Movie Screening & Discussion - Esther and the King

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1960 biblical epic Esther and the King. Directed and written by Raoul Walsh and starring Joan Collins, Richard Egan, Denis O'Dea, Sergio Fantoni, and Daniela Rocca, Esther and the King is a dramatization of the Old Testament Book of Esther which recounts the origin of the Jewish celebration of Purim.

In fifth century BC Persia, a Jewish woman named Esther (Collins) comes to the attention of the King Ahasuerus (Egan) after his first wife, Queen Vashi (Rocca) is banished. The king's romance with Esther is complicated when Esther's cousin Mordecai (O'Dea) discovers a plot by Haman (Fantoni), one of the king's ministers, to kill all of the Jews in the empire. After much intrigue, Esther reveals her Jewish heritage to Ahasuerus and successfully convinces him to spare her people and put a stop to Haman's plans. The festival of Purim is in celebration of this victory within the Persian Empire and of Esther as a heroine of the Jewish people.

Hollywood had long intended to put the story of Esther on film, with plans throughout the 1950s, including one by actress and producer Hedy Lamarr. But it was not until 1960, during a Writers Guild strike, that 20th Century Fox asked Raoul Walsh to make a film very quickly for them, using mostly Italian actors. The film proved a modest critical and commericial hit of the 1960 season, although it remains overshadowed by the more elaborately produced biblical epics of the 1950s.

Another epic of antiquity starring Joan Collins, portraying one of the great heroines of the Old Testament.