Slaves Of Babylon (1953)

After the destruction of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar (Leslie Bradley), the Jewish population are brought captive into Babylon. The prophet Daniel (Maurice Schwartz) asks a slave (Richard Conte) to go on a quest to help release the Jews. This necessitates recruiting a young shepherd (Terry Kilburn) to become the leader of Persia. Directed by William Castle (STRAIT JACKET), this cheesy low budget (and boy, does it ever show it) Biblical pseudo "epic" is a turgid slice of homegrown peplum. It lacks the kitschy glamour of something like SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949) or the sincerity of THE EGYPTIAN (1954). Its low budget prohibits any major set pieces and we're pretty much studio bound which leaves only the bad acting to try and hold our interest. The worst performance comes from Maurice Schwartz as Daniel whose performance consists of rolling his eyes to the heavens with his mouth open and poor Richard Conte looks like he wandered in from Brooklyn! With Linda Christian, Julie Newmar, Michael Ansara, Ruth Storey and Beatrice Maude.