Solomon and Sheba (1959)

Film: Solomon and Sheba (1959)
Stars: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, Marisa Pavan, George Sanders
Director: King Vidor
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Gina Lollobrigida-click here to learn more about Ms. Lollobrigida (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

In the careers of a lot of beautiful actresses from the late-1940's through the mid-1960's, one of the weirder tropes that seemed to befall these actresses was playing the romantic lead in a biblical epic.  Throughout Saturdays with the Stars, we've already run into this a couple of times.  There was Hedy Lamarr in Samson and Delilah and Virginia Mayo in The Silver Chalice.  Last month, though we didn't profile it, Sophia Loren got to play the female lead in The Fall of the Roman Empire, which while not biblical definitely takes place during the times of the Bible.  And this week Gina Lollobrigida goes into the trope.  The production of Solomon and Sheba is legendary (we'll get into that after we discuss the film) even though that had little to do with Lollobrigida, but suffice it to say this was a big deal in Gina's career, and probably the height of her time as a leading woman in Hollywood (perhaps coincidentally, this was also about the time that her longtime rival Sophia Loren was starting her rise in Tinseltown).

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is a gigantic epic (read: too long) look at only a partial portion of the reign of King Solomon.  The film is loosely based on the Book of Kings in the Bible, which details some sort of relationship between King Solomon (Brynner) and the Queen of Sheba (Lollobrigida), though the Bible is not entirely clear on what that relationship was (and historical evidence of Solomon's reign is scant, and in the case of the Queen of Sheba, bordering on non-existent).  Either way, within this movie they are lovers, though not without their initial problems.  The Queen is recruited by the Pharoah to seduce Solomon, and trick him so that she can gain additional lands, and she does so, but then she falls in love with him.  The Pharoah then persuades Solomon's jealous brother Adonijah (Sanders) to betray him, which he does, but thanks to the prayers of the Queen of Sheba, Solomon is saved from certain defeat, and returns to save her from Adonijah's ordered stoning.

There's a lot more to this movie, but to be honest, that's really the highlights version.  I am not opposed to biblical epics (I love Ben-Hur and consider it a proper masterpiece, and was quite fond of The Ten Commandments), but this movie drags and is SO dull.  The film is famously bad, showing up in "worst films of all-time" lists, and while it's not quite "worst of all time," that's about the closest I'm willing to get to a compliment.  The acting from Brynner, Lollobrigida, and Sanders is super cheesy (and Pavan's saintly sister is really annoying, to the point where you are inappropriately relieved when she dies halfway through the movie), and the script is repetitive & hammy.  This movie was a hit in 1959, even with critics at the time giving it tepid reviews & director Vidor publicly stating that he didn't like Brynner in the lead.

His idea for who should play the lead was Tyrone Power, which gets us to the best story about Solomon and Sheba, because Tyrone Power was supposed to be the lead, and actually filmed large chunks of the movie that were eventually reshot with Brynner.  Looking at news articles at the time, it appears that Power was in the middle of a sword fight with George Sanders (which if the script wasn't changed, this is one of the movie's final scenes), and after doing repeated takes, he complained to Vidor about his left arm hurting.  He then went to his trailer, his makeups artist got him a brandy, and Vidor paged for the studio nurse.  Power was then driven to the hospital by Lollobrigida, but didn't make it-he was pronounced dead when they arrived at the hospital, supposedly still in costume.  While other actors have died in more shocking ways (Martha Mansfield, Brandon Lee, Jon-Eric Hexum), Power is arguably the most famous actor to die on a movie set, a fate that bizarrely also befell his actor father, for whom he was named.  This makes Solomon and Sheba a weird curiosity to modern viewers, even though at the time it was a blockbuster.  Next week, we'll close our month devoted to Gina with her costarring with a different actor whose death (not on a set, but decades after the two starred together) would also become the source of tragic scandal.