Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Hugo Butler (original screenplay)
Giorgio Prosperi (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 January 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History

Tagline:

Twin Cities of SIN

Plot:

Sex, torture and betrayal in Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, leader of the Hebrews, believes his people can co-exist with the Sodomites...

Plot Keywords:

Biblical | Gomorrah | Sodom And Gomorrah | Sodom | Bare Chested Male Bondage

Cast

Stewart Granger	...	Lot
Stanley Baker	...	Astaroth
Pier Angeli	...	Ildith
Rossana Podestà	...	Shuah
Rik Battaglia	...	Melchior
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Ishmael (as Giacomo Rossi Stuart)
Scilla Gabel	...	Tamar
Anthony Steffen	...	The Captain (as Antonio de Teffè)
Gabriele Tinti	...	Lieutenant
Enzo Fiermonte	...	Eber
Daniele Vargas	...	Segur
Claudia Mori	...	Maleb
Feodor Chaliapin Jr.	...	Alabias (as Feodor Chaliapin)
Mitsuko Takara	...	Orphea (as Mitzuko Takara)
Massimo Pietrobon	...	Isaac

Also Known As:

Sodoma e Gomorra (Italy)
Sodome et Gomorrhe (France)
The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah (USA)

Runtime:

154 min | Argentina:155 min | Finland:141 min (1963) | Finland:117 min (1979)

Country:

USA | Italy | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG (1988) | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | West Germany:18 (nf) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Portugal:17 (censored version)

Filming Locations:

Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Company:

Titanus

Trivia:

Twentieth Century Fox staged the world premiere of the film at Wilmington, Delaware's Rialto Theater.

Quotes:

Queen Bera: Hebrews and Sodomites: Greetings!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in An Opera of Violence (2003) (V)

A Lot of fun

Sodom and Gomorrah is much better than its reputation implies. Although often co-credited to Sergio Leone for tax reasons, it's a Robert Aldrich picture all the way, although Aldrich's style isn't always compatible with the expectations of the epic genre – he's not interested in the sets and some of the most impressive visual compositions are cut very, very short in the editing. Nor is it as decadent or violent as you might expect from the director who would go on to make The Killing of Sister George and The Dirty Dozen. But it is entertaining, with Aldrich managing to get away with more sadism than De Mille ever did, and throwing in a splendid pair of villains in Stanley Baker's perverted prince and Anouk Aimee's lesbian Queen, who easily steal the show from Stewart Granger and the Children of Israel. The supporting cast isn't always as distinguished as the voice cast who redub them (Andrew Keir and Mane Maitland among those in the dubbing theatre), and it's strange to see Granger heading the cast when his tenure at MGM was marked by his refusal to make almost any epic they offered him (Quo Vadis among them), but its still head and shoulders above the standard Italian peplum of the day. Throw in a real doozey of a prolonged battle scene and the last of Miklos Rozsa's Biblical epic scores and you've got a film that may not be fit for Sunday School but which makes for an entertaining two-and-a-half hours. And yes, it really does have a line at the beginning about watching out for Sodomites! The only DVD version available at time of writing is a very variable German DVD with an optional English soundtrack. Letterboxed at 1.85:1, the transfer varies from fine to looking like poor video tape, often varying from shot to shot.