Herod the Great

It's one of those Italian Peplum productions, for once without any Steve Reeves, but Edmund Purdom as Herod is convincing enough, although maybe slightly too handsome for a Herod, like Massimo Girotti also is a bit too dashing for Augustus. The story is the grim drama of Herod killing off his own family - Augustus observed on one occasion that no one needed to threat Herod's family as he would soon have killed them all himself. It has the character of a melodrama, there is very little action and mainly only theatrical acting, but the actors are all good and attractive - like in all Peplum films the set designs are perfectly stylish. But that's all - no cinematography, nothing special, only drama and tears and paranoia, which Herod drives to extremes - which he also did in reality.

No sooner did I state in my review of THE PRODIGAL (1955) above that it was going to be my only tribute to the late Edmund Purdom, that a visit to the local DVD rental shop also provided me with the opportunity to watch this Italian biblical flick. Unfortunately, the end results were even less satisfactory than that earlier Hollywood epic! For one thing, Purdom makes for a decidedly wooden ruler of Judea who, at the film's start, is seen returning from a lost battle against Octavius Caesar(!) to find all of his elderly subjects (who, naturally, had stayed home) seemingly out for his blood! Even his son and mother-in-law openly hate and scorn him! Eventually, Herod regains his composure with the appearance of his wife – and how could it have been otherwise when she is portrayed by the red-headed, curvaceous beauty Sylvia Lopez? Tragically, in real life she would be dead of leukemia before the year was out but not before making Steve Reeves' head spin in her most significant role in HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)! Out of the blue, then, the film's second half takes the form of a retread of Shakespeare's "Othello" with Purdom the jilted monarch, Lopez the compromised queen, Alberto Lupo as Herod's innocent right-hand man and Corrado Pani (as young Herod Antipas) as his Iago-ish brand new confidant! The strain is too much for Herod-Purdom to bear and, a little while after ordering the proverbial slaughtering of Judea's first born, he just keels over and dies at the foot of his throne! Ugh…which is a pity since a few months ago I had rather enjoyed Purdom's next collaboration with director Tourjansky, THE COSSACKS (1960) – which also shares at least three other distinguished participants (actor Massimo Girotti, screenwriter Damiano Damiani and cinematographer Massimo Dallamano) with this one.

The story is about King Herod and his love for his Queen Mariam.

It has been a while since I read Josephus and his account of Herod, but I will assume the movie follows Josephus' storyline to some degree. In the last ten minutes, a little subplot taken from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew is added. In it Herod orders the killing of a brat born in Bethlehem. Oddly, according to the movie, King Herod only ordered the killing of the new born babies because he was so distaught that Mariam did not love him anymore.

There are some nice sets and costumes, but nothing really spectacular here. There are no real battles or sword fights, so action fans should stay away. This is a small cast with only a few dozen extras. It has more of an intimate stage play rather than an epic quality feeling.

The real reason to watch is the acting. Edmund Purdom is actually quite good as Herod. You actually do feel sorry for Herod at moments. Sylvia Lopez is extraordinary as Mariam. This and "Hercules Unchained" are basically the only known widely released movies she was in during her short three year movie career. If she had not died at 28, she might have been one of the great stars of the 60's. She kind of reminds me of Diane Cilento. She's more sexy than beautiful and she really dominates the screen. One can easily see why she drives Herod crazy.

If you're interested in 1st century B.C.E. Judean history, the movie is worth a look. Also if you want to see a beautiful young actress who died at the door to stardom in 1959, you should check it out.

This has all the makings of a great story - the legendary Herod the Great, a twist of Anthony and Cleopatra and some good, old fashioned, court intrigue... What we get, however, is a poorly constructed sword and sandals offering featuring some rather poor performances from Edmund Purdom in the title role and Sylvia Lopez as his Queen "Mariam". It's actually fairly accurate - historically speaking - but the execution is so haphazard and lacklustre that it soon becomes quite an effort to watch, and it's equivalent of the 'Dance of the 7 Veils" is a distinctly wooden effort. The staging and costumes are efficient, and had the cast and writing been just a little stronger then this could have been good... but it wasn't/isn't.

As with almost every Sword and Sandals movie, you get some historical thing or figure and than the movie runs with it. In this case it does not take it and runs completely away with it, which has been the case before. No it does stay in a timeline that is quite close to History.

Having said that, do not take anything that happens at face value. This is her to entertain and while the 60s proved to be filled even more with Sword and Sandals in Italy, this has the formula/bluepring down