The Biblical epic “Salome” receives its Technicolor screen adaptation featuring Rita Hayworth and Stewart Granger. Although not one of Hayworth’s strongest films, the fact that the film and the role is different from her previous films makes “Salome” a worthy inclusion to “The Films of Rita Hayworth” DVD box set.
© 1953 Renewed, 1981 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved
DVD TITLE: Salome (as part of “The Films of Rita Hayworth” DVD Box Set)
FILM RELEASE DATE: 1953
DURATION: 103 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, 1:33:1 Full Screen, Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: N/A
RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2010
Directed by William Dieterle
Story by Jesse Lasky Jr. and Harry Kleiner
Written by Harry Kleiner
Produced by Buddy Adler
Music by George Duning
Cinematography by Charles Lang
Edited by Viola Lawrence
Art Direction by John Meehan
Set Decoration by William Kiernan
Costume Design by Jean Louis and Emile Santiago
Starring:
Rita Hayworth as Princess Salome
Stewart Granger as Commander Claudius
Charles Laughton as King Herod
Judith Anderson as Queen Herodias
Cedric Hardwicke as Tiberius Caesar
Alan Badel as John the Baptst
Basil Sydney as Pontius Pilate
Maurice Schwartz as Ezra the King’s Advisor
Arnold Moss as Micha the Queen’s Advisor
Rita Hayworth, who was born Margarita Cansino, the daughter of Spanish and Irish parents, trained from a young age as a professional dancer and would become one of the more enduring symbols of glamour and sex appeal of her era. As a result of her sultry good looks and talent displayed in every genre, including comedies, dramas, musicals, thrillers, and even westerns, Rita Hayworth became the unmatched Queen of the lot at Sunset and Gower, in Hollywood, and one of Columbia’s most important contract stars. By 1940, a picture starring Rita Hayworth guaranteed the highest level of production values and her films are some of the most iconic of their era. Now Sony Pictures and The Film Foundation have teamed again to bring five of her finest films to DVD–three of them for the first time. These films highlight Hayworth’s charm, grace and allure as a dancer, dramatic actress, and vamp–while charting the exceptional range of her career. It’s a collection that showcases one of Hollywood’s most unforgettable stars…and is certain to win her legions of new admirers as well.
SALOME– Rita plays the gloriously beautiful but wicked Salome with relish in this Biblical tale of the stepdaughter of Roman King Herod (Charles Laughton), whose growing lust for his charge leads her to make a very unique demand involving John The Baptist (Alan Badel). William Dieterle (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) directed this lavish production, which also stars Stewart Granger, Dame Judith Anderson and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
Rita Hayworth, one of the most popular actress in America, a sex symbol who would win audiences with her performance in the 1946 film “Gilda†and would have a career that featured 61 films shot in 37 years.
Known in her earlier years as Rita Cansino, the half Spanish and half actress was born in a family full of entertainers. Her father was a flamenco dancer, her mother was an original Zeigfeld girl, her parents were a source for her to pursue acting and dancing. Father and daughter would become the “The Dancing Cansinos†and she would eventually catch the eye of the head of the Fox Film Corporation, Winfield Sheehan and Rita was signed to a short-term contract.
Because of her Spanish look, studios were not reluctant to hire her, so Rita would go through several procedures to change herself and when she returned to screen test for Columbia Pictures, the actress who now had red hair and would change her name to Rita Hayworth (her mother’s maiden name) would make her brand new return in 1939 and eventually would get a small but yet important part in the Cary Grant film “Only Angels Have Wingsâ€. And eventually, her career would blossom from then on.
In fact, during World War II, Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable would become the popular pin-up girls for military serviceman. She also had a “no nudity†policy which boosted her popularity during the 1940′s and by 1944, Hayworth was the big box office star in Hollywood.
To celebrate the career of Rita Hayworth and her films that she has done with Columbia Pictures, together with the Film Movement, a special five movie DVD box set titled “The Films of Rita Hayworth†is being released.   The set includes the following films: “Cover Girl†(1944), “Tonight and Every night†(1945), “Gilda†(1946), “Miss Sadie Thompson†(1953) and “Salome†(1953).
With the success of “Gilda” in 1946, Rita Hayworth would go on to make four more films for Columbia: “Down to Earth” (1947), “The Lady from Shanghai” (1947), “The Loves of Carmen” (1948) and “Affair in Trinidad” (1952). It’s also important to note that right after “Gilda”, she and husband-at-the-time, Orson Welles would go on to work on “The Lady from Shanghai” together but the red hair that the actress was known for, would die her hair blonde. But by 1953, years of hard drinking and stress would definitely show a change in Rita Hayworth’s appearance.
Yet Hayworth can still dance and still exhibits the sexiness she was known for onscreen but it was quite evident that the actress would go through significant challenges in her life and her career after her marriage and divorce to Orson Welles, her remarriage with Prince Aly Khan and giving birth to her second daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan but yet to divorce again (Hayworth would remarry the same year after her divorce in 1953 to actor Dick Haymes).
After four years of inactivity (due to her marriage with the prince), Hayworth would make her return to film in 1953. Before the release of “Miss Sadie Thompson” (released in December 1953 and also included in the “The Films of Rita Hayworth” DVD box set), she released one final film, a Biblical epic titled “Salome” for her production company, Beckworth Corporation (which she dissolved in 1955).
“Salome” is directed by William Dieterle and features a screenplay by Harry Kleiner and Jesse Lasky Jr with cinematography by Charles Lang. Jean Louis continued working with Hayworth for costume design and the dances featured in the film were choreographed by Valerie Bettis. It is said that the dance scene for “Salome” was the most difficult dance scene that Rita Hayworth had to perform and would endure “endless takes and retakes” according to biographers.
“Salome” is a film adaptation loosely based on book of Mark featured in the New Testament of the Bible (note: The story doesn’t follow the biblical text). Salome (played by Rita Hayworth) is the stepdaughter of King Herod Antipas (played by Charles Laughton) and Queen Herodias (played by Judith Anderson). While living in Rome, she is a seductive dancer who is to marry a Roman man who happens to be the nephew of Roman Emperor Tiberus Caesar (played by Cedrick Hardwicke). But because she is the daughter of King Herod and has heard of his lifestyle , Caesar did not approve of the wedding and also banned Salome from performing in in Rome ever again. Salome from this point on has contempt for all Romans because the man she loved chose to follow a Roman that be with her.
So, Princess Salome is sent back to Galilee and escorting her back home is Commander Claudius (played by Stewart Granger) under the orders of Pontius Pilate (played by Basil Sydney). Princess Salome shows how spoiled she is when she occupies the room of Pontius Pilate and treating Commander Claudius as if he is filth. But each time she does, Claudius finds it quite attractive and forcefully kisses her. At first, the two like oil and water and slowly do we see Salome starting to care for Claudius but tells him that because of what happened to her in Rome, she can never fall for a Roman ever again.
Meanwhile, back in Galilee, Salome’s mother Queen Herodias is despondent because the prophet, John the Baptist (played by Alan Badel) has denounced her marriage to the king and married her deceased husband’s brother outside and is thus calls her an adultress. John the Baptist has been growing in popularity with the people of Galilee and as Queen Herodias feels her power is weakening, she decides to use her daughter Salome to gain power.
While back in Galilee, the Romans are told not to arrest John the Baptist and for Commander Claudius, he finds himself becoming more enlightened by the words of John the Baptist unlike Salome who has ill will towards him because he speaks bad things about her mother.
So, Salome knowing Commander Claudius is starting to fall for her hopes that she can use her sexuality in getting Claudius to do something to John the Baptist (unaware that Claudius has becoming more in tune of the words of the prophet).
As John the Baptist continues to gain popularity and speak against the King and Queen, Queen Herodias wants her husband King Herod to stop John the Baptist anyway he can. Her request, she wants John the Baptist to be beheaded.
Meanwhile, how will Salome react when she finds out that her mother wants her to marry her stepfather King Herod.
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Salome” is presented in 1:33:1 via Technicolor. The print is actually pretty good for “Salome” compared to “Miss Sadie Thompson” which had more noise on the print. But for the most part, “Salome” is a good looking Technicolor film on DVD. Audio is in Dolby Digital.
Subtitles are in English SDH with the black boxes behind it.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Salome” comes with no special features.
EXTRAS:
“The Films of Rita Hayworth” DVD Box Set comes with a slip case and digipack similar to other Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/The Film Foundation DVD releases.
When it comes to “Salome”, there are two things that people will either love or dislike about it. For one, it’s a Rita Hayworth film and one is going to expect an emotional performance and elaborate dancing. The good news is that Hayworth’s performance and an actress and dancer is well done.
The problem with “Salome” which may turn off some people is how the story deviates from the book of Mark as Salome was the person responsible for requesting her mother to have John the Baptist beheaded. Also, she is portrayed as a seductress, while in this film, “Salome” is portrayed as a beautiful woman who was in love and has been scorned.
In this story, she and Commander Claudius try to help John the Baptist escape from King Herod’s prison and tries to cast her off as a positive person who was changed by the light, thanks to Commander Claudius who introduced her to John the Baptist. We see Salome being enlightened when Claudius talks about Jesus Christ and what he accomplished and I suppose it does make for a happy Hollywood Biblical film to see the change that Salome goes through during the course of the film.
Of course, “Salome” isn’t the first to deviate from the original story as Oscar Wilde’s play featured a Salome who was spurned by John the Baptist. Even in older poetry, there have been different versions told of the story of Salome and I suppose if one wanted to dramatize and change the storyline with the characters, “Salome” (1953) is no different from the deviating storyline of “Salome” (1896), by Greek poet Constantine Cavafy.
And like many Hollywood dramatizations of stories from the bible, deviations from the actual story is quite commonplace but with “Salome”, it’s an interesting deviation as she is seen as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness. Seen as the person who’s cold demeanor led to the death of John the Baptist. But this is not the case with this film.
But if you are not familiar with the story of “Salome” and are just watching the film for Rita Hayworth, I suppose as a viewer, one would watch the film to see how far they would take Hayworth’s sexuality and display it onscreen. For the most part, throughout the film, Hayworth plays the part of a naive princess who finds the light and it works for an early 50’s film and I’m sure the conservative censors were more open to it (unlike her later film that year, “Miss Sadie Thompson”).
While the dance numbers, the choreography and costume design is well-done, “Salome” was an average film but for a Rita Hayworth film, “Salome” was a role so different from other previous roles that she has had and I suppose if you want to see the diversity of her acting and the types of roles she played, “Salome” would definitely be one role that one would not expect to see from the actress who has been known as a “love goddess” to military serviceman and capturing the hearts of many through her performance seven years prior in “Gilda”.
Overall, “Salome” is an average film that didn’t make me want to love it but by no means did I dislike it. A Biblical epic that takes a story of a woman known for being sinful but giving a Hollywood dramatization and making her character come out positively while maintaining a moralistic Christian message that even a person with a cold heart can break out of the darkness and find light. While there are other Rita Hayworth films that I could have seen as a fifth film of “The Films of Rita Hayworth”, I suppose that if you are going to keep things diverse in this set, because it’s such a different role and different kind of Hayworth film, it definitely has its place in this DVD box set.
(Note:Â This review is for the “Salome” DVD included in “The Films of Rita Hayworth” and is not a review of the entire DVD box set).
