Salome (1953)

After being spurned by her Roman lover (Rex Reason), the Princess Salome (Rita Hayworth) returns home to Galilee where she finds one John The Baptist (Alan Badel) preaching against her mother, the Queen Herodias (Judith Anderson). Trapped in a loveless marriage to Herod (Charles Laughton), the Queen plots to use Salome to get her revenge on the Baptist. Based on the novel THE GOOD TIDINGS by William Sidney and directed by William Dieterle (PORTRAIT OF JENNIE). Perhaps the silliest of the Hollywood biblical epics, like most biblical movies it has very little to do with the actual biblical texts and contains lots of padded fabrication. Even taking that into account, the film's portrayal of Salome as a good hearted girl gone wrong and saved by love and Christianity comes across as quite ludicrous. The film is too earnest in its telling and lacks the vulgarity that often make these types of films great fun. Hayworth, at age 35, is far too mature for the young Salome. Laughton doesn't have much to feast on but Anderson makes for a marvelously malevolent Queen. The film's highpoint is Hayworth's Dance Of The Seven Veils (choreographed by Valerie Bettis) which alone makes the film a must see  for the Hayworth completist. The normally inoffensive Stewart Granger is actually quite deadly here and he and Hayworth have zero chemistry. But the film's worst performance comes from Badel whose performance as the Baptist is all bulging eyes with his head tilted upward to Heavven. George Duning did the score proper with Daniele Amfitheattrof doing the music for Hayworth's dance. With Cedric Hardwicke, Arnold Moss and Basily Sydney.