60 years ago: The biblically inaccurate movie Solomon and Sheba is released

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.
And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.
And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,
And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.
And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.
And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.
And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.
And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. I Kings 10:1-13

Biblically inaccurate movies ostensibly based on the Bible are not a recent phenomenon. Solomon and Sheba, directed by King Vidor, and starring Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, and George Sanders, received its premiere screening in London on October 27, 1959, and was released in several countries before opening in North American theatres on December 25, 1959. It was a box office hit at the time, but is largely forgotten today. The film contains more inaccuracies than this blogger can enumerate, but the reader can find some mentioned here.

I saw Solomon and Sheba on television some years ago and found it somewhat entertaining, but I definitely recommend reading the book instead. The movie was given a chapter in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (And How They Got That Way) (1978) by Harry Medved with Randy Dreyfuss (the book was actually written mainly by Mr. Medved's older brother Michael, who was trying to establish himself as a serious writer in Hollywood, and didn't want to be credited as the author). According to Mr. Medved (pp. 217-218):

Vidor commented that the film was based on "a very simple story, really, about the first kings of the Bible...I applied an artistic, not a technical yardstick; we had no technical experts on this!...used a brand-new idea in the last battle, how the Jews defeated the Egyptians. It was pure movies." And pure silliness. Screenwriter Arthur Hornblow added that the intention was to maintain a reverence for the story as it appeared in the Bible...But to spread the blame around, Hornblow admitted that the biblical story was supplemented by quite a bit of outside material, particularly Arabic and Abyssinian myths. These legends hold that Menelik I, the first King of the Ethiopians and ancestor of Haile Selassie, was born of the union of Solomon and Sheba. Obviously the producers were hoping for a triumphant run in Addis Ababa. At the same time they wanted to protect their revenues in Biloxi, Mississippi, and so studio officials reassured the public about miscegenation. They declared that careful research proved that the Queen of Sheba was not black. This comes as no surprise to most scholars, but the fact that she was Italian has thrown many historians for a loop...

...Granville Heathway...receives prominent billing in the film as "Orgy-Sequence Adviser." Mr. Heathway, according to a studio official, "is an egghead Englishman who has studied every book and treatise on the subject of orgies." If he says that they did the bunnyhop as part of Sheban fertility rites, then it must be so.

The orgy in Solomon and Sheba was filmed at an estimated cost of $100,000, and was choreographed by Jaroslav Berger, ballet chief of Switzerland's Bern State Theater. Miss Lollobrigida rehearsed for a month to prepare for the dance, with among other things, a hula hoop...

Submitted for your approval, the trailer for Solomon and Sheba, which emphasizes the extrabiblical aspects of the movie; to see it in its wide-screen glory, right-click on the video and copy the address: