Solomon and Sheba (1959)
Director: King Vidor; his final film as a director
Starring: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders, Marisa Pavan, John Crawford, Alejandro Rey, Harry Andrews
Hey, it can't be all that bad with Gina Lollobrigida as the Queen of Sheba and Yul Brynner as King Solomon. Originally, Tyrone Power played the part but he died during filming in Spain. Replacement Brynner had to refilm the early scenes.
Historical Background:
King Solomon (970-928 BC)
Solomon's father was David, from whom Solomon inherited a considerable empire. His mother was Batsheba, formerly the wife of David's Hittite general, Uriah. It was Batsheba who made sure her son Solomon was crowned king while David was still alive.
Solomon consolidated his position by liquidating his opponents and putting his friends in the key posts. Although Solomon did not have his father's 700 wives and 300 concubines, he did take many wives in order to strengthened his position through marital alliances. One of his wives was the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh.
Successful military operations in Syria, where his targets included Tadmor-Palmyra, a caravan oasis city in the desert, midway between Syria and Mesopotamia. His aim was the control of a great overland trading route. And Solomon planted Israelite colonies to increase his military, administrative, and commercial matters.
Palestine prospered because of its strategic location for trade by land and sea. Solomon brings Palestine to its greatest heights.
The Queen of Sheba was from a southern Arabian kingdom laying along the Red Sea route into the Indian Ocean. Her terrain was rich in gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Solomon needed trade routes for maintaining his commercial network and Sheba needed Solomon's cooperation for marketing her goods. Stories grew of a romance between the two, but there is no real evidence of this.
On the summit of Mount Moriah near Jerusalem, Solomon built a magnificent Temple dedicated to the God of the Israelites in his capital, Jerusalem, along with a city wall and a royal palace. The Temple became the only central shrine for Judaism and early Christianity.
Solomon gets rid of the importance of the 12 tribes by re-dividing the realm into 12 administrative districts, deviating, for the most part, from the tribal boundaries. Each district had its royally appointed governor, and a chief ruled over the 12 governors.
Solomon was known as a very wise leader, but the maintenance of the gaudy splendor necessitated the use of forced labor on a vast scale and this turned his people against him.
It was said that Solomon neglected the northern tribes for his own tribe of Judah. Solomon dies in 925 B.C. When his son Rehoboam succeeded him, the northern tribes seceded and formed their own Kingdom of Israel, thereby creating two, often hostile, kingdoms. Jeroboam I as king of Israel (to -907), and Rehoboam I as king of Judah (to -917).
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