Druuk Fotopress, Heidelberg. An epic by Dino De Laurentiis, producer of nearly 200 Italian and American films, this film follows the life of the criminal set free by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus Christ. Like the often-filmed epic Quo Vadis, Barabbas is based on a novel by a Nobel Prize-winning author, Swedish writer Pär Fabian Lagerkvist. Christopher Fry, one of the uncredited writers of Ben-Hur (1959) wrote the screenplay. Richard Fleischer directed. Other outstanding performances in the film include Jack Palance as the gladiator trainer Torvald, Ernest Borgnine as the secret Christian, Lucius, and Harry Andrews as Peter. While this film takes a minor biblical character and centers him in the narrative, it features another common practice in this genre, making Jesus a secondary character whose face is never (or rarely) shown on film. This was especially true of biblical epics from 1927 to 1961.