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The Prodigal [VHS]

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1955's "The Prodigal" was MGM's most ambitious film of the year, filmed at a cost of $5,000,000 with the intention of being one of the "really significant Biblical spectacles of all time." Adapted from 22 verses of the New Testament book of Luke, it was indeed a lavish spectacle. Lana Turner didn't like the script, but was compelled because of her studio contract to star in the movie. Making the most of her situation, she redesigned her costumes to reveal as much flesh as the Production Code would allow, making herself "as sensuous, sexy, and gorgeous as possible." Needless to say, her daring (for 1955) costumes are the best reason to watch this movie!

"The Prodigal Son" is Micah (Edmund Purdom), who honors his aging father Eli (Walter Hampden) by becoming engaged to Ruth, a kind-hearted woman who also shares his faith in God. But when Micah visits Damascus, he sees Samarra (Lana Turner), the high priestess of Astarte, goddess of the flesh, and he is instantly captivated by her stunning beauty. Despite the fact that Samarra worships false gods and presides over human sacrifices, Micah leaves home after breaking off his engagement to Ruth. He brings his inheritance from his father with him and begins spending it quickly.

Damascus proves to be Micah's fall from grace, as he is victimized by Nahreeb the high priest of Baal, Bosra the crook, and by Samarra herself, who uses her beauty to pull Micah away from his religious beliefs. After wasting all his inheritance on Samarra, Micah is thrown in prison. After a successful escape, he leads a revolt against the evil dynasty of Baal and its idol worshippers. He confronts Samarra and offers her a chance to escape, but her stubborn belief in her false gods proves to be her downfall as she faces the rage of the starved people of Damascus.

In spite of the big budget, the critics almost universally slammed "The Prodigal" following its May 1955 theatrical release. One called the movie "$5,000,000 worth of gigantic sets, garish costumes, eye-popping spectacle, vulgarity, sin, seduction, and a generous display of flesh." But, even the critics couldn't deny the fact that Lana Turner was at her sexiest in this movie. Sidney Skolsky wrote that the "long walk Lana takes through the Temple of Love in The Prodigal is the best reason for seeing the picture. Pure poetry in motion..." In spite of the flaws with the script, few can dispute the fact that this movie provided the ultimate showcase for Lana Turner's breathtaking figure!

From the Golden Age of Hollywood comes The Prodigal (1955), a MGM release. This "Biblical" epic, based on the New Testament story of The Prodigal son, tells of the adventure of the young man who enters the pagan world and discovers the mysteries and charms of Miss Lana Turner, high priestess of the temple of a graven, cruel, jealous god, and the dangers of forbidden love. Edmund Purdom is the prodigal who is smitten by Turner's Samarra.The story plods along with some over-blown and sometimes trite dialogue, but the costumes and sets are eye-popping. This movie era could only produce such grandier and Miss Turner as the brilliant center, is sinfully beautiful. She reveals more of her self as any much younger actress would dare at the time. And she looks marvelous. See this spectacular entry for what we may never see in today's cinema.

The Prodigal fills in all those bits in the parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus omitted, and very entertainingly too. It seems junior (Edmund Purdom) got the hots for the high priestess of Astati (Lana Turner) while incurring the wrath of the high priest of Baal and tyrant of Damascus (Louis Calhern) and frittered away his fortune before coming to his senses and leading the people in rebellion against their pagan oppressors. As you might guess from that synopsis, there are more than a few similarities to The Egyptian, not least Edmund Purdom selling his birthright for a second time for bit of nookie with a pagan temptress (he'd do anything for a bit of skirt, that Purdom: did he learn nothing from his experience with Bella Darvi?), although this is a lot less thoughtful and a lot more fun. A rare 50s epic shot in Hollywood rather than Cinecitta, it falls somewhere between De Mille - the apprentice child priestess in her miniature chariot drawn by a goat could be straight out of the opening of the silent King of Kings - and MGM at its most opulent. There's not much for the mind or the spirit here, but there's plenty to entertain, from Joseph Wiseman hamming away like nobody's business, even doing an imitation of a teapot in one bizarre shot, to the most imaginative Breen Office-approved sadism this side of Sodom and Gomorrah - not only do we get willing sacrificial victims swan diving into fiery pits and a fight with a stuffed vulture but when people get the knife, they get it literally in the neck, which is a pretty neat trick. Calhern offers some splendid villainy, Francis L. Sullivan's moneylender plays both ends against the middle with sly wit, Hurd Hatfield lookalike James Mitchell fulfils the mute but acrobatic sidekick duties and director Richard Thorpe ensures it all looks great in CinemaScope. It ain't art but it is great fun.

A true vehicle for Lana Turner and her curves...

Edmund Purdom alas doesn't shine as nicely in this one, as he did in "The Egyptian". He seems annoyed and bored, and his acting is woody to say the least.

But all in all, it is a Tale of Tales of the New Testament and as such it should be appreciated.

In those days Religion was still a major factor in Society...

But when we talk about Hollywood splendor then, well, there it is, in all its kitch and pompous color.

Wonderful musical score, excellent theatrical actors, a story that still holds your attention.

The transfer on DVD is decent, not special but decent. You get the Hollywood treat, although I am a bit disappointed with the sound in Dolby "conventional" Surround, not in 5.1...

Needs a special edition with remastered sound and picture, but for the price it is truly a treat.

I just watched this film for the first time and found it interesting and overall good. It is a Bible story which is done very well. I thought Edmund Purdom was the best thing about the movie. He did an excellent job of acting. Lana Turner was gorgeous as always. The supporting cast was a little weak, but the story carried them along. The sets and the costumes were very well done and a pleasure to watch. I have read some bad reviews of this film but I don't agree with them. I think it's worth seeing. I know I plan to watch it again.

This movie is neither historical nor Biblical. It barely relates to a story of a prodigal son in the New Testament and the rest is Hollywood at its best producing cheap thrills, fantasy sets, and innocuous dialogue.
If you are looking for some delicious trash, soft-porn, hilarious accidental comedy, this is it. This movie has no relation whatsoever with the ancient goddess Astarte, the iconography is wrong, the rites also, the depiction of Baal is also mistaken, the costumes completely off, vaguely Babylonian, which is somewhere about 1000 years off in time and 500 miles to the East of location.
It is all ABOUT Lana Turner as Samarra, a pagan 'priestess of the flesh' possibility. The first time she appears, it's in a cream colored dress designed to make her look more naked than dressed, for the fashion conscious it should be noted that this outfit is a direct ancestor of the Cher fashion statement of the 80's when she had her TV show. Within the context of a retrograde period in American culture, of racial repression and Hollywood black lists I for one consider the wearing of this revealing costume an act of heroism, not to mention deserving of the purple heart equivalent of fashion bravery.
In an America before Jackie, where people actually thought that fashion pertained to the weird hats on Mamie Eisenhower, Lana's appearance as the priestess of sex must have been like an atomic explosion of sensory overload: She sashays her way into a ritual for the purpose of seducing Micah (Edmund Perdum) who apparently found a niche as Mr. Nice guy with a weakness for the femme fatale (he played a very similar role in the famous fiasco, "The Egyptian") holding her hands together in a gesture as empty of ritualistic significance as if she were holding her eyeliner, she lights candles and walks the walk around the faithful mainly for the purpose of giving Micah a saucy side glance that could burn a hole into a stone and set an entire stallion stable on fire.
At the time it was released, despite its huge $5 million budget it was panned as a vulgar extravaganza. It is, every inch of it, but it has enormous entertainment value, which leads me to believe a Broadway musical version of this material could make a fortune now if Nicole Kidman decided to play the high priestess role that Lana plays to the hilt, I sincerely believe it is the best performance of her entire career, and she never looked more ravishing. She looks exquisite in yards of fabric in a series of gowns that almost include all the colors of the rainbow. Her hair is piled up in a do that makes her look like she has small horns, a most becoming devilish look that is anything but accidental. She wears more jewelry than a Harry Winston window display the week before Christmas and she has the role of her life: This priestess is as vapid as a high fashion super-model of today, she is so self centered and infatuated with her beauty that she can barely walk straight, but she fills that screen totally with her garish sex appeal, like melting chocolate with mocha syrup covering a sundae cup.
Micah's family looks so weird with the most synthetic beards in Hollywood history, that you can't really blame him for shaving and playing it up in Damascus with the pagans. However he is in trouble from the start as he played good Samaritan and recued the escaped slave of Nahreeb, high priest of Baal, here played by Louis Calhern in a permanently sadistic mood, pierced ears included. I hope his outfits were re-cycled as sofa cushions for vinyl sofas in LA, such precious polyesters are not produced anymore and they looked synthetically dyed enough to last till the Second Coming, intact in their blinding splendor.
In her big temple scene Lana is perfectly devoid of any expression as a gorgeous athlete-sacrifice victim, much looking like a Swede than a middle eastener, is pushed into the holy fire by her sacred kiss.
For that matter no one in the movie is remotely in tune with the ethnicity of the region, and that includes Lana herself and her own version of Mini-me, a little blonde girl Lana look-alike- brat, that she is educating to to be the future priestess of Astarte, a creature so annoying and overbearing, one wishes they would have applied the true sacrifice to Astarte which were first born children...But my favorite moment is when Lana is attending a performance of a fable by her brat disciple and other children in the magnificent temple halls and yet one has the strange sensation that she is watching a television program somewhere in Staten Island with her favorite niece. How she can manage to transform that expensive pseudo-architecture into a suburban home atmosphere with her gesturing and sexy whispering is perhaps one of the outstanding miracle performances of Hollywood history and she should have been getting two Oscars for that scene alone: One for special effects and another for Lifetime Illusion technique.
But this movie must be seen, not discussed. It's main value is in the uniquely barbaric splendor of its plaster creations, the lavish yet empty spectacle, the unnecessary and inaccurate baroque details that are all at the very essence of camp, and high kitsh style, unmatched anywherelse. As a reference for this genre it is extremely useful, and unsurpassed.

"The Prodigal", could certainly never be regarded as one of the better known Epic productions to come out of Hollywood during the boom period for these types of films in the 1950's. However there is still much of interest in this large scale MGM attempt at adapting the parable of the Prodigal Son into a large scale screen epic. The 1950's found MGM and indeed most major studios sinking into financial crisis due to dwindling movie attendances and the onslaught of television as the main entertainment medium. The studios rightly felt that big budget, big scale productions photographed in widescreen and in gorgeous colour were the way to combat the flickering black and white television screens currently taking over the world. "The Prodigal", was one of these productions designed to get people out of their living rooms and back into the cinemas. While it couldn't compare in scope or action with other biblical epics of the time such as MGM's 1959 remake of "Ben Hur", or Paramount's "The Ten Commandments", "The Prodigal", tells an interesting if largely fictionalised story loosely based on a very familiar bible story that most people read in their youth. It also marked the home lot farewell performance by screen goddess Lana Turner who like many contract players at MGM was being let go in the mid 50's by an increasingly money strapped studio. No expense however was spared on this production and as befitting the biblical epic genre the film is rich with lavish sets, thousands of extras, stunning Eastman colour photography and enough intrigue and romance to satisfy all fans of Biblical stories.

Using the parable of the Prodigal Son who threw away his families love and respect all for the love of an illicit woman in the city as a basis, "The Prodigal", begins in 70 BC and tells the story of Micah (Edmund Purdom), the innocent son of a wealthy farmer called Eli (Walter Hampden). On a trip to the town of Jopha to buy a gift for his bride to be Ruth (Audrey Dalton),Mica happens to come across a travelling caravan which belongs to the high Priestess Samarra (Lana Turner)who worships a pagan goddess of love Asarte. Despite being repelled by the pagan rituals which are considered an abomination of all memebers of the house of Jehovah, Micah instantly becomes besotted by Samarra's cool beauty and sensuality. He returns home determined to possess this woman and straight away comes into conflict with his family when he breaks off his engagement to Ruth and demands that his father give him his share of his inheritance. After some opposition Eli does as his son asks and Micah goes off to Damascus in pursuit of Samarra. However Micah does not find life easy in the big city and when he frees a runaway slave Asham (James Mitchell), he makes an instant enemy of his former owner the powerful high priest of Baal, Nahreeb (Louis Calhern) who is now determined to destroy Micah. Through powerful friends and by the use of his dwindling personal fortune Micah manages to get into the temple complex of Asarte and is horrified by the sadistic rituals that this god demands which includes human sacrifice. He falls deeper under the spell of Samarra but finds that her love compromises every one of his principles. He is pushed into buying a splendid pearl to decorate the carved image of the goddess by the money lender Bosra (Francis L. Sullivan), who also sells him an expensive villa in the town to be closer to Samarra. However Micah also becomes the victim of Nahreeb's revenge when he is double crossed by a plot that not only ruins him financially but also forces him into slavery. Only when he has lost not only all his money but also his self respect and his freedom does Micah begin to see the foolish error of his ways. After he is thrown into prison over an accident when he is working as part of the slave team building Nahreeb's grainery Micah plots a daring escape. After a terrifying ordeal fighting off the gigantic vultures in the death pits he helps stage a rebellion of all the slaves who then storm the temple in retribution. Faced with his own renewed faith Micah allows Samarra to be stoned in the Temple after which the pagan image is torn down and thrown in the flames. Micah's possibly humiliating return to his family however has the opposite result when it is transformed into a joyous family occasion as Eli welcomes back his lost son as does the ever patient Ruth who in their belief feel Micah is the Prodigal Son who has returned from the dead.

Despite the highly fictionalised elements to this story and the fact that no member of the cast, as gifted as they all, even remotely resemble Middle Eastern people, "The Prodigal", makes good if not spectacular biblical viewing. Apart from its lavish temple set with its fiery furnace and alarming Pagan image the film does tend to lack alot of the grand set pieces one comes to expect from these epic stories. However the parable of the Prodigal Son is a very personal and intimate story and while many see the dialogue here as hokey alot of it is very reverential to the story. In particular the scenes between Micah and his father are rich with emotionally well written dialogue that does get you thinking. First and formost however are the films first class production values. Filmed in breathtaking cinemascope and employing huge numbers of extras the attention to detail is incredible as I find it always is in these type of productions. Indeed "The Prodigal", is a feast for the viewers eyes in many ways and Lana Turner as the high priestess Samarra has the opportunity to wear some very risque costumes for the times that clearly show off why she was rightly considerd one of Hollywood's greatest love Goddesses. Edmund Purdom as the naive Micah had a role very similiar to his one in the previous years "The Egyptian" and while he of course doesn't resemble a middle eastern man his strong beautifully modulated speaking voice makes him ideal for this type of role. Supporting performances as also of great interest in "The Prodigal", with Louis Calhern as the evil high priest and Francis L. Sullivan as the greedy money lender really adding some colour to the proceedings. Walter Hampden as Micah's pious traditional father Eli also does an excellent job with the often heavy biblical texts he must deliver. One of the more interesting performances is delivered by James Mitchell as the mute freed slave Asham, who is the friend and conscience for Micah in Damascus. Having to perform without dialogue is a challenge and yet he still makes Asham a well rounded and full character who is one of the more appealing individuals in the story. Direction by Richard Thorpe who excelled in the swashbuckler effort "Ivanhoe", 3 years previously is ok but the lack of real sweep in this story compared to that earlier action effort which was rich in sieges and battles makes his efforts here more difficult to comment on.

The secret to enjoying "The Prodigal", best is to not expect a "Ben Hur",or a "Quo Vadis". Its story is a far more intimate one and is certainly a saga not to be taken too seriously. Like alot of these 1950's epics it is blessed with sincere acting performances and especially here we have the treat of seeing Lana Turner in her full blown Goddess mode. Despite her own dissatisfaction with this role and with the film in general after appearing in earlier classics like "The Postman Always Rings Twice", she has never been more radiant on screen than here. If like myself you love these 1950's Biblical Epics you are sure to enjoy some elements of this famous New Testament story in Richard Thorpe's "The Prodigal".

I haven't much to say about this movie, actually. What can be said of another swords-and-sandals Hollywood Biblical epic, starring the pagan goddess of Camp herself, Lana Turner? The $5,000,000 spent on it practically thrusts it's way out at you, along with the bosum of the plasticine Miss Turner. It is a passable fleshing-out (no pun, etc.)of Christ's parable, though that isn't, for me, it's primary appeal--I've read a bit of Biblical/historical/theological/philosophical exegesis(hope that doesn't sound too pretentious, but I majored in Lit. & Philosophy and I read alot), and besides, that's not what I want from a M-G-M Bible movie. It's alot of fun, so "do unto others" and recommend it to everyone you know who likes his/her Biblihistorical movies a little top-heavy.

It was entertaining back in 1955 and still is as most of the "sword and sandal" movies that I like.

A real extravaganza with beautiful sets and lots of extras. Beautiful Lana Turner at her best. This is Hollywood at it's best. A lot of the costars that you regognize from the time. Lana, in her costumnes is a sight to behold. All the stff that makes this type of movie great. Slaves building temples, human sacrafice, lavish temples, a handsome leading man (Edmund Purdom)who is enslaved after faling hopelessly in love with Lana, the high Priestess, then rises to take down the sacraligious kingdom. A fine film for anyone who enjoys Hollywood extravaganzas.