Alla Nazimova’s melodrama, Salome, in all its gaiety

Movie Reviewed: Salome (1923), starring Alla Nazimova

This is Alla Nazimova’s most enduring cultural significance in Oscar Wilde’s Salome, a dramatized and excessively stylized silent film produced in 1923. In this Art Nouveau treatment of the Biblical tale with sets and costumes designed by her lesbian lover and close friend Natacha Rambova, the expression of incest, blood-lust and provocative nakedness is handled wonderfully except for the fact that there is an excessive gay overture among guards. This movie is largely regarded as an art film with catchy costumes, gay guards, and even John the Baptist looks more like a gay man than a prophet. The set is minimal which shows the courtyard of King Herod and his execution of John the Baptist (called Jokaanan) at the request of his stepdaughter, Salomé, with whom the king lusts and long for incestuous affair. Salome spurned by John the Baptist for her act of love; she turns against him, and gets him executed and eventually expresses her love for the severed head. The movie is only 43 minute long and it is focused on atmosphere where Salome expresses her love for John the Baptist. The two guard characters, next to Salomé, have the most screen time, express stereotypical gay romance, and many female courtiers are actually drag queens. The movie is strongly supported by the music of Richard Strauss (Op. 54) who wrote the music and opera for Wilde’s Salome.

Hollywood historian Kenneth Anger’s claimed that Nazimova hired only “homosexual” cast members for this film, because of her traditional support for that life style. She spent most of her fortune, $350,000 in 1923 to make this movie which turned out to be a dud. She went bankrupt after this movie. There are numerous edited versions of this film circulated for many years, but this restored DVD which is shortened significantly to only 43 minutes is acceptable in terms of film quality but sure is a treat for all Nazimova’s fans. Salome was added to the National Film Registry in 2000 for its historical significance.
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