In the 1950s, Hollywood was in love with making religious epics. The films made money and all sorts of salacious material could be mixed in...all in the name of Christianity! It was much worse in the 1940s, when the films were often much more sexual and inappropriate. Instead, in the 50s the sex was a bit more implied and the dialog a bit goofier. For every excellent religious film from Hollywood, such as "Ben Hur" or "Demetrius and the Gladiators" there were some really awful films like "Solomon and Sheba" or "David and Bathsheba". Perhaps it's because the prior films were not based on Biblical stories but were more about Biblical times--- so staying faithful to the Bible was not a serious issue. With the latter two films, however, there just isn't much in the Bible about these folks. "Solomon and Sheba" was based on just a few verses and "David and Bathsheba" only a small portion of one book. So, to make up for this, the writers took creative liberty with the stories-- embellishing them wildly and giving them some laughably bad and stilted dialog. As for "David and Bathsheba" it's also burdened by ridiculous casting. After all, Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward?!?! Yup...there sure must have been a lot of extremely well coiffed red-heads back in the times of King David!!
So what does the film have going for it? Well, it's in color and the print looked really nice.
So what does the film have going for it? Well, it's in color and the print looked really nice.