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Sodom and Gomorrah

Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia
Director: Robert Aldrich
Format: PAL
Released: 14 Oct 2004
RRP: £11.24
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

A Lot of fun, but not a great transfer - By: Trevor Willsmer, 03 Feb 2007
Sodom & Gomorrah is much better than its reputation implies. Although often co-credited to Sergio Leone for tax reasons, it's a Robert Aldrich picture alll the way, although Aldrich's style isn't always compatible with the expectations of the epic genre - he's not interested in the sets & some of the most impressive visual compositions are cut very, very short in the editing. Nor is it as decadent or violent as you might expect from the director who would go on to make The Killing of Sister George & The Dirty Dozen. But it is entertaining, with Aldrich managing to get away with more sadism than De Mille ever did, & throwing in a splendid pair of villains in Stanley Baker's perverted prince & Anouk Aimee's lesbian Queen, who easily steal the show from Stewart Granger & the Children of Israel. The supporting cast isn't always as distinguished as the voice cast who redub them (Andrew Keir & Mane Maitland among those in the dubbing theatre), & it's strange to see Granger heading the cast when his tenure at MGM was marked by his refusal to make almost any epic they offered him (Quo Vadis among them), but its still head & shoulders above the standard Italian peplum of the day. Throw in a real doozey of a prolonged battle scene & the last of Miklos Rozsa's Biblical epic scores & you've got a film that may not be fit for Sunday School but which makes for an entertaining two-and-a-half hours. And yes, it reallly does have a line at the beginning about watching out for Sodomites!

Sadly Castle Hill's German DVD is a wildly inconsistent transfer. Although widescreen (1.85:1), the quality veers from fine to looking like a bad video or TV print, sometimes from shot to shot. However, in the absence od a proper DVD release to date, it's acceptable if you're not expecting too much. The DVD features German main titles but an English soundtrack option with removeable subtitles & also includes a UK trailer & stills galllery.