The Story of Ruth (1960)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Somewhat disappointing film with acting below par, especially by Peggy Wood as Naomi, who comes across sincere, but is lacking in emotional depth. Five years later, as the Mother Superior in "The Sound of Music," she garnered a supporting actress Oscar nomination for showing her mettle and determination in the role.Elan Eden, as Ruth, reminded me of Israeli actress Haya Harareet of "Ben-Hur" fame. Those women dancing up of a storm reminded me from the tribe of Jethro in "The Ten Commandments," and ironically, Eduard Franz appeared in both films.The movie should have ended with Ruth's innocence in the court. Instead, it gets bogged down with two men fighting for the right to marry her, one using the Levite law that as the nearest kin to her dead husband, he is entitled to take her as his bride. This theme was overly played out.Stuart Whitman, as Boaz, looked like he was annoyed with the role, but not as much as my being annoyed with the film.

Given the credits of talented filmmakers involved in this project, how could they have come together to create such a dismal, depressing and downbeat mess; based on one of the happiest stories in the Bible.OK, so Ruth's story was happy. Why not add a heavy dose of human sacrifice, training little girls to be butchered on the alter of the Moab's silly looking tin god. Then make Ruth a trainee involved in this perversion. (All this nonsense was invented for the movie.) Elena Eden was introduced in this role, and that's where her career ended. Not entirely to blame, nobody could have saved this awful movie.I thought it was interesting that the Moab's (whose "god" was a stupid-faced metal statue, incapable of doing anything, and often in need of repairs) would question "the invisible God" of the Judeans. How little has changed in 3000 years.

This story, unlike many other Biblical epics, almost does justice to the Biblical account of the Book of Ruth. And the liberties taken with the Bible have to be forgiven. It is after all, a movie and dramatic liberties have to accepted - as long as they are done in a tasteful manner. This is one such case.You can't improve on God's take of the human existence but this one almost made it. A very moving and lovely musical score, not the traditional trumpet glaring of a Roman gladiator stadium - but full of peace, inspiration, and love.The screenplay is full of dramatic statement, point-counter-point, and leaves the audience panting for more. The background is set expertly of a Moabite (present day Jordan) priestess although not overly exaggerated. What follows after wards, with the return of the two women to Judea, and from that point on is fairly adhering to the Biblical account.Stuart Whitman is Boaz to the "nth" degree although sometimes he does look kind of dumb in not knowing what to do. Peggy Woods rises to the occasion and truly deserved an Oscar at least for best supporting actress in this role. What a veteran.Who obviously was not a veteran yet rose to the top as star of the movie was the beautiful Israeli actress Elana Eden. Serving at the time as an Israeli machine gun expert in the Israeli army, she won a contract with 20th Century Fox for several movies and TV parts. They were too few and after around 1967, she just disappeared, (perhaps voluntarily), from Hollywood.Her acting ability in this movie was more than adequate and in fact, outstanding. Her beautiful dark eyes used to enhance her dramatic ability when the scene called for it was in constant play between her eyes and those of Peggy Wood expressing concern and love for one another. There were really few words from Ruth in Judea except perhaps one of the most beautiful words ever uttered and used in marriage ceremonies throughout the world...Where ever you go I will go... And your God shall be my God... Bravo Elana. And God bless you all who participated in this treasure of a movie.

There's no question that THE STORY OF RUTH would have been a lot more different if it emerged as a Cecil B. DeMille production at the hight of DeMiller's spectacular career at Paramount. I'm sure he would have made certain that the writers expanded on the story to bring as much spectacle and battle scenes as possible in order to bring it up to his usual "sand and sandals" requirements.But Henry Koster has taken a simple story, retained the simplistic values of the plot and made it a moving story of a young woman from a pagan culture who gradually amends her sinful ways and comes to worship only one invisible God. Koster has had wonderful success with his two very rugged looking male stars--TOM TRYON (whose role occupies the first half of the lengthy film, as a Hebrew) and STUART WHITMAN as the man Ruth comes to love. JEFF MORROW is also stalwart and appealing as the man who tries to win her love but fails miserably.Alas, we now come to the real drawback of the film--ELANA EDEN, the unknown actress who plays the all important title role--Ruth, and her acting is, to put it kindly, "limited". In fact, it is only one notch above the kind of grade school emoting we had from Maria Montez during the height of her adventures with Jon Hall and Sabu. Furthermore, while undeniably beautiful in an exotic way, her accent makes much of her dialog in need of the caption feature. Her wooden performance is perhaps the reason for her very brief screen career in what should have been a star-making role.Surprisingly, despite this main drawback, THE STORY OF RUTH has an intelligent script, sensible direction and a warm performance by PEGGY WOOD as Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi. Miss Wood makes up for the lack of animation in Elana Eden's role.Summing up: Handsomely produced, it's an interesting tale told smoothly without a lot of pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies these sort of Biblical tales. And Franz Waxman's music is stirring.