THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD no stars

Excruciating Biblical epic on the life of Christ that drags on for what seems an eternity but which are really only the longest three hours of your life.  (the original Cinerama version lasted almost four and a half hours). At times it looks terrific, (director George Stevens always did have a great eye and there are a few sequences that betray Stevens' abilities), but the script, with a lot of dialogue lifted directly from Scripture, is piety run rampant as perhaps the starriest of all-star casts flit across the screen, many of them in 'blink-or-you-miss-them' cameos. It isn't even redeemed by the casting of the great Max von Sydow as Jesus, (he looks like a refugee from "The Seventh Seal"). Not a patch on Ray's "King of Kings" and light years behind Pasolini's "The Gospel According to Saint Matthew".