The Zhoosh! Brighton Blog
The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah ….Revisited
Not of course in reality, but rather a journey to the Hollywood Biblical Blockbuster of 1963 – telling the tale of the column of homeless Hebrews wandering through the desert and happening upon the twin cities of the Plains. Shown on leisurely afternoon TV the other day. A Saturday in fact. Any child could watch it and probably did.
I have waited more years than I like to, patiently waiting to revisit this film. And no, I could not be bothered to fork out cash to Amazon, and yes, I probably have missed previous showings, but I prefer the thrill of the chase through hundreds of TV channels – alongside a satisfactory pecuniary advantage of course.
You can understand that as a very junior convert, a film sporting the mind boggling words Sodom and Gomorrah in the title had to be seen. Especially after a rather long winded romp through Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past” where the division of Sodom4men and Gomorrah4women had a geometric appeal. Now seemingly as deceased as the days of the wine gum and the kreemy toffee. Shame.
I think the film was X rated. Serious stuff for grown-ups only. Films which nourished in all juvenile breasts a hunger to hit 16…. and at long last be able to watch films containing swearing, sexual orgy, and person-gobbling slime from outer space.
Suffice to say I was disappointed. Nothing! Years later I could recollect little about the film.
But the french actress Anouk Aimée as the Queen of Sodom I did remember. Well, who wouldn’t? So naturally, being wiser now, I often wanted to look again, with grown up eyes, to seek out and boldly discover any fragment of Sodomitic and Gomorrhan activity that had hitherto passed me by. Particularly involving Anouk Aimée.
Anouk Aimee
Several throwaway lines, not to be uttered nowadays, were fun. ”.Cities of Sin and Unspeakable Vice”, ”Be careful of Sodomite Patrols”, “Hebrews and Sodomites – Greetings”.
But stay with the plot – avoiding the nil points for masculine naughty activity other than Seriously Forbidden miscegenation between the Prince of Sodom and the traitorous Hebrew maiden daughter of Lot (aka cheerfully called Lart by some American-speaking cast members) – note that there is a frequent reference to the Queen’s favourites. Note she is unmarried. Note that she frequently indulges in a slightly longer than necessary eyeball to eyeball inter feminae stare. Finally note that when Her Majesty is being entertained by a fleet of dancing girls – this happens a couple of times – they are in fact always dancing girls …or are they? For a few brief moments, at the end of a long shot, a dancing couple! Look closely. Yes, one is a woman in dancing male attire, the other…not. Flimsy femmy veils! Blink and the scene will glide away unseen. Thank goodness for the Sky box rewind and pause.
I do hope Robert Aldrich is watching somewhere and aware that someone has at last spotted his, so delicate as to be almost invisible, signpost. It was of course Robert Aldrich, all of only a handful of years later in 1967/8, went on to direct The Killing of Sister George….with a sex scene that was so explicit that it had to be heavily mutilated in many areas. But it had to be there first to be so savaged! A far cry from Gomorrah !
So, what a difference those few years in and around the 60s made. From distance to close-up…from hint to actuality in such a short time. May be thanks to The Mattachine Society and The Albany Trust: The Daughters of Bilitis and the Minorities Research Group. The Swing of the Swinging Sixties ushered in the sweep of the Sexual Offences Act (1967) and the women and men of those times now look back now with real pride…many now gone.
But Anouk Aimee remains on screen. The late Queen of Sodom may be not what some would expect nowadays….but she remains both beautiful and secret in a film that, sadly, in its latter days has descended from the scandalous into a mild Saturday afternoon viewing. Worth a look though.
Anouk Aimee
