The Prodigal * (1955, Lana Turner, Edmund Purdom, Louis Calhern, James Mitchell, Joseph Wiseman, Cecil Kellaway, Walter Hampden) – Classic Movie Review 8974

Director Richard Thorpe’s hysterical, outrageous 1955 Eastmancolor and CinemaScope biblical epic The Prodigal makes only a passing nod at anything biblical and concentrates instead on exoticism, in this loose adaptation of Jesus Christ’s famous New Testament parable about the selfish prodigal son who leaves his family to pursue a life of pleasure, from the Gospel According to Luke 15:11-32.

It is a 1950s Hollywood film, so Maurice Zimm’s original screenplay takes many liberties with the biblical source material, especially the addition of a female lead as the high priestess of Astarte, Samarra.

The unbelievably costumed Lana Turner stars as Samarra, the sinful pagan High Priestess of Astarte, out to tempt cute young Hebrew farmer’s boy Micah (Edmund Purdom) from the straight and narrow. Samarra seduces Micah into losing his father’s inheritance and also into betraying his faith.

Find out why a London burlesque club advertised its show with the words ‘as camp as Lana Turner’s entrance in The Prodigal’. Not many would disagree with her judgement that it is an absolute stinker. There are lots and lots of laughs to be found, though.

Prodigally, MGM lavished money on it but not much care. More than $200,000 was spent on costumes alone. After two weeks of filming, MGM considered abandoning the struggling film, but the studio would have incurred a loss of $1.2 million. In the end the film was finished at a cost of $2,783,000, and earned $2,153,000 in north America and $1,990,000 elsewhere, for a loss of $771,000.

The hero of the movie, if there is one, is Herschel McCoy, who designed the costumes, though even these Turner considered atrocious.

It also stars Louis Calhern as Nahreeb, Audrey Dalton as Ruth, James Mitchell as Asham and Neville Brand as Rhakim, as well as dancer Taina Elg in her film debut, as Elissa.

Also in the cast are Walter Hampden, Francis L Sullivan, Joseph Wiseman, Cecil Kellaway, Henry Daniel, Sandra Descher, John Dehner, Philip Tonge, Paul Cavanagh, Jay Novello, Tracey Roberts, Richard Devon and Almira Sessions.

MGM head of production Dore Schary called it the biggest and most embarrassing failure and the worst film he ever supported in his time at MGM. He said he ‘hustled Lana Turner into playing it’ and ‘the sorry fact is I liked the script. I thought it would draw an audience. Poor Lana swayed her way through the film but it was a hopeless task. The script was lifeless.’

Lana Turner recalled: ‘To play the Prodigal Son they chose Edmund Purdom, a young man with a remarkably high opinion of himself. His pomposity was hard enough to bear. Worse yet was the garlic breath he brought back from lunch. My lines were so stupid I hated to go to work in the morning. Even the costumes were atrocious. They were ornate concoctions dripping with heavy beads, and the material was so stiff that I felt I was wearing armour. Well, I thought, I may be trapped in this picture, but I’m going to make myself as sensuous, sexy, and gorgeous as possible.’

It has no relation to a previous MGM film called The Prodigal, the 1931 comedy starring opera star Lawrence Tibbett.

The Prodigal is directed by Richard Thorpe, runs 114 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Maurice Zimm, Joe Breen Jr (adaptation) and Samuel James Larsen (adaptation), is shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope by Joseph Ruttenberg, is produced by Charles Schnee and is scored by Bronislau Kaper, with Art Direction by Randall Duell and Cedric Gibbons.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8974

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com