Hollywood and Religious Films

Great Religious Interest.

The decade of the 1950s saw the movie industry produce several religious films which attracted large audiences and wide-spread attention. Hollywood had a long tradition of biblical and religious films set in a historical context, so these religious movies were not unique. Rather they were examples of the movie industry's long tradition of catering to the public mood. The great religious interest of the decade suggested a ready-made audience for such movies as Hollywood faced the growing competition of television. Historical spectaculars, shown on wide screens in vivid colors that the small, black-and-white television sets of the time could not match, were supposed to confirm the movie industry's slogan that "Movies Are Better Than Ever."

Quo Vadis.

Most of the popular religious films of the decade were fictions set in the early Christian era. In 1951 Mervyn Le Roy directed Robert...

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