Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Hugo Butler (original screenplay)
Giorgio Prosperi (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 January 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History

Tagline:

Twin Cities of SIN

Plot:

Sex, torture and betrayal in Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, leader of the Hebrews, believes his people can co-exist with the Sodomites...

Plot Keywords:

Biblical | Gomorrah | Sodom And Gomorrah | Sodom | Bare Chested Male Bondage

Cast

Stewart Granger	...	Lot
Stanley Baker	...	Astaroth
Pier Angeli	...	Ildith
Rossana Podestà	...	Shuah
Rik Battaglia	...	Melchior
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Ishmael (as Giacomo Rossi Stuart)
Scilla Gabel	...	Tamar
Anthony Steffen	...	The Captain (as Antonio de Teffè)
Gabriele Tinti	...	Lieutenant
Enzo Fiermonte	...	Eber
Daniele Vargas	...	Segur
Claudia Mori	...	Maleb
Feodor Chaliapin Jr.	...	Alabias (as Feodor Chaliapin)
Mitsuko Takara	...	Orphea (as Mitzuko Takara)
Massimo Pietrobon	...	Isaac

Also Known As:

Sodoma e Gomorra (Italy)
Sodome et Gomorrhe (France)
The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah (USA)

Runtime:

154 min | Argentina:155 min | Finland:141 min (1963) | Finland:117 min (1979)

Country:

USA | Italy | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG (1988) | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | West Germany:18 (nf) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Portugal:17 (censored version)

Filming Locations:

Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Company:

Titanus

Trivia:

Twentieth Century Fox staged the world premiere of the film at Wilmington, Delaware's Rialto Theater.

Quotes:

Queen Bera: Hebrews and Sodomites: Greetings!

Movie Connections:

Featured in For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)

Bad as a Blibical epic or Peplum

Robert Aldrich directed some classic films, like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, but he also directed not so great classics, like the stunningly bad but entertaining LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE. SODOM AND GOMORRAH is neither a good nor entertainingly bad film. It's just plain bad. The production values, though sorta grand, are awful. Everything looks grubby. The actors are totally miscast. The characters are not memorable or even interesting at any level whatsoever. The acting is awful. The action scenes are overdone and do not seem to gel with the rest of the leaden drama. The movie is all around sloppy and it's filled with many technical goofs, like visible tire tracks in the desert. No one, and I mean no one's heart was into this project. And it shows on screen.

The mesmerizing Anouk Aimée is totally miscast as the evil Queen. Playing a lesbian, she wasn't believable on any level, as a Queen or someone evil or as a lesbian. Stewart Granger was blah (certainly compared to his excellent turn as Apollodorus in CAESAR & CLEOPATRA). I suspect Aldrich hated either the character or Granger the actor because Lot came across as someone virtuous and yet totally stupid. Like some sort of Dudley Do Wrong.

Aldrich's penchant for things crude and quasi-trashy are in evidence throughout the movie. He certainly loves showcasing evil lesbians in his films (LYLAH CLARE, KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, etc) and changing the actual ruler of Sodom from a King to a Queen, in order to indulge in his fetish, pointed to me that the director wasn't interested in anything to do with facts or creating a compelling dramatic story. Because of this, this grand epic looks no grander than your average Sword & Sandal film. In fact, Peplums are more fun than this because they rarely take themselves as seriously as this misguided project. There are some moment of great unintentional cheese/camp here but the film is way too long and tedious to make it worthwhile. Skip it.