Barabbas

Barabbas (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1962) gets a network screening in the UK today, BBC2, 3.15 p.m. From the Radio Times:

An impressive quasi-biblical epic, produced by Dino De Laurentiis on a grand scale and directed with a fine sense of period by Richard Fleischer. It's best remembered today, however, for the fact that the Crucifixion was photographed against an actual eclipse of the sun. Anthony Quinn does well in the title role as the murderer and thief pardoned in place of Christ, and the climactic arena sequences involving Jack Palance are splendid, but, as a whole, it's overlong and dull, like the Par Lagerkvist novel on which it is based.