Does anyone else around here just loooooove Easter, because channels like A&E dust off the cheesy old Biblical Epic movies, & run them all day? As I type this, they’re showing Sodom & Gomorrah. Just got done watching Salome, with Rita Hayworth. Earlier this week, they showed The Silver Chalice, a must-see for Biblical Epic/bad movie/Paul Newman fans.
'Scuse me while I go refill the popcorn bowl…
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
Christi, I love Easter for precisely the reason you mentioned. The Ten Commandments is still one of my all-time favorite movies to watch. I love those biblical epic movies. Earlier on AMC (or was it TMC?) they did a special on Hollywood and the Bible. Basically it was about movies based on bible stories.
BTW, Christmas is my second favorite movie watching time of the year. Who can resist watching all those wonderful holiday movies.
Oh, Cristi, I’m with you, I watched Salome tonight! I just adore biblical epics, my favorite is “Ben Hur”, I never fail to tear up. And “Samson and Delilah”, and “The Greatest Story Ever Told”. Give me a whole afternoon of old fashioned cheeseball bible epics, I am the happiest woman alive. The sad thing is, they just don’t make 'em like that anymore!!! They just don’t make any good costume pictures anymore, period. Can you picture those TV people from Dawson’s Creek or any of a number of current female lunch-chuckers in any costume picture, other than playing slaves or lepers? But I digress, yes, I love the old Biblical Epics.
Programming Note: The Silver Chalice is on again tonight, at 12:30 EST, on A&E, right after that Hollywood Looks at the Bible show that Grace mentioned (which is really good, BTW).
Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some of those early silent Biblical movies? I’d love to see some of those!
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
The silent Ben Hur (A Tale of the Christ) shows up on TCM every couple of months, so is probably available on video. Nazimova’s Salome (supposedly made with an all-gay cast in tribute to Oscar Wilde) is available on video, but the catalog I’ve seen indicates it practically a short and I thought it was longer. Eve, you out there? Is what’s available just what survives of her Salome?
What happened to “Jesus of Nazareth”? I didn’t see it listed this year. Or do they play that one around Christmas, not Easter?
Besides “The Ten Commandments” and “Salome,” I have watched “Ben-Hur” three times this week - that Charlton Heston was HOT! Isn’t there something wildly alluring about manly men wearing skirts?
Otto—DO catch the silent “Ben-Hur,” if just to see the babelicious Ramon Novarro in a loin cloth. Makes Charlton Heston look like cat food. Hubba hubba!
All that’s left of Nazimova’s “Salome” is maybe 40 minutes, but “what’s there is cherce.” It’s VERY expressionistic, so if you’re not in the proper frame of mind for it, you will indeed wet your pants laughing (especially as the guy who plays her father is a dead ringer for Mike Myers).
But the art direction and costuming (by Valentino’s wife, Natasha Rambova) are ace Art Deco, and Nazimova is Something to See.
Also try DeMille’s silent “Ten Commandments,” which features Nita Naldi in one of her vampiest roles.
Oh, nearly forgot—I haven’t seen the 1935 “Crusades” in ages. Is it true Loretta Young petulantly stamps her foot and says, “You gotta save Christianity, Richard—ya just GOTTA!” Or did I imagine that?
A mind-numbing day of Hollywood Bible epics? Sounds like Western Civ’s version of the trances Hindus go into while watching endless hours of shadow-puppet shows. Okay, that’s my pretentious post. My vulgar post is to quote Groucho when asked why he didn’t watch (Victor Mature) Bible movies: “I never watch movies where the man has bigger tits than the woman”
Oh oh! I love bibal epics… so much so that I own them and watch them year round.
The Ten Commandments is my favourite movie of all-time. Love that Heston.
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