Sodom & Gomorrah (3) Off-screen curse

Here's yet another entry about Sodom & Gomorrah. This is a favorite of mine as you may know if you've read my previous posts (here and here).
On the left is the cover of the French press kit. I love the design.

Today, I will focus on the various behind-the-scene problems faced by the cast and crew during the making  of the film. I will draw the bulk of my information from an article of the time by Geneviève Gérald.

According to it, director Robert Aldrich apparently had some trouble with the Italian crew, unaccustomed to be directed by a strict man, promptly on the set at 8 o'clock sharp, with a precise idea of what he wants and how he wants it.

And his idea was apparently to represent the threat of nuclear power through the power of God over the Twin Cities, because it is still unknown if they were destroyed by an ancient atomic explosion or the eruption of some underwater volcano.

Sodom and Gomorrah was filmed in one year in Roman studios and in Ait-Benhaddou, a 4000 year-old Moroccan village lost among the mountains of the Atlas.


With no water or electricity, the cast and crew had to bring their own supply and the 100 days of exterior shooting were a nightmare for many. Stewart Granger displaced a vertebra during one of the duels rendering him unable to shoot for several days, after-which he stung his finger on a poisonous plant. Everyone suffered stomach aches and Rossana Podesta had to be flown back to Rome for a severe case of the mumps. Cameraman Cyril Knownles even died of a heart attack during filming and director of photography Mario Montuori was attacked by a buffalo which fractured his knee and elbow.

 
 On this set of pictures, Scilla Gabel seems to be having a dizzy spell while filming the opening scene in the desert where she meets the sodomite patrol. The cast and crew had to protect themselves from the sun with glasses and hats and also covered their mouth to avoid sand storms.

The temperature varied from ice cold at night up to 140°F in the daylight. 3,000 local extras were hired, which caused a problem depending on what religion they were : the Arabs would stop working on Fridays, Saturdays were the Hebrews's day off and on Sundays Christians wouldn't work.

Pier Angeli

The difficult production wrapped in a heat wave that broke all records at the time in Rome for the interior shooting.

The director's worst problem apparently turned out to be the producer. They went on trial because they couldn't agree on the final cut and Robert Aldrich apparently conceded a 15 minute cut eventually. I doubt that these scenes will ever be back.

Writer Bill Krohn (who wrote the excellent Hitchcock at Work) discusses this and more in this excellent essay about the film. (Among many other things, he tells of a scene in the script where the Queen seduces Ildith again after she moves back to the palace. According to Krohn, this was probably never filmed.

Here's the original trailer for the film :

There will be more about the film...
 More pictures on A Lost Film Facebook page.
That's all for today folks!