Salome (1953 film)
Salome is a 1953 American drama Biblical film directed by William Dieterle and produced by Buddy Adler from a screenplay by Harry Kleiner and Jesse Lasky Jr.The film stars Rita Hayworth as Salome, as well as Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton and Judith Anderson, with Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Badel and Basil Sydney.Herod is not pleased with John condemning his rule, but fears facing the same fate his father suffered after ordering the murder of the land's firstborn males.[2] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "a flamboyant, Technicolored romance" with "a righteously sanctimonious air, suggesting the whole thing is intended to be taken on a high religious plane."[7] Variety wrote that Hayworth's performance was "among her best," but "the film doesn't deliver on the promised sex-religion combo and needs more hokum, spectacle and excitement to click with the regular run of filmgoers."[8] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a gaudy and garish affair" with its primary weakness being "discovering just what sort of a woman Salome is supposed really to be."[9] Orval Hopkins of The Washington Post called it "gee-whiz picture" with "tremendous" color shots, "startling" scenes aboard the Roman galley and some acting "of the scenery-chewing variety."[10] Harrison's Reports declared, "It is a fairly spectacular production, has fine photography, and considerable sex exposure, but the story does not touch one's heartstrings."[11] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Salome seems wholly fake, even its vulgarity strikes one as lifeless ... Rita Hayworth, though she performs her dances like a Trojan, seems sadly to have lost her earlier vitality.