Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12720 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-02
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Greek, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Finnish, French, Italian, Norwegian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

DVD Description
Yul Brynner stars as the legendary King Solomon in what is considered to be the most spectacular motion picture of its time. When Solomon is chosen to succeed his father, King David, he vows to rebuild Jerusalem and lead Israel to greater strength. However, his jealous brother Adonijah, the Egyptian Pharoah and the seductive Queen of Sheba conspire against Solomon to bring down his throne. This mighty epic was King Vidor’s final film and colourfully portrays some of the greatest rulers, kingdoms and battles in Biblical history.

Special Features

• Original theatrical trailer
  
• Interactive menu screens and chapter selections

DVD Technical Information:

• Soundtrack: Dolby Surround (English, German, French)/Mono (Italian, Spanish)
  
• Subtitles: French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek
  
• Hard of Hearing: English, German
  
• Region Code: 2
  
• PAL
  
• Colour
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1/16:9
  
• Widescreen
  
• Running Time: 2 hours 16 minutes

Synopsis
Yul Brynner stars as the legendary figure of the Bible in King Vidor's only contribution to this popular 1950s genre. When aged King David (Finlay Currie) has a vision from God telling him that Solomon should succeed him as ruler of the Israelites, David heeds His word. This angers his martial brother, Adonijah (George Sanders), who threatens to wrest the throne from his younger brother. Israel thrives under the reign of the wise king, and its success creates uneasiness among the powerful kingdoms of the region. The pharaoh conspires with Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida), granting her access to the Red Sea that she might beseige Solomon with her charm, thereby luring the ruler to his doom. Solomon is dazzled by the queen's beauty and quickly falls under her sway. As the king's attention is turned away from the Lord and the welfare of his people, the country begins to deteriorate. The Lord finally expresses his displeasure with the prevailing atmosphere of licentiousness by destroying the Temple of Jehovah. The chastened Solomon grasps the error of his ways, and a transformed Sheba decides to convert to Judaism. SOLOMON AND SHEBA is the great director's final film, and while it might not be up to the standard he set with DUEL IN THE SUN, THE BIG PARADE, and THE CHAMP, it has an undeniably entertaining camp value that makes it worth watching.

Customer Reviews

Another large-scale film rendition from the biblical epic
Another large-scale film rendition from the biblical epic genre! Typical "Hollywood style" of finding "love story" themes from biblical narratives, which always creates an impact! For this film, MGM first employed Tyrone Power for the part of Solomon but during initial filming Tyrone Power died and amazing epic actor Yul Brynner (Rameses in TEN COMMANDMENTS) replaced him. The "battle scenes" were so magnificently filmed in cinemascope that the film authorities kept Power in particular scenes where he could not be recognized in spite of the fact that Brynner took the lead role. The great epic actor Finlay Currie (who played Balthasar in Ben Hur) issues a magnificent portrayal of King David while David Farrar does a good job with playing Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The same problems of human nature where brother fights against brother is clearly seen in the character of Solomon's brother Adonijah stunningly played by British actor George Sanders. This particular UK video release of this classic is a "must see" for it captures both the original cinematic technique of the use of camera 70 and stereophonic sound. The UK PAL version is better than the NTSC.

AN EPIC OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS...
I must say that this film was a very pleasant surprise. It was released in 1959 when biblical epics were at their zenith. Starring Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders, and Marisa Pavan, this film is not lacking in star power. It is a lush, compelling story.

The film details the rivalry between Solomon (Yul Brynner) and his older brother, Adonijah (George Sands), the warrior. It was a rivalry that grew out of the fact that Adonijah was passed over for succession to their father David's throne upon his death. It was Solomon who was chosen to rule Israel. This was to cause a rift in their relationship that would be irreparable.

The film also details the love affair between the beautiful Queen of Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida) and Solomon, wise in all things except love. It shows how an affair that started out as a political maneuver on the part of the Queen of Sheba would turn into a selfless, passionate love of the heart. It was a love that would almost rend a nation asunder.

Yul Brenner, as the viewer has probably never seen him (with a head of hair), is excellent as the idealistic and tolerant ruler. Gina Lollobrigida turned out to be a much better actress than I had imagined. She is sensational as the beautiful, exotic, voluptuous Queen of Sheba. She also has a figure that must have been the envy of every woman at one time. It is a perfect hourglass figure that shows off her striking and seductive costumes to perfection.

George Sands is compelling as the envious Adonijah, who sought to take what was not his by any means, fair or foul. His desire for the throne would compromise the very existence of Israel and lead to a climactic finale. Moreover, his hatred for the Queen of Sheba was as great as that of his hatred for his brother. This wellspring of emotion was to have great repercussions for all.

Despite a pagan orgy scene that is so over the top as to be laughable, this is a spectacular biblical epic that will keep the viewer riveted to the screen.

A mere shadow of what it could have been
Solomon and Sheba is a film more famous for original star Tyrone Power's death two-thirds of the way through shooting than for anything it achieved once the cameras started rolling again with Yul Brynner in the role (having shot most of the big exteriors, there simply wasn't enough footage of Power in the key scenes with Gina Lollabrigida's Sheba to cut together into a feature).

From the few extracts that have emerged of Tyrone Power's footage this could have been a contender, but after his fatal heart attack filming the final swordfight with long-time co-star George Sanders, unpopular replacement Yul Brynner had the script rewritten to replace Power's doubting warrior king with a more confident and less interesting typical movie hero. There's a huge element of half-heartedness to much of the film that doesn't help matters, much of it no doubt due to reshooting so much of the film again, but it's doubtful this would ever have been more than big-budget hokum. The result is one of those films like Blood Alley (which saw Robert Mitchum controversially replaced by John Wayne days into filming), where the story of what happened behind the screen is much more interesting than the one on it.

Unlike the atrocious Taiwanese DVD, the UK PAL DVD boasts a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer and includes the original theatrical trailer, which does offer a brief glimpse of Power swinging a sword from his chariot in a battle scene, though it would have been nice to see some more of the surviving Power footage as well.