I'm not big on ancient/Biblical films - there's really only about four good ones, especially from this period. This one is particularly horrid. Rita Hayworth stars as Salome, you know, that chick who calls for John the Baptist's head on a platter and did a sexy dance. I saw a decent silent version of this story earlier this year, but even then I noted that the premise was mighty thin for an entire feature film. For this one, they must have come up with the idea of casting Rita Hayworth as Salome (here pronounced as if it rhymed with "baloney"), and only afterward realized that they couldn't really have her be the villain of the story. So they concocted a whole alternate view of the Biblical character to make Hayworth, who is miscast in the first place (pretty sure Salome was supposed to be a fairly young woman, probably even a teen, but Hayworth was about 35 at the time), the heroine. Here, Salome is more of an innocent, a tool used by her evil mother (Judith Anderson) to rid the world of John the Baptist, who is talking a lot of crap about her. John (Alan Badel), by the way, is depicted as such an annoying, unlikable prick, basically a prude standing around complaining about other people's sex lives, that you almost can't feel sorry for his execution. Chales Laughton plays Salome's stepfather. His role is much like the one he had in Sign of the Cross, but he was getting old by this point and he doesn't seem to be having much fun here. The other major player is Stewart Granger, who plays a Roman military officer and Hayworth's love interest. He's utterly boring. There's almost nothing to recommend here besides some decent costumes and a decent Dance of the Seven Veils sequence, but the rest of it is enormously dull and self-important.

This Technicolor extravaganza built around "Gilda" Hayworth's big dance number as a watered down Salome is one dishonest and cowardly piece of commerce to behold. With its attractive stars, superb supporting stage and film actors as well as a highly respected director of epics (Wilhelm Dieterle) and a master cinematographer (Charles Lang) Salome stumbles along for the entire duration with two left feet.Taken from the familiar Biblical story of John the Baptist and later spiced up by Oscar Wilde the producer's (Rita being one) tweak it a little by downplaying Salome's culpability and having the rap to pinned on mom (Judith Anderson) allowing Salome a chance to get religion and Stew Granger as the film ends on a highly solemn and spiritual note with the camera tilting to the sky where the words "This was the beginning" are emblazoned. This after the stunning Miss Hayworth finishes her incestuous two step striptease grinding up a marble staircase in front of her step father, besotted Charley Laughton with Dame Judith smirking approval. The marketers must have thought 'something for the whole family'.Where do we begin? Dieterle who directed Laughton in Hunchback as well as the unique fantasy world of a Midsummer's Night Dream fails to engage or create anything of authenticity or sincerity from performers to the cold barren sets and women draped in fabric colors usually reserved for Christmas wrapping. The B&W mastery of Lang ( Ace in the Hole, The Magnificent Seven) is no where evident in garishly lit scenes dripping gold and bleeding red.Hayworth and Grainger are beautiful and brittle with Rita softening Salome; reducing what should be driving vengeance to limpid piety. Cedric Hardwicke isn't around long enough to chew scenery but Alan Badel as a tripped out JtB is. Laughton's Herod is the biggest travesty of all as he monstrously overacts, spending most of his time waving his arms or gripping Roman columns, his utterances unconvincingly peppered with pregnant pauses and hammy anxious expressions. He along with almost anyone else involved in this pitiful production one might well argue deserve the same fate as the Baptist. Salome is an out an out abomination.

Chocked full of biblical inaccuracies, this fun free for all lasts for hours and hours. People complain that films are too long today, but those who do the complaining obviously have no idea that these older films even exist. Guess they also never heard of Gone with the Wind or To Kill a Mockingbird, either. LOLAnyway, Rita Hayworth is beautiful in her part as Salome. She's quite possibly the most beautiful Salome ever, though the ambiguity of her character herein is a bit annoying, and the direction taken by this version of the biblical story is a bit odd, but the overall production is fun, nonetheless, though entirely frivolous.All in all? It's entertaining and historically accurate, if not biblically so, which is so often the case.It rates a 7.3/10 from......the Fiend :.

As we all know that Princess Salome,(Rita Hayworth) danced for King Herod,(Charles Laughton) in order to gain his favor and requested that John the Baptist's head would be removed and placed on a silver platter and given to the king. However, Hollywood changed the Bible version and made Salome look like a kind and loving Princess who loved the Christian way of thinking and living and wanted to save John The Baptist from being killed. Stewart Granger,(Commander Claudis) soon become the lover of Princess Salome after she had fought with him constantly and told him she wanted nothing to do with a Roman. King Herod and Queen Herodus (Judith Anderson)was living in adultery since she was married to another man and living with King Herod. Rita Hayworth was an experienced dancer and this was one of her best films in 1953.