Solomon and Sheba (1959)

SOLOMON AND SHEBA  (1959)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: King Vidor
    Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders,
    Marisa Pavan, David Farrar, John Crawford,
    Finlay Currie, Harry Andrews, José Nieto
Yul Brynner (with hair) plays the king of Israel. Gina Lollobrigida (with curves) plays the queen of Sheba. George Sanders (with a wink and a sneer) plays Solomon's jealous, spiteful brother. There are battles and orgies and passion and betrayal and lust, but what really pisses off that Old Testament God is when Solomon decides to let the queen practice her own religion. (Jehovah would've vetoed the First Amendment, for sure.) Tyrone Power, who started out playing Solomon, inconveniently died of a heart attack early on, so Brynner replaced him. (Apparently that's Power in some of the more distant shots.) I'm pretty sure nobody in history ever looked better after a stoning than Gina does here.