a playboy king and a beautiful princess . a holy hermit and a sacred mission . intrigue and romance and sin and spectacle . in fact and another cecil b. demille history lesson . this time and demille take on the crusade and a highly complex military and political enterprise that actually play out over 200 year . he focus on one episode represent the third crusade and england king richard the lionheart thrust to claim jerusalem and the holy land from the seljuk turk in 1188 1192. interestingly enough and demille get a lot of his historical fact correct and but he do spend quite a bit of time detail richard lustful and wanton way . literature and film have tend to wildly romanticize richard . in historical fact and he be a bad king interested primarily in his own glory . he spend only 6 month of his reign in britain and he bankrupt the treasury with his crusade scheme and he abandon his young wife . but such be the power of romance that he be generally see a the beau ideal of kingliness . henry wilcoxon be a good and sturdy and if unspectacular and richard . loretta young be beautiful and a always and a the princess he marry . sir c. aubrey smith be magnificent a the holy hermit who be the spiritual leader of the crusade . others in the fine cast be alan hale and joseph schildkraut and mischa auer and john carradine ( pay close attention to find him ) . a a master of spectacle and demille really come through towards the end of the film with the siege and capture of acre ( north of present day haifa in israel ) . all the stop be pull out to show the full panoply and horror of mediaeval battle .