Salome was a whopping eight reels, and was released in August, 1918 to great commercial and critical excitement. The film is now lost.
From Theda Bara by Ronald Genini:
Salome (Fox; 8 reels; released Aug. 1918).
Cast: Theda Bara (Salome); G. Raymond Nye (Herod); Albert Roscoe (John the Baptist); Bertram Grassby (Prince David); Herbert Heyes (Sejanus); Genevieve Blinn (Queen Miriam); Vera Doria (Naomi); Alfred Fremont (Galba).
Directed by J. Gordon Edwards. Written by Adrian Johnson (from Flavius Josephus' chronicles). Photography by John Boyle. Music by George Rubenstein.
Critical Reviews:
"For richness and extent of pageantry, sumptuousness of setting, and color details has few equals among motion picture productions... Theda Bara in the title role was all that those who have seen her in other films mighr expect--every minute the vampire." --The New York Times.
Theda Bara on Salome:
"As Salome, I tried to absorb the poetic impulses of Oscar Wilde. I tried to interpret the extraordinary, the hopeless moral disintegration of a woman's soul. The lines of Oscar Wilde's drama of Salome, are vivid paintings of human demoralization. Of course, I was again accused of emphasizing wickedness on the screen...Other famous tragediennes have given us characterizations in the theatre of complex women and they have not been accused of being vampires. Why not I, Theda Bara?" --Theda Bara.
From Allmovie.com:
"This was Bara's biggest release since Cleopatra, released a year earlier. Its sets were elaborate (although apparently not historically correct) and her costumes impressive. It was the star's last hurrah before her career began its downslide." --Janiss Garza.
From Ideofact.com:
"The movie's subject, Henry Langlois, may be unknown to many-- though it's a name any movie lover should revere. Langlois, born in Turkey, was the longtime director of the Cinematheque Francaise, which he founded in 1936 (with filmmaker Georges Franju), nurtured under great difficulties during WWII and brought to world prominence in the '50s.
Langlois decided, initially without government aid, to assemble a film library. At first he did it selectively, preserving what conventional wisdom considered the classics. But after he let a print of actress Theda Bara's silent Salome get away (a film now lost forever), he decided that conventional wisdom might be wrong, that it was best to try to preserve and show as much as possible. The official critical establishment might have missed some classics."
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