Pecados de Jezebel

It's only short, this, but even at just seventy-five minutes the whole rather dry and stage-bound affair seems to drag! "Ahab" (Eduard Franz) is faithfully following the advice of "Elijah" (John Hoyt) and ruling his kingdom of Israel much as King Solomon might have done. Then, a bit like that King, he falls under the spell of a woman - and a toxic, scheming one at that. "Jezebel" (Paulette Goddard) is a pagan, and rather than allowing him to convert her, she sets out to ensnare him in her multi-theistic culture. As you might expect, fairly swiftly the chagrin really hits the fan! It's one of the more seedy and salacious bible stories, this - but a combination of censors and a poor screenplay really do render this quite dull to watch. Goddard is way off her best and the remainder of the cast (except the camels, perhaps) are equally unremarkable as this legendary Old Testament story is reduced to something distinctly pedestrian. Pity, it could have been much more intriguing and engaging - but as it is, I don't know that I will I bother watching it again.

In the Bible ,there's no love interest between the heroine and Jehu. So he has no regret when he has the wicked queen thrown out of the window .

The Biblical story is sandwiched between sequences which will remind you of your old Sunday school days : one deals with the creation (it's perhaps going too far back in time) ; the other one makes the viewer think that maybe the budget was too low to film certain scenes ,so a voice over would do the trick.

Paulette Godard is gorgeous as a wicked queen who makes life difficult for everybody around , urging the Israelites to turn their back on Jehovah ; John Hoyt is impressive as Elijah the prophet who curses them : Jehovah 's wrath will be ruthless. He predates bearded Charlton Heston in "the ten commandments" and the ten plagues of Egypt.

The stoning of Naboth was told in the BIble ,the queen wanting to latch onto his vineyard .

The movie cannot compete with high budget movies such as "Samson and Delilah " ,"the ten commandments" "Solomon and Sheba " or "Esther and the king" ; made in a slapdash manner ,it's only a curio for sword and sandals buffs.

One of the surest money-makers Hollywood put out in the 1950s were religious epics. Some of them are amazingly good....most just seem silly and often have little to do with the Bible verses that they are supposedly based upon. I assumed "Sins of Jezebel" would fall in this latter category...especially since it sports such a salacious title. However, surprisingly, the film is quite well made and actually is a good representation of the life of Jezebel and King Ahab in the book of Kings. Now I am not saying it's perfect...but it's far less silly and is a decent movie that probably won't offend Christians or Jews.

The story is about Jezebel, a non-Jew who came to Judea...and leaving a long trail of seduced men in her wake. She sets her sights very high and soon is one of King Ahab's favorites. And, as she's able to twist men around her wicked fingers, he soon agrees to break the Law and construct temples for foreign gods in his country. But while she's worshipping Baal, the prophet Elijah points out how ineffectual and wrong these people are. Ultimately, it ends up with a contest between these priest of Baal and Elijah...though even this doesn't change the evil hearts of Jezebel and Ahab.

There were two things I wasn't thrilled with in this movie. Paulette Goddard, though a nice looking woman, is well past her peak and it's unintentionally funny whenever men go all googly-eyed at her. The other is the inclusion of silly and 100% non-sexy 'sexy dance' scenes. It obviously is a time-filler and just seems way out of place.

Otherwise, the story worked reasonably well and I actually was more interested in it than I'd imagined. Not life-changing but good.

How I managed to watch this through to the end will forever remain a mystery. Appalling religious codswallop!

This was to be Lippert Pictures' biblical opus. Even the talents of a George Nader and Paulette Goddard cannot save this one from the flimsy sets and poor direction. Even considering when this was made, the dialogue is stiff. Pass on it.