Salome (1953)

After her banishment from Rome, Jewish Princess Salome returns to her Roman-ruled native land of Galilee where prophet John the Baptist preaches against Salome's parents, King Herod and Queen Herodias.

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Harry Kleiner (screen play), Jesse Lasky Jr. (story) (as Jesse L. Lasky Jr.)

Stars:

Rita Hayworth, Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Rita Hayworth	...	Princess Salome
Stewart Granger	...	Commander Claudius
Charles Laughton	...	King Herod
Judith Anderson	...	Queen Herodias
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Tiberius Caesar (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
Basil Sydney	...	Pontius Pilate
Maurice Schwartz	...	Ezra
Arnold Moss	...	Micha
Alan Badel	...	John the Baptist

Storyline

In the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), Gallilean prophet John the Baptist (Alan Badel) preaches against King Herod (Charles Laughton) and Queen Herodias (Dame Judith Anderson). The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome (Rita Hayworth), Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the King's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending the King to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius (Stewart Granger) are (contrary to Scripture) nearing conversion to the new religion. And the famous climactic dance turns out to have unexpected implications.

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Plot Keywords:

biblical | sword and sandal | remake | character name as title | john the baptist character | 

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Taglines:

The supreme screen achievement of our time...

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1951, director Cecil B. DeMille contacted Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn about borrowing Rita Hayworth to star in a production of "Salome". Cohn essentially stole DeMille's idea, and made his own movie. He told screenwriter Jesse Lasky, Jr., "You have one weekend to come up with a story for this movie, or you're fired!" Over the weekend, Lasky wrote out a fifty-page treatment that became the basis for this movie. However, since Hayworth was a popular box office star, the original New Testament ending of this movie was re-written to make Salome more sympathetic, and less of a femme fatale.

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Goofs

In Palestine, Claudius saves Salome from a gila monster, a venomous lizard found only in southwestern North America.

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Quotes

King Herod: Where is the Princess? You keep her from me. Command her to appear.
Queen Herodias: Command her, yourself!

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the picture, rather than seeing the words The End on the screen, we see a title that says This was The Beginning.

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Connections

Referenced in Fulano y Mengano (1957)

User Reviews

Why does she dance?

The reason why you 'd like to sit through this is the four leads:Rita Hayworth ,ideally cast as Salome ,a libidinous Charles Laughton ,a cruel Judith Anderson and a noble Stewart Granger.Plus a stint by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.Plus the director of the best version of "hunchback of Notre -Dame" at his kitchiest.Plus a fabulous dance of the seven veils.Plus gaudy colors and John the Baptist's head of course.

But what remains,eg the essential ,is a really "free' adaptation of the holy writs.The script writers invented a Roman soldier with whom Salome falls in love.BUT what will puzzle the Christians is that Salome dances not to get John's head,but to save him!!!.A happy end which will remind you of your Sunday school days.And that's not all:the plot even involves Pontius Pilate whom Claudius (Granger) urged to become a Christian and to repent so that he would go down in history as a soldier of a brand new religion.Well the man did not wash his hands ,but he did not do what he was told either...which did not prevent him from going down in history anyway..

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 1953 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Salome: The Dance of the Seven Veils

Filming Locations:

Israel

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Beckworth Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1