ellauri156.html on line 415: David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film about King David made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by King Saul, produced by Dog, a.k.a. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Philip Dunno. The cinematography was by Leon Shameonyou. Gregory Peck stars as King David and the film follows King David's life as he adjusts to ruling as a King, and about his relationship with Uriah's wife Bathsheba, played by Susan Wayward. Goliath of Gath was portrayed by 203 cm-tall (6'8") Lithuanian wrestler Walter Talun. These days Walter would no longer get a bench seat in a high-school basketball team.
ellauri156.html on line 441: Seeing the success of C. B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah, Zanuck commissioned Philip Dunno to write a script based on King David.
ellauri156.html on line 442: Dunno says his original conception was for a film that would encompass David's life and go into three main chapters: David as a boy fighting Goliath; a more mature David and his friendship with Jonathan, ending with the affair with Bathsheba; and an older David and his relationship with his son Absalom. Dunno wrote a treatment which he estimated would make a four hour movie. Zanuck was not enthusiastic so Dunno then pitched the idea of doing a film just on David and Bathsheba, which Zanuck loved.
ellauri156.html on line 445: Zanuck opted to use stars already under contract to 20th Century-Fox. The production of the film started on November 24, 1950 and was completed in January 1951 (with some additional material shot in February 1951). The film premiered in New York City August 14, and opened in Los Angeles August 30, before opening widely in September 1951. It was shot entirely in Nogales, Arizona, which has a lot of the looks of the promised land, including the indians, who were made up to look like Palestinians.
ellauri156.html on line 451: A. H. Weiler of The New York Times described the film as "a reverential and sometimes majestic treatment of chronicles that have lived three millennia." He praised Dunno's screenplay and Peck's "authoritative performance" but found that Wayward "seems closer to Hollywood than to the arid Jerusalem of his Bible." Variety wrote, "This is a big picture in every respect. It has scope, pageantry, sex (for all its Biblical background), cast names, color—everything. It's a surefire boxoffice entry, one of the really 'big' pictures of the new selling season." Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "leaves little to be desired" from the standpoint of production values with Peck "ingratiating" as David and Wayward "a seductress with flaming tresses, in or out of the bath, and only her final contrition is a little difficult to believe." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote, "On the whole, the picture suggests a Reader's Digest story expanded into a master's thesis for the Ecole Copacabana."] Harrison's Reports wrote, "The outstanding thing about the production is the magnificent performance of Gregory Peck as David; he makes the characterization real and human, endowing it with all the shortcomings of a man who lusts for another's wife, but who is seriously penitent and prepared to shoulder his guilt. Susan Wayward, as Bathsheba, is beautiful and sexy, but her performance is of no dramatic consequence." The Monty Python Bulletin commented that the film had been made "with restraint and relative simplicity" compared to other historical epics, "and the playing of Gregory Peck in particular is competent. The whole film, however, is emotionally and stylistically quite unworthy of its subject." Philip Hamburger of The New Yorker wrote that "the accessories notwithstanding, something is ponderously wrong with 'David and Bathsheba.' The fault lies, I suppose, in the attempt to make excessive enlargements of an essentially-simple story." Zanuck the Hot Dog agreed.
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