Evening star., 1953-04-08

Queen Herodias is scheming to
get the head of John the Baptist
and Herod is trying to save 1t to
save his own. The queen has
just played her last trump, her
daughter Salome. Miss Hay
worth is out there before the
throne, scattering wells in all di-
rections and writhing madly in
a dance devised by Valerie Belts,
who might have performed it
with more conviction. Miss Hay
worth, a former princess herself.
seems a shade too regally aloof
for the job.
AS a matter Of fact, the dance
doesn't merit the buildup. It
is tepid enough not to shock the
movie code and, after she has
shed those six wells, the seventh
is quite ample enought to protect
Salome from any rude gaze.
y x X Y
This Salome Miss Hayworth
plays in the Columbia film of
the same name seems to be a
composite Of several mentioned
in the Bible. She's not a bad
girl; just a crazy, mixed-up kid.
1t is environment rather than
heredity which has left its mark
on her, as she is set forth in the
Jesse Lasky, jr., story and Harry
Kleiner screenplay.
She hates Romans because
one of them has refused to defy
Tiberius and marry her. She
hates John the Baptist because
he goes around preaching that
her mother is an adultress. She
thinks Romans have hearts of
granite and her mother a heart
of gold.
You would naturally expect
some time to be required to con-
vince a girl so conditioned of the
error of her ways, even with
such forceful man as Stewart
Granger doing the convincing.
1t does seem unreasonable that
it should take as much time as
Director William Dieterle has
taken. Still, almost any Holly
wood director confronted with
a big Biblical theme comes down
with delusionS of DeMille.
Producer Buddy Adler has
suffered some of the same de-
lusions in the making of
"Salome." The physical produc-
ton of the Technicolor film is
vast and, as was noted before,
lavish. Miss Hayworth has heen
surrounded by a supporting cast
bef1tting one of filmdom's
reigning queens.
It is in some of the lesser roles,
not surprisingly, that some Of
the better acting turns up. Sir
Cedric Hardwicke, for instance,
appears in only one brief Sc
quence as Caesar Tiberius. Yet
he manages to give some depth
to the character, putting a mark
on the picture which lends
credibility to the mark Tiberius
left on Salome.
Basil Sydney is thoroughly
credible, too, as Pontius PLATE.
His Characterization is fairly
clear delineation of a military
man who believed the propa-
ganda that he was a member of
the master race and who ex-
pected to spend a few years in
Jerusalem and then be forgotten
by posterity.
Alan Badel is a shade out-of-
this-world as John the Baptist,
but maybe that's how Biblical
prophets behaved. Judith Ander-
son is effective, naturally as the
queen who would sacrifice her
daughter to save herself; Arnold
Ross is properly conspiratorial
as her adviser; Granger, as the
Roman legionnaire converted to
Christianity. is properly stalwart.
Miss Hayworth, no matter
what the role, is usually at least
81 per cent Rita Hayworth and
this is true of Salone. This is
no complaint, either. Charles
Laughton. on the other hand, is
about 1877 per cent Charles
Laughton here. Unless he was
bored with the whole proceeding
and playing King Herod for
laughs. this Is one Of his
less restrained performances. It
closely resembles somebody doing
a caricature of Laughton's acting
style.
There is just one final thought.
It Is not destiny which shapes
movie reviewers ends; it is pic
lures like "Salome," which run
for an holr and az minutes.