Sodom and Gomorrah ** (1962, Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker, Anouk Aimée, Rossana Podestà) – Classic Movie Review 10,565

Ah yes, ‘The Twin Citadels of Sin!’ ‘The cities that mocked the very name of God… The vengeance that tore the Earth asunder!’

Director Robert Aldrich’s costly 1962 Italian, French, US co-production Sodom and Gomorrah [Sodoma e Gomorra] [The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah] is a gory tale of Hebrew leader Lot (Stewart Granger)’s dealings with the inhabitants of the Bible’s depraved cities, destroyed by God for their wickedness. Shot over 11 months, the film found its budget rising from $2 million to $5 million. Lacking quality, it is kind of an entertaining Biblical movie folly.

Lot turns his back on Queen Bera (Anouk Aimée) and continues with his Hebrew tribe on to Jordan. Famously, Lot’s wife Ildith (Pier Angeli) is turned to a pillar of salt when she looks round at the evil she is leaving behind. There is quite a Lot going on.

Brilliantly tacky sets (by Ken Adam), flamboyant decor (set decoration by Gino Brosio and Emilio D’Andria), striking locales and eye-catchingly frivolous costumes designed by Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni make this otherwise pretty uninspiring film visually most exciting, photographed in lurid DeLuxe color, with some good action scenes as well. Miklós Rózsa’s music score, while not from his top drawer, is still an asset, even though he judged it an inferior work.

It is an interesting, attractive cast, but the bargain basement acting is scarcely of the first quality. Probably a Lot got lost in translation. Sodom and Gomorrah is a weird choice for cynically-minded director Aldrich, who at least takes this very minor cult item with a suitable pinch of salt.

Sergio Leone directed some second unit scenes and the Italian dialogue scenes. But he left mid-production, possibly fired by Aldrich.

It is filmed in Morocco (twin cities, and flood and battle scenes), making the most of the Moroccan locations, and in Rome.

It is written by Hugo Butler (original screenplay) and Giorgio Prosperi (original screenplay assisted by).

Also in the cast are Stanley Baker as Astaroth, Rossana Podestà as Shuah, Claudia Mori as Maleb, Rik Battaglia as Melchior, Giacomo Rossi Stuart as Ishmael, Feodor Chaliapin Jr, Mario Monturi, Scilla Gabel, Anthony Steffen, Enzo Fiermonte, Gabriele Tinti, Daniele Vargas, Mitsuko Takara, and Massimo Pietrobon.

It runs 154 minutes but there are various cut versions at 141 minutes, 117 minutes and 115 minutes. The UK TV premiere was on BBC2 on 26 May 1973 but ITV later acquired an abridged 99-minute version (retitled The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah) which it premiered on 6 August 1988, and would run late at night.

With sex, sin, torture, betrayal and unspeakable vice, it had an X certificate, later AA.

20th Century Fox staged the world premiere of the film at the Rialto Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. In the UK, it opened at the Odeon Marble Arch, London, on 29 November 1962 but ran only six weeks, compared with 69 weeks for Quo Vadis? (1951).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,565

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