in a scheme to make money, often with a lecture during intermission
Intermission
An intermission or interval is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening....
. Presenter Babb had no issue with his attempts at making money off the religious topic, saying that "It's no sin to make a profit."
Babb attempted to introduce Prince in this film as a replacement for the aging child star Shirley Temple. From Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Prince was given four musical numbers in the production, and featured prominently in the advertising for the film, referring to the girl as "42 inches and 42 pounds of Southern Charm" and, in reference to a sensational bathing scene with Prince, "soap washes off dirt, but only God can wash away your sins."
Reception
Even with the new, professionally-filmed parts, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifixCrucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
, and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to English." The film would be recut and redubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
many times, but eventually opened in Lawton to a respectable crowd, and, while it failed to be a hit, the film's run in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
was so successful that the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
."
Other reviews were not as glowing, however. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, in a review, specifically criticized Prince's role in the film, saying the movie would have been better "had not producers seen fit to drag in a crass, commercial showcasing of a precocious moppet, apparently in an attempt to strike a broader popular market."
Cast
- Ginger PrinceGinger PrinceGinger Prince was a child actress, best known for her roles in a handful of Hallmark Productions pictures. She starred in three of Kroger Babb's productions...
- Ginger - Forrest Taylor - Mark Wallock (Ginger's grandfather)
- Millard Coody - Millard Coody/Jesus
- Ferris TaylorFerris TaylorFerris Taylor was an American film actor. He appeared in over 120 films between 1933 and 1958.He was born in Texas, and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
- Uncle Jonathan Wallock - Gwynne Shipman (credited as Gwyn Shipman) - Jane (as Gwyn Shipman)
- Darlene Bridges - Darlene Bridges/Virgin Mary
- Maude EburneMaude Eburneright|thumbMaude Eburne was a Canadian character actress of stage and screen, known for playing eccentric roles.Born in Bronte-on-the-Lake, Ontario and studied elocution in Toronto...
- Henrietta - Willa Pearl Curtis - Willa Pearl
- Raymond Largay (credited as Ray Largay) - Dr. Martin (as Ray Largay)
- A.S. Fischer - A.S. Fisher/Simon Peter
- Hazel Lee Becker - Herself/Mary MagdaleneMary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
- William Ruhl - Mr. Nelson
- Russ Whiteman - Mr. Cole
- Knox ManningKnox ManningKnox Manning was an American film actor. He appeared in 94 films between 1939 and 1956.He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.-Selected filmography:...
- Narrator