FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

zetes I'm not big on ancient/Biblical films - there's really only about four good ones, especially from this period. This one is particularly horrid. Rita Hayworth stars as Salome, you know, that chick who calls for John the Baptist's head on a platter and did a sexy dance. I saw a decent silent version of this story earlier this year, but even then I noted that the premise was mighty thin for an entire feature film. For this one, they must have come up with the idea of casting Rita Hayworth as Salome (here pronounced as if it rhymed with "baloney"), and only afterward realized that they couldn't really have her be the villain of the story. So they concocted a whole alternate view of the Biblical character to make Hayworth, who is miscast in the first place (pretty sure Salome was supposed to be a fairly young woman, probably even a teen, but Hayworth was about 35 at the time), the heroine. Here, Salome is more of an innocent, a tool used by her evil mother (Judith Anderson) to rid the world of John the Baptist, who is talking a lot of crap about her. John (Alan Badel), by the way, is depicted as such an annoying, unlikable prick, basically a prude standing around complaining about other people's sex lives, that you almost can't feel sorry for his execution. Chales Laughton plays Salome's stepfather. His role is much like the one he had in Sign of the Cross, but he was getting old by this point and he doesn't seem to be having much fun here. The other major player is Stewart Granger, who plays a Roman military officer and Hayworth's love interest. He's utterly boring. There's almost nothing to recommend here besides some decent costumes and a decent Dance of the Seven Veils sequence, but the rest of it is enormously dull and self-important.

TheLittleSongbird Salome certainly isn't a terrible film, far from it. But I do think, as a biblical epic it is flawed in many ways. The costumes and the scenery were a joy to the eyes, and the music was beautiful and a treat to the ears. The acting is pretty good too, with Stewart Granger handsome in his role, and Judith Anderson deliciously cruel as Herodias, though Anderson to be fair has given better performances in classics like And Then There Were None and Rebecca. Charles Laughton gives one of his career's weakest performances, but he is good as King Herod to some extent. The film's portrayal of John the Baptist from Alan Badel was also fine, but Salome's creme de la creme is Rita Hayworth in the title role. Entirely captivating and so beautiful, and she danced beautifully in Dance of the Seven Veils which also happens to be a scene from Richard Strauss's opera of the same name. However, the film's flaws include pedestrian pacing, an underdeveloped script and a story that suffers from a lot of tampering. Overall, deeply flawed, but watchable biblical film, that is worth watching if only for Hayworth and Dance of the Seven Veils. 6/10 Bethany Cox

whpratt1 As we all know that Princess Salome,(Rita Hayworth) danced for King Herod,(Charles Laughton) in order to gain his favor and requested that John the Baptist's head would be removed and placed on a silver platter and given to the king. However, Hollywood changed the Bible version and made Salome look like a kind and loving Princess who loved the Christian way of thinking and living and wanted to save John The Baptist from being killed. Stewart Granger,(Commander Claudis) soon become the lover of Princess Salome after she had fought with him constantly and told him she wanted nothing to do with a Roman. King Herod and Queen Herodus (Judith Anderson)was living in adultery since she was married to another man and living with King Herod. Rita Hayworth was an experienced dancer and this was one of her best films in 1953.

Neil Doyle At thirty-five, RITA HAYWORTH was obviously not the right age to play the youthful Salome, but Columbia knew that audiences would forgive them by making sure that it was well advertised she would do "The Dance of the Seven Veils" long before the film premiered. Taken strictly as a Rita Hayworth vehicle, it manages to be one of her better assignments after returning to films from a broken marriage as a princess.She's still an eyefull in her Salome costumes but the main problem with SALOME is the ludicrous script which has her dancing the famous number in order to save John the Baptist--so that the evil one will be seen as JUDITH ANDERSON (Queen Herodias). Miss Anderson does make a fine villainess and she and CHARLES LAUGHTON at times seem to be overcoming the inadequacies of a dull script. STEWART GRANGER has one of his less rewarding leading man roles but, as usual, looks striking in his period costumes and photographs well with Hayworth.As for her dance--well, it's probably the high point of an otherwise bland film and she does quite a job of undulating gyrations under the lecherous eye of CHARLES LAUGHTON as King Herod. Rita still had all of her dancing abilities well under control and does a nice job of--here at least--trying to spare John the Baptist (ALAN BADEL).It's gaudy and Technicolored and Rita's fans at least got to see her do some exotic work--but the film itself is about as banal as any Biblical drama of the '50s (with the exception of BEN-HUR) with no regard for historical accuracy.