Salome is a 1953 Sword and Sandal film directed by William Dieterle. It stars Rita Hayworth as the eponymous Judean princess, Stewart Granger as the upstanding Roman soldier Claudius, Charles Laughton as King Herod, and Judith Anderson as Queen Herodias. Additionally, Cedric Hardwicke puts in a cameo as Emperor Tiberius.
Salome is a minor figure in The Bible. Stepdaughter of the tyrannical King Herod, she does a (presumably sexual) dance for him in exchange for being served the severed head of John the Baptist on a platter. And that's all the Bible says about her. Actually, it doesn't even say that much. The Bible never bothered to mention her name, the name "Salome" coming to us from the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. Even so, Christians spent centuries regarding Salome as a symbol of decadence and, for lack of a better term, sluttiness.
Well, someone decided this material would make for a great Rita Hayworth vehicle. That "someone" was Cecil B. DeMille, but he didn't actually get to make the movie. In 1951, he approached Columbia Pictures about borrowing Hayworth for the role of Salome. Columbia liked the idea so much that they stole it and made the film themselves. But clearly, a big star like Hayworth couldn't play Salome as the depraved harlot she was in the original story, not in The '50s anyway. Hence, some Adaptational Heroism was necessary, plus Adaptation Expansion given the brevity of her Biblical appearance. As you can imagine, the film's Salome is pretty much an In Name Only version. Or at least she would be, if she had a name in the Bible.
Other than sharing the same Biblical source material, this film is unrelated to the play by Oscar Wilde and the 1923 silent film based on it.
This film has the examples of:
- Actual Pacifist: John the Baptist, naturally. When charged with inciting the people to overthrow the House of Herod, he replies, "I do not speak for violence. Only evil-doers must resort to force."
- Adaptation Expansion: Suffice it to say that Salome's dance occurs at the end, and everything that happens to her before that is a Back Story made up by the film.
- Adaptational Heroism: Considering her infamy as a wicked temptress, the movie's Salome is remarkably virtuous. Sure, she's a bit haughty and sultry, befitting Hayworth's screen image, but nothing worse than that. And she never wanted John the Baptist beheaded in this version.
- Antagonistic Governor: Who else but Pontius Pilate?
- As You Know: Near the beginning, Ezra helpfully reminds Herod of the prophecy that for years has compelled him to avoid taking any action against John the Baptist. Herod actually lampshades that he doesn't need to be reminded of it.Herod: I don't need reminding.
Ezra: In your heart, you do. - Belligerent Sexual Tension: Claudius and Salome's relationship.
- Bible Times: The setting, of course. Specifically, it's set in Roman Judea in the first century AD.
- Bridal Carry: Claudius picks up Salome like this to put her in her litter.
- Canon Foreigner: Claudius, Salome's love interest played by Stewart Granger, is the only major character with no historical or Biblical basis.
- Decadent Court: Herod's court, as John the Baptist is not shy about pointing out.
- Demanding Their Head: Defied. Contrary to Salome's depiction in The Bible, where she requests, at the behest of her mother, the head of John the Baptist, this version of Salome is depicted as a virtuous princess who doesn't want John the Baptist killed. She intends to use the reward from her dance to make Herod set John the Baptist free, but Herodias instead cleverly takes advantage of the situation to have John executed before the dance ends, and Salome is horrified when the head is brought to the throne room.
- Evil Colonialist: Pontius Pilate is portrayed as a ruthless Roman imperialist with no regard for the conquered people he rules.
- The Faceless: Jesus has a couple cameos, during which his face is not shown.
- Family-Friendly Stripper: The Dance of the Seven Veils is actually halted before Salome can remove her last veil. And even if she did remove it, it doesn't look like it would leave her that naked. Still, Claudius runs forward and wraps his cape around her, as though she needed to be saved from being so indecently exposed.
- Hollywood Costuming: Turns out bullet bras were all the rage in first-century Judea. Who knew?
- It Will Never Catch On: Claudius encourages Pilate to support the new Christian movement, telling him that his name would live forever in history. Pilate replies, "In a few years from now, we shall all be dust and forgotten, no matter what we do here. The name of Caesar will live on, but Pontius Pilate? Never!" Of course, Pilate would not only be remembered in relation with Jesus, but would be so due to literally washing his hands off Jesus.
- Lady Macbeth: Herodias continuously urges Herod to take action against John the Baptist.
- Loophole Abuse: Herod tries to get around the prophecy by asking his ministers to pronounce the sentence for John the Baptist, and they, of course, unanimously condemn him to death. Ezra is not impressed and says that Herod still counts as responsible.
- Lost in Imitation: The Bible only mentions that Salome danced for her father. It doesn't even explicitly mention that it was a striptease, although that's the traditional understanding. The idea of the Dance of the Seven Veils comes from the Oscar Wilde play, which this movie is otherwise not adapting. Granted, the movie never actually calls it the Dance of the Seven Veils, but it certainly involves taking off seven veils, and the trailer calls it that.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Claudius saves Salome from a Gila monster, which are native to North America.
- Not His Sled: Salome does not do her dance to get the head of John the Baptist. Instead, she intended to ask for John to be freed, but her mother had other ideas.
- Pervert Dad: Well, stepdad, at least. Making it worse, Herodias mentions that Salome was sent to Rome as a child in order to protect her from Herod, so apparently he's into pedophilia in addition to the step-incest.
- Perverted Sniffing: Herod does this to Salome at one point.
- Pet the Dog: Claudius has several of these moments early on, establishing that he's more of a good guy than the other Romans, particularly Pilate. Later on, we find out that he's aligned with John the Baptist.
- Princess Protagonist: Salome is a princess, as the movie likes to remind us frequently.
- She Is All Grown Up: After having lived in Rome since she was a child, Salome returns home looking like... well, like Rita Hayworth.
- Slave Galley: There's one on the ship headed to Galilee. One of Claudius' first Pet the Dog moments is giving water to an exhausted galley slave.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: Claudius munches on an apple during one of his scenes with Salome. He sets it aside to give her a Forceful Kiss and then returns to the apple afterwards.
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Salome disapproves of the litter Claudius got for her, prompting them to argue in this fashion for a while.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: The Dance of the Seven Veils takes it about as far as The Hays Code would allow.
