There was hardly any dialogue except between the actors playing the two thieves and Max as Jesus. Said McDowall, “We shot the Crucifixion on a soundstage in the studio. When I interviewed Roddy McDowall on the set of The Thief of Baghdad at Shepperton Studios in 1977, he talked about his work on The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which he played the disciple Matthew, and about John Wayne’s brief appearance as the centurion.

He goes on with an account of a 1977 interview he conducted with Roddy McDowall, who played Matthew in the film: So Stevens said, “Can you give it a little more awe, Duke?” and Duke said, “Aw, this was truly the Son of God.” Very funny. According to legend, Wayne said his line “Truly this was the Son of God” three times, none of them to Stevens’s satisfaction. There is a famous but untrue story concerning Wayne’s only line of dialogue in the Crucifixion scene, and this is the time to put the record straight. Munn begins by retelling the famous story: The source is Michael Munn, John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth (New York: New American Library, 2003): 248-9. But after a little searching, I found a lovely confirmation that in fact it never happened, in an interview that fills in some background and context in Greatest Story. Demonstrating that something did not happen is tough. It is always difficult to chase down the authenticity of stories like this. I am currently teaching my Jesus in Film course at Duke, and this week we all watched The Greatest Story Ever Told, and it prompted me to revisit the story. I noted at the time that the story certainly appears to be apocryphal, and I have been meaning to take a little more time to look into it ever since. Twelve years ago ( Say it with awe Say it with awe update), I blogged about the legendary John Wayne story, in which the Duke, playing the role of the centurion at the cross in The Greatest Story Ever Told, delivers the line 'Truly, this was the Son of God,' only to be told by director George Stevens, 'Say it with awe, John!' He responds, 'Awww, truly this was the son of God!'.

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