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Customer Reviews of The Prodigal

Colorful, daring Hollywood epic
From the Golden Age of Hollywood comes The Prodigal (1955), a MGM release. This "Biblical" epic, based on the New Testament story of The Prodigal son, tells of the adventure of the young man who enters the pagan world and discovers the mysteries and charms of Miss Lana Turner, high priestess of the temple of a graven, cruel, jealous god, and the dangers of forbidden love. Edmund Purdom is the prodigal who is smitten by Turner's Samarra.The story plods along with some over-blown and sometimes trite dialogue, but the costumes and sets are eye-popping. This movie era could only produce such grandier and Miss Turner as the brilliant center, is sinfully beautiful. She reveals more of her self as any much younger actress would dare at the time. And she looks marvelous. See this spectacular entry for what we may never see in today's cinema.

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EPIC MORALITY TALE
Lana Turner was breath taking beautiful as ever. She is the sexiest woman I have ever seen. Her costumes are surreal. If for nothing else, The Prodigal would be memorable for Lana Turner's pagan-ritual costume, which is little more than a Burlesque Queen costume that Blaze Starr, Lili St. Cyr or Tempest Storm wore. The effect was at once sexy, erotic and alluring. And an interesting side comment on the evils of Burlesque.

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Worthwhile if you like the genre...
Edmund Purdom reprises his role in "The Egyptian" as a good guy who gets led astray by his passion for a woman he should have avoided. Lana Turner made a career of playing temptresses and does an excellent job here although the cast of "The Egyptian" is, overall, much stronger with Gene Tierney, Michael Wilding, and Biblical epic specialist Victor Mature. But "The Prodigal" has some quality supporting players including perennial bad guy Neville Brand and Francis Sullivan, one of the more memorable character actors of the 50s, in the role of Bosra the money lender. The production values are Golden Age MGM with large, colorful, impressive sets. Unfortunately, the script is wooden and Purdom was not a captivating screen presence.
Richard Thorpe, MGM's principal director of costume epics in the 50s did an excellent job with "Ivanhoe" (Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor) but proves here that his direction could be quite straightforward and unimaginative.
The bottom line is this: If you're looking for another "Ben Hur" you won't find it here. But if you like most of the Biblical epics of the 50s and early 60s, even the second and third tier ones, you'll enjoy this film and the three star rating is for you. You'll be especially interested in the ending which is unusual for films of this type. If you do not enjoy this genre or you enjoy only the very best examples of it then you should avoid "The Prodigal".