The Story of Ruth
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Norman Korwin
1960/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Ruth: [to Naomi] Entreat me not to leave you, or to keep from following you. For where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.[/box]
This is the rare biblical epic I thought was watchable. Not great, mind you, but watchable.
The plot is an embellished account of the biblical story of the Moabite who converts to Judaism and becomes the ancestress of David. Ruth’s father sells the beautiful child to the temple of the god Chemosh. She barely escapes ritual sacrifice and grows up to become a priestess of the temple played by Israeli actress Elana Eden. One of her duties is to escort little girls to the ritual sacrifice alter. In doing so, she meets Mahlon (Tom Tryon) an Israelite goldsmith who has been hired to make the victim’s crown. They are instantly attracted and their conversations about his God give her serious misgivings about her role at the temple.
Ruth, who had been slated to become one of the King’s consorts, and Mahlon get into a world of trouble. At the last minute, they are able to marry. Soon thereafter she is a widow. She departs for Judah with her mother-in-law Naomi (Peggy Wood).
The two women are destitute and resort to gleaning bits of grain from rich men’s harvested fields. Ruth is persecuted due to her Moabite origins. She is spotted by her husband’s kinsman Boaz (Stuart Whitman) in his fields. He defends her and the rest is (biblical) history. With Jeff Morrow as Boaz’s rival.
I think I could tolerate this one because it has the grandeur but not the pomposity of many of the other films in the genre. The whole thing comes off as sincere and the acting, if not wonderful, is earnest.
Trailer (in English)
I tend to like bible movies because I generally find them weird and hilarious. Samson and Delilah is awesome! Victor Mature, Hedy Lamar, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury. And The Robe! Victor Mature, Richard Burton, Jay Robinson as Caligula, Ernest Theisiger asTiberius. Also, Harry Shearer is in it!
But I find David and Bathsheba and Solomon and Sheba to be pretty boring.
I’ve never seen The Story of Ruth. I should give it a try next time I see it on the cable schedule.
Somehow I didn’t get around to seeing Samson and Delilah while I was covering it’s year. It always seems easier to give these things a miss unless they are some sort of list.
Aside from a lot of great actors having fun with a frankly ridiculous scenario, the scene where Samson pulls down the temple is pretty awesome! I’d have to say that Samson and Delilah is very possibly the best of the bible movies of that period of the 1950s and early 1960s.