"Greatest Heroes of the Bible" {"Abraham's Sacrifice" Episode #2.6} (1979)

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It is hard to believe these film makers could take a compelling Biblical story like Abraham's sacrifice of his only son and turn it into a tedious made-for-television mess.

Gene Barry is Abraham, who must face the local evil King Herabol (Andrew Duggan) for trying to steal his flock of sheep. Abraham accidentally kills the king's son in the dullest action scene ever committed to film. Abraham's wife, Sarah (Beverly Garland), is barren, so he fathered a son with Egyptian slave Hagar (inexplicably played by Lainie Kazan). Hagar and her uncle, Zingar (Ross Martin), decide to plot against Abraham and his wife so Hagar's son Ishmael (Tiger Thompson) can inherit the flock of sheep. Three angels visit Abraham and announce Sarah will be pregnant with a son. The three angels also promise to return when the boy is born, and yet we never see them again. Sarah has a boy, Isaac (Brian Erickson), and Hagar and Ishmael are banished out of the tribe, with nothing more than some bread, water, and a hopeful narration proclaiming how wonderful things turn out for Ishmael. Zingar kidnaps Isaac, Isaac is saved by Abraham with a little help from God, and the final nail biting thirty seconds are devoted to God's requirement that Abraham sacrifice his beloved son.

Ouch. Gene Barry is good as Abraham, all beard and flowing robes. The rest of the cast tries, but they would not make it through your average junior high school tryouts for "Our Town." The "action" here is terribly choreographed. The direction is insipid and borders on inane. The screenplay is full of flowery, Biblical-sounding language, but fails the cast by taking the familiar story and turning it into a bad episode of "Knots Landing." This was filmed on location in Page, Arizona, and obviously in the middle of winter, since even in interior scenes the actors' breath is visible. The special effects are a joke, consisting of old stock footage. Clocking in at fifty minutes, this feels twice as long.

This is an episode in a mini-series entitled "Greatest Heroes of the Bible," and you can only hope the other episodes are better- but they're not. "Abraham's Sacrifice" is not as heartbreaking as the viewers'.

Stats:
(1979) 55 min. (1/2 *) out of five stars
-Directed by Jack Hively
-Written by Norman Lessing
-Cast: Gene Barry, Andrew Duggan, Beverly Garland, Lainie Kazan, Ross Martin, Tiger Thompson, Brian Erickson, Ed Ames, Victor Jory, Michael Irving, Michael Ruud, Will Kuluva, David Chambers
(Not Rated)