''The Prodigal'' is a 1955 Eastmancolor biblical epic

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

film made by MGM starring Lana Turner and

Edmund Purdom Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom (19 December 19241 January 2009) was an English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then in America on Broadway and in Hollywood, and event ...

. It was based on the New Testament parable about a selfish son who leaves his family to pursue a life of pleasure. The film also features James Mitchell, Louis Calhern, Joseph Wiseman, Cecil Kellaway, Audrey Dalton, and Walter Hampden. Dancer Taina Elg made her film debut in ''The Prodigal''.

Plot

''In the times before Christianity, only a few people believed in one God. Most people believed in many gods. It was mainly the believers in Jehovah who stood against a multitude of some 65,000 strange and different gods. Of these, two of the most notorious were Baal and Astarte, the male and the female. Gods of the flesh, not of the soul. They were supposed to renew the fertility of the earth every year. In exchange, they demanded of their believers the sacrifice of money, jewelry and human life. Out of these times comes our story, based upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son as told in Luke, Chapter 15.'' The story is loosely based on Jesus Christ's

parable of the prodigal son The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable with ...

, from the Gospel According to Luke 15:11-32, although considerable liberties are taken with the source material, chief among them being the addition of a female lead in the form of the high priestess of Astarte, Samarra. Micah, a young Hebrew farm boy, sees Samarra and says he will have her. He demands that his father give him his inheritance and journeys to the city of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. There Samarra seduces him into losing his inheritance and betraying his religious faith. Enduring a number of difficulties, Micah finally realizes where he belongs and returns home to his father, who forgives Micah all of his sins and orders a lavish celebration of his return.

Cast

* Lana Turner as Samarra *

as Micah * Louis Calhern as Nahreeb * Audrey Dalton as Ruth * James Mitchell as Asham * Neville Brand as Rhakim * Walter Hampden as Eli * Taina Elg as Elissa *

Francis L. Sullivan Francis Loftus Sullivan (6 January 1903 – 19 November 1956) was an English film and stage actor. Early life Francis Loftus Sullivan attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England, whose alumni include Charles Laughton ...

as Bosra * Joseph Wiseman as Carmish * Sandy Descher as Yasmin * John Dehner as Joram *

George Sawaya George Frances Carey Sawaya (August 14, 1923 – September 17, 2003) was an American actor and stuntman. He was best known for playing the role of Detective Lopez on Jack Webb's '' Dragnet''. Life and career Sawaya was born in Los Angeles, ...

as Kavak * Cecil Kellaway as the Governor * Gordon Richards as Nahreeb's Scribe

Production

In the 1950s films with Biblical themes were very popular. Two friends, Sam Larson and Joseph Breen Jnr, became interested in the cinematic possibilities of the famous parable. Larson had muscular dystrophy and thought the story had resonance to the problems of young people today; he was also interested in setting of Damascus and Joppa in 70 BC, which had been rarely seen on screen. Larson and Breen wrote a 60-page treatment together. They took it to Dore Schary, head of production at MGM, who was interested. He assigned Charles Schnee to produce and Maurice Zimm to write a script. The film was originally to star Edmund Purdom, Ava Gardner and Vittorio Gassman. Maurice Zimm's script was based on the original parable but was technically an original work. It was set in Syria and Palestine in 79 BC. Eventually Gardner and Grassman dropped out. Dore Schary later said he "hustled Lana Turner into playing it" and "the sorry fact is I liked the script. I thought it would draw an audience. What I forgot was that

C.B. De Mille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinem ...

had an exclusive on the Bible. Poor Lana swayed her way through the film but it was a hopeless task. The script was lifeless."Schary p 283 Schary says after two weeks filming "I saw we were in quicksand" and asked the MGM production office to calculate the cost if the studio abandoned the film. Since the sets had been built, costumes designed and contracts signed (over $200,000 was spent on costumes) the studio would have incurred a loss of $1.2 million. Schary decided to finish the picture on an accelerated schedule instead "and hoped that we wouldn't fare too badly".

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $2,153,000 in the US and Canada and $1,990,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $771,000. Dore Schary later called the film "the biggest and most embarrassing failure" and "the worst film I ever supported" in his time at MGM. ''The Prodigal'' was satirized in '' Mad'' #26 (November 1955) as ''The Prodigious''.

References

External links