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By PAUL BRENNER
Alla Nazimova reigned and
raged at MGM in the early twenties as their
in-house movie diva. But as the Hollywood studio
system solidified so did her ego. Attaining a
contract release from MGM, Nazimova, dragged her
director-husband Charles Bryant with her,
determined to make films "with merit." It is the
second and last of Nazimova's cinema pretensions
-– "Salome" (based on Oscar Wilde's play) -– that
is now available for dizzying viewing from Image
Entertainment.
In "Salome," Nazimova wears her art as thick as
her makeup, portraying the part of the
fourteen-year-old Biblical princess who is lusted
after by her reprobate stepfather, King Herod
(Nazimova was forty-two years old at the time).
She tries her damnedest to be "an uncontaminated
blossom in the wilderness of evil" but, sadly, she
has obviously been contaminated for some time.
Salome, who beckons toward her one true love (an
incredibly gay John the Baptist) by stretching out
her arms and shaking the Christmas balls in her
coiffure, causes the suicide of her jealous lover,
a cute beefcake with painted nipples. Nazimova
then does her famed dance of the seven veils for
her lip-smacking stepfather (who resembles a
degenerate Larry Semon) in return for the head of
John the Baptist -– he who spurned her.
"Salome" is so self-important and silly that it
collapses upon itself and becomes immediate kitsch
(it smelled that way in the twenties; the film
remained on the shelf for a year before it was
released). "Salome" has more to do with Oscar
Wilde, the person, than Oscar Wilde the
playwright, and it is Wilde camp. But the film is
not a complete debauch (well, okay, it is). Of
particular interest is the set and costume design
by the future Mrs. Rudolph Valentino, Natacha
Rambova, who succeeds beyond all measure in
duplicating a cinematic equivalent of the Aubrey
Beardsley illustrations for Wilde's text.
But still the viewer has to come up for air.
"Salome" is so flamboyant and over-the-top that
after exposure to Nazimova the most unrepentant
heterosexuals will feel like flaming creatures.
The DVD offers two music scores to select from -–
an orchestral score by Marc-Olivier Dupin and a
much more arch score by The Silent Orchestra, both
in 5.0 Surround and 2.0 Stereo. And, as if that
weren't enough Biblical decadence, Film
Preservation Associates offer up "Lot in Sodom," a
1933 "art film" by J.S. Watson Jr. and Melville
Webber, featuring triple exposures of torsos all
with the aim of turning you into a pillar of salt. |
