Thursday, June 19, 2014

Salome (1922)


Allied Producers & Distributors 
Directed by Charles Bryant
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Image Entertainment)

Herod ignores his wife and lusts after his stepdaughter Salome. He keeps the prophet Jokaanan locked up in a well. Salome falls in love with Jokaanan, but he resists her temptations, infuriating her. When Herod offers Salome anything she desires to dance for him, she takes up his offer and demands the head of Jokaanan as payment. The entire film takes place on one set, and in that respect is more like a staged play, if that play took place in a hallucinatory world of a fever-dream. Alla Nazimova is perfectly cast as Salome, her slim, athletic body exuding the sexuality of a temptress but the beauty of a ballerina. However, things do get a bit silly when the midgets show up for the big dance scene.

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