Solomon & Sheba (1959)

Yul Brynner stars as the legendary figure of the Bible in King Vidor's only contribution to this popular 1950s genre. When aged King David (Finlay Currie) has a vision from God telling him that Solomon should succeed him as ruler of the Israelites David heeds His word. This angers his martial brother Adonijah (George Sanders) who threatens to wrest the throne from his younger brother. Israel thrives under the reign of the wise king and its success creates uneasiness among the powerful kingdoms of the region. The pharaoh conspires with Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida) granting her access to the Red Sea that she might beseige Solomon with her charm thereby luring the ruler to his doom. Solomon is dazzled by the queen's beauty and quickly falls under her sway. As the king's attention is turned away from the Lord and the welfare of his people the country begins to deteriorate. The Lord finally expresses his displeasure with the prevailing atmosphere of licentiousness by destroying the Temple of Jehovah. The chastened Solomon grasps the error of his ways and a transformed Sheba decides to convert to Judaism. SOLOMON AND SHEBA is the great director's final film and while it might not be up to the standard he set with DUEL IN THE SUN THE BIG PARADE and THE CHAMP it has an undeniably entertaining camp value that makes it worth watching.System Requirements:Running Time: 142 mins. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883904103042 Manufacturer No: M110304 Product Description

Shlomo and Sheba...

Well, besides being a big ham, unless of course you are a big fan of the Bible and the Scriptures, this is a worthless effort in story telling.

Nowadays we have much more specific indications on who Solomon was and how the Queen of Sheba came into play. There are even sources that really and strongly doubt the two ever actually met.

So, premises apart, and taken into consideration that it is a Yul Brynner / Gina Lollobrigida vehicle, it is still watchable, especially for its "saucy" values of the time (1959).

A bit like "The Prodigal", this is by no means a serious attempt at translating the Bible into a historic document.

It is just Big Circus meets Big Actors. There is even poor George Sanders standing by, lending a hand at this.
Poor man, he must have been desperate in doing so.
Anyway, if the pay is right, why not...

It is barely good enough for Popcorn and Soda and for keeping your kids laughing for a couple of hours in front of your TV set.

Other than that, consider, it is cheap, so if you decide to buy it, it won't be a big dent in your purse, just do not expect something really intellectual out of this one.

And Yul in a wig is ridiculous at best.

Stick to "The King and I" or other better pictures, like "The Magnificent Seven" and even the Sci-Fi thriller "Westworld", if you really like to see Yul at his best.

Image, Screen Ratio and Sound as conventional as ever for MGM/UA products.

As said, cheap. June 21, 2008

On DVD at last!

SOLOMON AND SHEBA finally gets a U.S. DVD release and the wait was worth it! The movie hasn't looked or sounded this good since the day it was released back in 1959. Gina Lollobrigida at her most beautiful and Yul Brynner with hair...plus a cast of thousands. Who could ask for more? Great entertainment in the DeMille tradition. March 27, 2008

Expanding the Bible

"Solomon and Sheba"

Expanding the Bible

Amos Lassen

I love movies based on the Bible--even if they are inaccurate. They make me think and that is a good thing. "Solomon and Sheba" which was made in 1959 has several good things going for it even if it gets its Biblical facts wrong. First it is visually beautiful and Gina Lollabrigida is alluring as the queen of Sheba. Also this is the last film of King Vidor, one of the masters of the Hollywood epic.
The film got off to a bad start. With 75% of the film finished, Tyrone Power who was playing Solomon died and was replaced by Yul Brynner who convincingly portrays the wise king. The film does live up to the King Vidor trademark.
The Biblical inaccuracies are throughout the film, however. The movie is a Biblical stew. Several incidents are woven together and a little extra is thrown in by Hollywood. In the Bible there is very little said about the two monarchs. The queen simply went on a trade mission to Israel, talked with the king and returned to her country with goods she received. There is no hint of romance. Sheba did not see the famous case of the two women who came before Solomon and neither did she know anything about the Temple. She was not involved in the dispute of the succession of Adonijah, Solomon's brother and that is the heart of the film. The story of Adonijah in the Bible is nowhere as elaborate as shown here in the film.
In the Bible, there is no mention of the Queen of Sheba being a temptress; it simply says she is an admirer of Solomon.
Nonetheless, I love this movie. It is beautiful to watch and it certainly made me return to the Bible to check the facts. I say, look at it but keep your mind and your Old Testament open.
March 25, 2008

Yul with hair!

All the bibical movies from the 50's are fun. This one is worth viewing just to see Yul Brynner with hair. Also, George Sanders is always a great presence on the big screen. Pop the popcorn and enjoy! January 16, 2008

A mere shadow of what it could have been

Solomon and Sheba is a film more famous for original star Tyrone Power's death two-thirds of the way through shooting than for anything it achieved once the cameras started rolling again with Yul Brynner in the role (having shot most of the big exteriors, there simply wasn't enough footage of Power in the key scenes with Gina Lollabrigida's Sheba to cut together into a feature).

From the few extracts that have emerged of Tyrone Power's footage this could have been a contender, but after his fatal heart attack filming the final swordfight with long-time co-star George Sanders, unpopular replacement Yul Brynner had the script rewritten to replace Power's doubting warrior king with a more confident and less interesting typical movie hero. There's a huge element of half-heartedness to much of the film that doesn't help matters, much of it no doubt due to reshooting so much of the film again, but it's doubtful this would ever have been more than big-budget hokum. The result is one of those films like Blood Alley (which saw Robert Mitchum controversially replaced by John Wayne days into filming), where the story of what happened behind the screen is much more interesting than the one on it. December 30, 2007

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