G-d Week: For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

SOLOMON AND SHEBA

1959

Directed by King Vidor

Written by Anthony Veiller, Paul Dudley, George Bruce, and Crane Wilbur

Spoiler alert: well, eventually Haile Selassie was overthrown...

Walt Disney, part XX: All that beautiful detail in the trees, the bark, and all that, that's all well and good, but who the hell's going to look at that?

SLEEPING BEAUTY

As a work of visual artistry, Sleeping Beauty would be a staggering achievement for any era of Disney animation.  That it came out of the Silver Age is almost a surprise; that it also ended it, a great and sorrowful shame.

1959

Directed by Wilfred Jackson, Eric Larson, and Clyde Geronimi

Spoiler alert: true love's kiss, dude

"Rex Stetson"? Sounds about as believable as "Rock Hudson"

PILLOW TALK

They don't make 'em like this anymore, though that probably has something to do with the fact that the best three-word description of it I've ever heard is "charming, but rapey."

1959

Directed by Michael Gordon

Written by Russell Rouse, Maurice Richlin, Stanley Shapiro, and Clarence Greene

With Doris Day (Jan Morrow), Rock Hudson (Brad Allen), Tony Randall (Jonathan Forbes), Thelma Ritter (Alma), and Nick Adams (Tony Walters)

Spoiler alert: moderate

I tell you, they're drunk with religion

BEN-HUR

Perhaps the finest of its breed, Ben-Hur is a smashing entertainment, an Old Testament kind of story set against the backdrop of the New.  It is fueled by a sharply-drawn and deeply-satisfying tale of revenge, animated by enormous sums of money, realized by some of cinema's all-time finest talents, electrified by its star, and, finally, glommed onto a good-enough Christian fable... just in case you felt like taking a nap after the chariot race (though, speaking personally, I think this part's reasonably swell, too).  Ben-Hur is everything you could ever want out of a Biblical epic (and probably more!), and it represents the Golden Age of Hollywood at its very best.

1959

Directed by William Wyler

Written by Karl Tunberg, S.N. Behrman, Maxwell Anderson, Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal, Andrew Marton, and Yakima Canutt (based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Gen. Lew Wallace)

With Charlton Heston (Judah Ben-Hur), Haya Harareet (Esther), Martha Scott (Mariam), Cathy O'Donnell (Tirzah), Sam Jaffe (Simonides), Finlay Currie (Balthazar the Egyptian), Hugh Griffith (Sheik Ilderim), Jack Hawkins (Quintus Arrius), and Stephen Boyd (Messala)

Spoiler alert: sadly, the Kingdom of Judea is not freed in any conventional or meaningful way

Cardboard Science: It's long and hard and full of uranium

THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE

Cardboard Science returns!  With a perfectly average B-movie.

1959
Directed by Spencer G. Bennett
Written by Orville H. Hampton
With Arthur Franz (Lt. Cmdr. Richard "Reef" Holloway), Brett Halsey (Dr. Carl Neilson Jr.), Dick Foran (Cmdr. Dan Wendover), Tom Conway (Sir Ian Hunt), Victor Varconi (Dr. Clifford Kent), and John Hilliard (the Voice of the Pilot)

Spoiler alert: high

Like some kind of pale rider, I guess

NO NAME ON THE BULLET

We've seen his great science fiction; we've seen his great satirical thriller; now comes, at the end of the decade of his most abundant success, Jack Arnold's great philosophical Western.

1959
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by Gene L. Coon and Howard Amacker
With Audie Murphy (John Gant), Charles Drake (Dr. Luke Canfield), Joan Evans (Anne Benson), Willis Bouchey (Sheriff Buck Hastings), and Edgar Stehli (Judge Benson)

Spoiler alert: moderate