King of Kings is a Samuel Bronston-produced epic retelling the story of Jesus from his brith to his cruxificion and resurrection. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1961. It was directed by Nicholas Ray from a screenplay by Philip Yordan. Jeffrey Hunter played Jesus. The cast also included Robert Ryan (as John the Baptist), Siobhan McKenna (as Mary), Ron Randell (as Lucius, a fictional centurion), Hurd Hatfield (as Pontius Pilate), Viveca Lindfors, Rita Gam, Frank Thring (as Herod Antipas), Royal Dano (as Peter), Rip Torn (as Judas Iscariot), Harry Guardino (as Barabbas), Carmen Sevilla (as Mary Magdalene), Brigid Bazlen (as Salome), Guy Rolfe (as Caiaphas), and Gregoire Aslan (as Herod the Great). The voiceover narration was spoken by Orson Welles who is uncredited.

An earlier silent film about Jesus was also entitled King of Kings, released in 1927, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Ray's version places Jesus's life in the political context of Roman conquest. As Jesus becomes an active preacher and healer, his activities are contrasted with the political stance of Barabbas and his insurgents who battle against the Roman occupiers. There are some moving scenes of Jesus's miracles and his sermon on the mount (impressively shot with many thousands of extras), as well as a scene where Jesus visits John the Baptist in his dungeon during his imprisonment by Herod Antipas -- Ray staging the scene in such a way that John the Baptist must crawl up an incline inside the dungeon, holding out his hand to reach for Jesus's hand: a vivid example of Ray's architectural sense of composition and visual drama (reminding one that Ray had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect). Ray's direction effectively balances spectacle with the human drama of Jesus's life. In the spectacular Sermon on the Mount sequence, Ray also convincingly conveys the central ethical-religious messages of Jesus's teachings. As such, the film is an admirable model of the epic form where grandeur serves to underscore the content. King of Kings is also memorable for the music score by Miklos Rozsa, a Hungarian emigre composer who composed the music for MGM's Ben-Hur (1959) and many other epic films.