Darryl Francis Zanuck had a good eye for film. After writing scripts for Rin Tin Tin (1924-29), by 1933, hitting a wall with Jack L. Warner, he left to found 20th Century Pictures, soon the top independent film studio, which, in 1935, became Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Not only did Zanuck have an eye for great stories, he had an eye for female talent, and, in 1949, bought out Susan Hayward’s contract for $200,000, noting that “Susan is a rare combination of two elements. She’s beautiful and she can act.”
In 1951, Zanuck, sensing a surge in religious film epics — taking a cue from Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) — released David and Bathsheba, starring Gregory Peck and Hayward.
It was the big screen returning to its roots, this time telling big biblical epic stories with big color — Technicolor — thereby outpacing the small screen in the one way it could not yet compete. TV was, of course, giving film a run for its money. That and the “King of Rock and Roll,” i.e., Elvis.
But, the King of Kings sold. Quo Vadis, starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr, based on the book by Polish Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz about the persecution of Christians during the final years of Nero, had just saved MGM from the brink of bankruptcy as Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ had done in 1925. More epics would follow including The Robe (1953). starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons; a sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), starring Victor Mature and Hayward; DeMille’s blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956), starring Charlton Heston (Moses); and Ben-Hur (1959), also starring Heston, the fastest and highest grossing film of 1959.
But this Hollywood postwar movie genre dared not offend anyone, thus proving unable to deal with the early life of the Church in an authentically satisfying way.
David and Bathsheba, based on the Second Book of Samuel, laying the groundwork of the Church, follows King David’s very human journey of sin and repentance.
As a child, David ben Jesse is anointed by the prophet Samuel as the second King of Israel, bypassing his other brothers, to succeed his father Saul–a role he affirms when, badly outmatched, against all odds, he kills Goliath.
When King David returns to Jerusalem upon defeating the Philistines, the cart bearing the Ark of the Covenant nearly capsizes but for Captain Uzzah reaching to touch it causing him to die, which David attributes to natural causes; the prophet Nathan, to the power of God.
Soon David, having many wives, is attracted to Bathsheba. The attraction is mutual, though she is married to Uriah the Hittite. But, her short, several-months-long marriage to Uriah, is a loveless one; he has only managed to be home for six days.
In spite of the emptiness of the marriage and her wanting to honor her vows, David insists she spend time with him and she can hardly refuse the King and is soon with child.
When Uriah is commanded back to Jerusalem to confer with David and spend the night with his wife, he comes but sleeps with his men instead. Seeing the King’s disappointment, he asks to be sent to the hottest battle zone. David not only sends him into danger but pulls back protective forces, and Uriah is killed.
David ignores Nathan’s warnings once again and marries Bathsheba, whereupon Israel suffers a drought and the newborn child dies. Reiterating God’s displeasure, Nathan predicts that David’s punishment will come through family travails.
David accepts full responsibility, insisting Basheba be held blameless in spite of the people demanding her stoning to death as was then the customary punishment for adultery.
A tender scene of David quoting Psalm 23 that he wrote, follows. He plays his harp, at Bathsheba’s request, as in his youth, and poignantly utters the words, “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want…”
Repentant, David seeks relief from God for the drought as well as forgiveness, entering the Holy of Holies as he begs God not to punish Israel for his sins. In an attempt to end his life, he touches the Ark, as compelling scenes from his youth unfold. As King David removes his hands from the Ark, rain falls outside on the formerly dry land.
Yes, Zanuck had a good eye for film, and Hollywood would tell quite a few biblical epic stories in that post war decade, yet, in a way that did not get to the truth of why they mattered. So they petered out, just waiting to be taken up again by a filmmaker with the understanding to get to the heart of their greatness.
