If you know your movie is going to be inferior in every single way to another, wouldn't you want to hold onto the release date for a while so audiences won't hate yours? Unfortunately for United Artists, Solomon and Sheba was released the same year as the epic everyone loved, Ben-Hur.
To be perfectly honest, because I always try to watch movies for my Stars of the Week with an open mind, the entire movie isn't a disaster. Most of it isn't very good, with cheap-looking production values, sets that look like they were used in the 1930s, a weak script, inferior music, and an opening sequence that seems like a spoof on the Biblical genre. After the very slow start, the second half improves. There's an impressive battle scene that sends an entire army of soldiers and their horses off a cliff, and a steamy orgy that miraculously made it past the censors-quite a feat at that time! And when it gets to the meat of the story-the two title characters' romance-the movie gets a lot better. Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida are sexy enough on their own, but combined, the screen literally sizzles. They have incredible chemistry together, and between Gina's revealing costumes and Yul's flattering wig, you're going to have a hard time remembering that there's anything one in the story besides them.
There is someone else in the movie, though: George Sanders. There's an extremely sad piece of trivia about the making of this movie, and if you don't know about it, I won't tell you and ruin your viewing experience. However, I did know about it before I watched it-as did everyone who went to see this movie in 1959-and my heart went out to all the cast and crew who had to set the tragedy aside and continue filming as if nothing had happened. In particular, I felt for George Sanders, who plays the villain (of course) and had to relive a very painful scene. If you do know what happened, you'll be more inclined, like I was, to cut this movie some slack.
To be perfectly honest, because I always try to watch movies for my Stars of the Week with an open mind, the entire movie isn't a disaster. Most of it isn't very good, with cheap-looking production values, sets that look like they were used in the 1930s, a weak script, inferior music, and an opening sequence that seems like a spoof on the Biblical genre. After the very slow start, the second half improves. There's an impressive battle scene that sends an entire army of soldiers and their horses off a cliff, and a steamy orgy that miraculously made it past the censors-quite a feat at that time! And when it gets to the meat of the story-the two title characters' romance-the movie gets a lot better. Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida are sexy enough on their own, but combined, the screen literally sizzles. They have incredible chemistry together, and between Gina's revealing costumes and Yul's flattering wig, you're going to have a hard time remembering that there's anything one in the story besides them.
There is someone else in the movie, though: George Sanders. There's an extremely sad piece of trivia about the making of this movie, and if you don't know about it, I won't tell you and ruin your viewing experience. However, I did know about it before I watched it-as did everyone who went to see this movie in 1959-and my heart went out to all the cast and crew who had to set the tragedy aside and continue filming as if nothing had happened. In particular, I felt for George Sanders, who plays the villain (of course) and had to relive a very painful scene. If you do know what happened, you'll be more inclined, like I was, to cut this movie some slack.