Solomon and Sheba (1959)
In legendary director King Vidor's final film, a Technirama
Biblical epic:
- the character of hot-blooded seductive temptress
and pagan spy the Queen of Sheba (sultry post-war Italian actress
Gina Lollobrigida), who was offered the port of Melish on the Red
Sea by the Pharaoh in return for bringing about Israeli King Solomon's
(Yul Brynner) downfall
- her many risque and lascivious appearances, often
in exotic and revealing costumes, especially for the late 1950s
- her tempting romantic encounters with Solomon, ultimately
leading to his lustful desire for her when he visited her after midnight
and she admitted her plan of entrapment ("to bind you to me
in soft chains so that I may do with you as I will") - and Solomon, "blind
to the truth" became her lover
- the scene of Solomon sitting in judgment with two
mothers claiming that a surviving baby was each their own
- the Queen of Sheba's bathing scene in which she rose
naked from her tub and was wrapped in a long towel by her maid servant,
who was given the command to "Dry me!"
- the scene in which she held a pagan ceremony within
Israel to her god of love and fertility Rha-gon - and her performance
of an erotic belly-dance in a flesh-colored bra-top to the heavy
beat of drums, tempting Solomon to be drawn to her writhing bacchanalian
ceremony
- the response of God's wrath in the form of thunderbolts
in the sky, striking down the temple
- the film's concluding battle with a 'cast of thousands'
in which the outnumbered, seemingly-vanquished Israelites clash with
charging Egyptian armies (joined by Solomon's treacherous brother
Adonijah (George Sanders)) - and a reflecting-shield miracle drove
their blinded chariots and foot-soldiers into a chasm
- the film's ending in which Sheba (pregnant with Solomon's
child) took refuge in the temple where she had a complete change
of heart (she confessed her true love, converted to Judaism and renounced
her own gods)
- her rescue from being stoned to death (and then her
miraculous healing) when Solomon returned victorious
- in the film's final moments, the Queen of Sheba bid
farewell to Solomon and stoically strode off to return to her own
land to bear his child with God's blessing: ("And he shall walk
in the way of the Lord God Jehovah. That we must part is our atonement")