Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I don't like Yul Brynner with hair. I prefer the man clean shaven, but he's still drop dead sexy in this movie. Goodnight! That man drives me mad.Yes, this is a "silly" biblical movie. Suspend reality for a moment and you will find that this movie is not so bad. It kept my attention span which is hard to do. I wish someone else had played the Sheban Queen instead of Lollobrigida. I found her too unbelievable.The supporting cast bored me. Especially the girl who played Abishag and the dude who played Pharaoh. Looked like he was wearing an Egyptian Halloween costume he purchased at Walmart. Once you see Yul Brynner play a pharaoh, none other can pull it off.

Solomon and Sheba is a biblical romantic epic that is based from the events chronicled the events of the ninth and tenth chapters of the First Book Of Kings and Second Chronicles respectively.It stars Yul Brynner as Solomon and Gina Lollobrigida as Sheba in the title roles together with George Sanders, Marisa Pavan and David Farrar. The theme of the movie differs substantially from Biblical sources and is highly fictionalized story written by Crane Wilbur.In it,we have the the Queen of Sheba as an ally of ancient Egypt in opposition to King Solomon of Israel with whom she is having a love affair.Too bad that the movie somewhat failed to live into its expectation as Brynner looks weak in his portrayal as King Solomon.He fails to create a believable chemistry with Lollobrigida,who showcases a lot of wit and intelligence as Sheba.Added to that,it was slow in pacing despite having great spectacles such as the battle of the Egyptians and Israelites which would definitely entertain the viewer.

I marked "spoilers" but other reviewers have already mentioned the highlights."Solomon and Sheba" was made in 1959, the same year as "Ben Hur." Yul Brynner (with hair!!!) plays a Solomon so wise and serious he never smiles, not even when he's kissing the Queen of Sheba, portrayed by Italian sexpot Gina Lollobrigida. The screenplay bears no relation to Scripture, grabbing biblical names and running with them. In this tale, Sheba (her given name is never provided) is an agent of the Egyptian pharaoh, visiting Solomon in order to find a way to trip him up so her sponsor can gain the upper hand in the ongoing rivalry between the two kingdoms. She determines that a successful seduction will cause the Israelite king to break the Covenant, destroying his popular support and splintering the Twelve Tribes into vulnerable factions. Meanwhile, Solomon's jealous and militaristic older brother (George Sanders) would welcome any excuse to grab the throne he feels he was cheated of.Solomon, being the wisest man on earth and all, knows Sheba is up to no good. He can't resist falling for her undeniable charms anyway, even though he's got a harem stuffed with scantily clad beauties. Over the protests of Nathan the prophet and the tribal leaders, he agrees to allow Sheba to hold a festival in honor of her people's fertility god (the one she's been praying to for success throughout her seduction campaign). Solomon's struggle with temptation is the most realistic part of the movie. He broods alone in his room as the drums of the orgy begin outside, stalks moodily through the harem filled with lovely women eager for his attention, brushes off the admonitions of his devout, youthful ward (who confesses her own chaste love for him), and finally stumbles, dazed, to where the visiting Shebans are prancing around underdressed.Although there are several vigorous battle scenes between Egyptian chariots and Israeli cavalry and a final confrontation between Solomon and his scheming brother, the pagan fertility festival is the true climax (pun intended) of the movie. The king stands mesmerized as Sheba gyrates before him in a non-outfit that would do credit to one of Conan the Barbarian's girlfriends (according to the Internet Movie Database, Lollobrigida was nude from the waist up in the European version). Finally, they join the other crazed couples in running off into the bush to find a place to make whoopee. Just as they consummate their lust in a convenient cave, an angry Jehovah sends lightning bolts that zap the fertility idol into charcoal and smash the upper levels of his own ziggurat-like temple. The rubble-strewn Holy of Holies stands exposed for the rest of the movie, lit dramatically by a new divinely created skylight.Fortunately, my son was busy in the garage repairing my daughter's bicycle while all this was going on on screen. I'd been worried about the scene, which I'd previewed and found pretty racy even for today, especially in a supposedly religious movie. It must have been downright shocking in 1959, and apparently did negatively affect the financial success of the film.Does Solomon repent? Does Sheba repent? Do they really love each other? Do the Israelites manage to unite in time to beat the Egyptians? Hey, it's a Fifties biblical epic. But after that orgy (which makes the Golden Calf scene in "The Ten Commandments" seem positively dull by comparison), not much else really matters, not even the plots of George Sanders. On a positive note, God is active and involved throughout the story, even during the bittersweet ending. But none of it ever really happened.According to Wikipedia, the kingdom of Sheba was located either in modern Yemen (Arabian peninsula) or Ethiopia (immediately across the Persian Gulf). It may have encompassed both areas, as the nation's borders shifted around over time. Archaeological evidence is scarce but Ethiopian tradition claims the Queen of Sheba as one of their own.

Mostly uninvolving biblical mumbo-jumbo that drags on for well over two hours. The only thing that saves this film from God's wreath (and there is only one God, remember) is the unintentionally funny dialog, and a good battle scene which comes far too late in the movie. For most of the two hours until the action scenes there is too much talking; the dialog is so inept that the movie just begs to be spoofed by MST3K.George Sanders is absolutely awful; one of the most animated, overly-theatrical performances I've ever seen. Brynner isn't much better; his stiff, wooden acting, combined with the horrendous fortune-cookie wisdom utterings make for a rather boring and silly Solomon. It seems that every time Brynner opens his mouth something oh-so wise and ridiculously high-and-mighty comes out. To an extent it's not Sanders's and Brynner's fault, because of the crappy, comical dialog and the typically biblical one-dimensional characterization, but they made little effort otherwise. Brynner's accent even reminds a bit of Schwarzenegger's; this is not a plus. Only Lollobrigida manages to avoid embarrassing herself, by playing the role with more conviction and in an appropriate way which befits a role in such a silly film. To describe these biblical characters as one-dimensional would be too give them undeserved credit; the characterization is half-dimensional.