Esther and the King

There isn't a whole lot to distinguish this middling biblical epic from the sea of others that came out in the mid-50's and early 60's, but it offers a certain degree of entertainment. Egan (decidedly miscast) plays the King of Persia (with Brillcremed hair and a standard American accent) who returns from a long battle to find that his wife has been enjoying the services of one or more of his men. He excuses himself from her and sets out to find a new virgin bride, choosing from all the maidens in his kingdom. Virginal Jewess Collins (yes...that's right) is the title character. She is snatched away mere moments before becoming wed to Battaglia and is taken to the palace to be groomed for the selection process. Once there, she is protected by her uncle O'Dea (who entreats her to hide her Jewish heritage) and is targeted by Fantoni who is Egan's right-hand man. Fantoni has another lady in mind for the throne so he can use her to his own ends of taking over the kingdom. Eventually, Collins realizes that she and only she can spare her people from destruction and she decides to leave behind her dreams of a life with Battaglia and pursue Egan. Egan, still in very good shape physically, makes a handsome king and gives an okay performance. He is just patently contemporary in his look and delivery. Collins is very attractive throughout (complete with heavy bouffant 60's hair!) and does an adequate job as well, but is always more interesting as a villainess than as a docile young maiden. O'Dea lends able support as her wise and stalwart uncle. It would be difficult to summon up a more virile, hirsute, hunk of man than Battaglia as Collin's abandoned lover. Seeing him, one can understand the torment she had at having to turn her back on her past and move on. The location work, fancy sets, pageantry and gauzy costumes keep this from being too dull, but there is an awful lot of chatter and hand-wringing in between the action sequences. Stay awake for the scene in which Egan gifts Collins with a tiger cub and then immediately steps over to a lyre and plunks out what sounds like the opening strains of "Born Free"! As expected, considerable liberties have been taken with the original story, yet it doesn't result in that much more spectacular a film.

What do you get when you put middle-range American stars in the leading roles in a peplum film? Pretty good peplum, that's what. Contrary to what one might expect, "Esther and the King" is not a lavish Hollywood historical spectacle in the mode of DeMille, but is an Italian production using Joan Collins and Richard Egan to play the eponymous characters. For this reason the film is often characterized as a bargain-basement epic, whereas it is actually a peplum with a slightly higher than average budget. Appealing performances by the leads, a delightfully schlocky musical score, a good story, and atmospheric sets and cinematography makes this an enjoyable sword-&-sandal effort.

I've always thought that the story of Esther And The King in the Bible is a fascinating account of palace intrigue. Maybe one of the earliest ones we have though the Old Testament gives a nice account of all the power plays in the Saul, David and Solomon monarchies of Israel as well.

Joan Collins in her salad days plays Esther who has a relative in high places, that being Mordecai one of the Persian King Ahaseurus's chief councilors. His rival is Haman who is one serpentine rival, a reckless intriguer, but he's also Persian so he has that advantage with the king who is played with proper noble bearing by Richard Egan. All that Denis O'Dea as Mordecai has going for him is the sound advice he gives. But it illustrates a line that George Peppard spoke in the war film Tobruk about Jews always being guests in someone else's country.

Haman is played by Italian actor Sergio Fantoni who American fans probably best know as the sympathetic Italian lieutenant in Von Ryan's Express. This guy loves intrigue for its own sake, for the rush it gives him. Eventually that's what does him in.

The reason that Egan has to take a new wife is that the old wife Queen Vashti was doing a lot of catting around while he was at war. She's played by Daniele Rocca and it's a shame that lady didn't become better known. She was quite the looker.

Esther And The King gets the usual revisions DeMille style for biblical epics. I saw it over 50 years ago in the theater and it holds up very well. And it's a chance to see Joan Collins play a virgin.

Much like another feminist and contemporaneous Biblical epic i.e Henry Koster's THE STORY OF RUTH (1960), this turns out to be more enjoyable and even compelling than one expects it to be. Actually, although I was aware of Mario Bava's engagement as a cinematographer here, it had not occurred to me that he was also a co-director (which prompted this unforeseen revisit from yours truly – a few weeks after Good Friday which would have been the ideal time for it). As was often the case with such U.S./Italian co-productions, a Hollywood veteran 'supervised' the production actually helmed by an Italian craftsman; in Bava's case, he had already collaborated with Jacques Tourneur on THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959) and would do so again with Henry Levin on THE WONDERS OF ALADDIN (1961; see my review above). However, when it comes to ESTHER AND THE KING, it seems that Raoul Walsh's involvement was much more hands on since, atypically for him at the twilight of his impressive career, he was also the producer and co-screenwriter of the film! Joan Collins and Richard Egan ably portray the titular roles of the Hebrew maiden and the Persian King and the cast list is peppered with recognizable faces that add appeal to the alternately solemn and campy proceedings: Denis O'Dea (in his last screen appearance as Collins' uncle and Egan's trusted counselor), Rik Battaglia (as Collins' embittered fiancé and Egan's former friend), Sergio Fantoni (clearly enjoying himself a great deal as the film's leering villain), Daniela Rocca (as Egan's nymphomaniac wife – the dance sequence ending with her topless has to be seen to be believed), Rosalba Neri (as Fantoni's ambitious but ill-fated mistress), Gabriele Tinti (as Battaglia's pal) and Folco Lulli (regrettably wasted in a throwaway cameo towards the end of the film). While the few scattered fight sequences are not particularly vivid or exciting, another element I enjoyed was the equally rousing and lovely music score that is here credited to Angelo Francesco Lavagnino (a peplum veteran) and Roberto Nicolosi (a Bava regular).

Middling Italian/American sword & sandal flick based on the biblical story of Esther. Jewish Esther (Joan Collins) marries Persian King Ahaseurus (Richard Egan) to help her people and falls in love with him. Collins playing a 'good girl' is amusing. Look out for sexy Daniela Rocca's dance scene. Have mercy! Definitely the movie's highlight. All of the men in the movie are forgettable. Overlong and dull, it should appeal mostly to those into biblical movies or Italian sword & sandal movies from the '60s. Mario Bava is cinematographer and co-director on this. The other director is the great Raoul Walsh, who also produced and co-wrote it. Pretty blah stuff.