Phillim The legendary Nazimova's great labor of love. From the Oscar Wilde play, sometimes banned for obscenity. Sets and costumes based on Aubrey Beardsley's decadent illustrations for the published Wilde script. Rumored for years that every single performer in the film is gay. I like to think it's true.Worth multiple viewings -- layers of fine art and design, camp, literary pedigree, real drama, theater history, etc. One understands from a film like this how that stagy old-style of melodramatic pantomime, tableaux vivants, etc. works as long as you are consistent with a clear vision.

MartinHafer Wow--you have got to see this film for itself. There is absolutely no way I can adequately describe the look of the film--nothing I say will do it justice. I will try--but see it yourself--it's amazing. The film looks very much like it was inspired by the Art Nouveau movement--which would coincide with when the play was written (the very late 19th century). And, to go along with this, the costumes are wild--very, very ornate and very, very artsy. All of the costumes are totally unique. I particularly loved Nazimova's headdress. It must have cost a fortune to design and execute all this. As I said, you just have to see this! It's a fashion designer's delight--though some might blanch at its weirdness.The story of Salome is taken from the Biblical tale of John the Baptist. Though occupying just a tiny portion of the Gospels, here is it acted out in about 75 minutes. Young Salmone dances enticingly for the ruler of Judea, Herod. He is smitten with her and promises her anything. She asks for the head of John the Baptist--who Herod is holding captive.What makes this so unusual is HOW it's done as well as the highly unusual cast. If the IMDb trivia is to be trusted, it has an all-gay cast (unusual for a Bible story) and Nazimova was apparently a well-known bisexual. And, instead of a simple retelling of the story with cool costumes, the entire thing is very, very artsy and somewhat pretentious. It is NOT a film designed to be enjoyed by the masses--but is more an art house sort of production. Frankly, I think there was way too much in the posing and looking into space department! Overall, I'd give the costumes a 10 and the acting and plot a 2. Overall, a 4 seems fair considering that the film isn't particularly enjoyable despite the wow-factor of the look of the film.

pocca Initially I was skeptical when I heard that Alla Nazimova, 42 when this movie was made, was playing the 14 year old dancer Salome, but except for the extreme close-ups she actually manages to pull it off. Her Salome is a pouty but utterly monstrous Lolita, who would no doubt casually order the death of any underling who didn't satisfy her most fleeting, girlish whim. Evil yes, but like Herod you can't stop looking at her in her marvelous glam headgear and wigs, looking for all the world like a party girl headed out to a nineties' rave (on the other hand her fleshy mother and leering, lipsticked stepfather suggest the grotesques of Fellini's Satyricon, making me wonder if Fellini was influenced by this movie). Still, as compelling as Nazimova's performance is, much of this film's impact arises from Natacha Rambova's eye catching costumes and set designs. Based on the Beardsley drawings that accompany some editions of Oscar Wilde's play, they often resemble insect parts—-beautiful but rather unsettling, like Herod's court itself. As far as the dramatic action goes, they are almost too eye catching –they grab your attention and hold it nearly at the expense of all else. However I'm not sure that this effect wasn't intentional on the part of both Nazimova and Rambova (the guardsmen, for example, wear clay wigs that perhaps are deliberately meant to suggest statues). As I recall the original play was rather static—it's been a while since I read it, but what I remember mainly is the exquisite, poetic dialogue rather than the plot. At any rate, the movie is probably best viewed as a series of fantastic tableaux.An odd but completely absorbing little film that deserves to be better known.

didi-5 Having read the reviews of this on the Silents Majority website and in Time Out film guide I was curious. It looked good from stills and the play is one of my favourites ... the film is extremely odd. Nazimova, who looks like Gloria Swanson only more over the top, is a seductive and teasing Salome, dancing the seven veils with style, driving Herod mad, taunting the Baptist (a gaunt stick of a man who is quite disturbing to look at). The guards are all extremely camp and OTT and the whole film has that feeling of the extremes of twenties decadence. One feels Wilde would have approved. Not a patch on the opera but a decent stab at a play which is full of excess. It just wouldn't work with sound. It has to be images, and this is full of them.