Plot

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.

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). Herodias wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him after 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.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

As incendiary prophet John the Baptist preaches the coming of Jesus the Messiah in turbulent Galilee, the lascivious King Herod and his plotting wife Queen Herodias welcome back to the kingdom Herod's statuesque stepdaughter, Princess Salome. Freshly banished from Rome for her passionate affair with Caesar's nephew, beautiful Salome finds comfort in the arms of the Roman commander, Claudius, while the seditious Baptist becomes all the more a thorn in Herodias' side. Soon, King Herod will have to decide on life and death, and the exemplary punishment of John the Baptist: a sentence so cruel and dangerous that not even the seductive "Dance of the Seven Veils" will be enough to appease the king.—Nick Riganas