"QUEEN OF SHEBA."

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17666, 19 January 1923, Page 10

"QUEEN OF SHEBA."

TO BE SCP«EESn3D TO-MORROW. One portion cf the spectacular "Queen of Sheba" film produced by Fox, which ccir.es to the Queen's Theatre to-morrow, that liaa caus-ed considerable interest and has been the subject of flattering comment by reviewers, i 3 that wherein the action shifts to tho tomb of the ancient kings. 'l'hi3 reflects in a mar.K>:d degree Uia extent to wrucn tiie pioaucer went to acmeve tue most careui aud pa.lMtaJu.lg treatment possible, in order tnut authenticity ana local colour mignt be beyond question. The tomij scenes were not staged—as was intimated in one review—in the bona-nde tombs of soma archaeologist's "parucUse, but were made at lioiiyAood with the rest of the picture. The drawings and plana for this ancient burial place were made from old engravings and specifications found in Professor Graetz's "History of the Jews. " The tomb represented in "Queen of Sheba" is a dark atono structure, 50 feet by 125, and 32 feet in height; Babylonian in architecture and decoration. Fourteen sarcophagi engraved'with Assyrian letters indicate this as an old tomb of Assyrian kings adopted by later kings. In this is the tomb of David set on an altar and on either side of it la a seven-branch candlestick. Back of the tomb of David sit two Assyrian gode, perhaps thousands of years older than David's time. A beautiful biblical touch in this tomb of the' Kings in in the capitals of the heavy stone pillars, on each of which is eet a, giant pair of angel's wings. The entrance to the Tomb, of the Kings is hidden, as in biblical descriptions, by a rolling stone. This huge etone, which is rolled away in the action of the picture, is ten feet in diameter. '

The effort that wae made to perfect this single setting to the closest point of historical accuracy is reflected in every other portion of the mammoth subject, and explains, perhaps, why "Queen of Sheba" consumed a year in the making.