“Dull biblical epic.” Reviewe…
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Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
King Vidor (“The Big Parade”/”The Crowd”/Stella Dallas”) directs
this dull biblical epic, one of many in vogue for Hollywood during the
1950s. It’s best remembered for being the last film of the great silent
screen director Vidor and the pic where the 45-year-old leading man, Tyrone
Power, cast as Solomon, died of a heart attack during a sword scene with
George Sanders after 75% of the film was shot. The studio ordered the filmmaker
to re-shoot Power’s scenes with his replacement Yul Brynner. It was photographed
in Spain. The filmmaker and writers Anthony Veiller, Paul Dudley and George
Bruce fictionalize the biblical romance of the Israelite king named Solomon
(Yul Brynner) and the pagan Arabic queen named Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida)
in a Hollywood way, and never get any sizzle in the romance as they keep
the tale trivial with festive but meaningless glossy visual scenes and
let the romance stagnate between an ill at ease Solomon and a pouting Sheba.
For many, attending Sunday school might have been more exciting than this
pretentious sleep-inducing pic.
It’s set in ancient Israel, some thousand years before Christ’s birth.
The Egyptian forces are handily defeated under the command of Israel’s
warrior-prince Adonijah (George Sanders) and his contemplative younger
brother, the poet Solomon (Yul Brynner). When learned their father, King
David (Finlay Currie), is on his deathbed, Adonijah assumes he will become
the next king and rides out on the field to capture a royal expedition
led by the beautiful and willful Queen Sheba, while Soloman rushes to his
dad’s side. When Adonijah returns to Jerusalem, he learns that dad picked
Solomon to be the next king. The embittered older brother hides his disappointment
and grudgingly accepts the appointment by Solomon to command the nation’s
armies. The opening years of the poet king’s reign are prosperous and it
signals the construction of the Great Temple. Sheba plots to seduce the
tolerant Solomon and help the Egyptians reduce the power of the mighty
king and topple his people.
The Great Temple is destroyed by lightning, as Sheba’s seduction
works and in Solomon’s weakest moments the heavy Adonijah seizes power.
The Israelites think the temple’s destruction is a sign of God that Solomon
is no longer his favored son and they turn against the righteous king.
Meanwhile the manipulative Sheba has a change of heart and falls in love
with Solomon, and converts to Judaism and renounces her pagan gods.
The epic battle between the Israelites and the Egyptians is shot
with a cast of thousands, making it loud and spectacular. For those who
love such lavish vulgar productions, lap up the orgy scene with campy glee,
can handle only small doses of political intrigue and love gawking at a
hot looking Gina, should find enough here to help keep them awake for this
overlong and ponderous flick. Others should mind that it strays far from
the facts, that the conflict between brothers is never developed and that
the love story is inert.
Though critically assailed, the epic did well at the box office.