Salome's Last Dance

Ken Russell's most impressive offering in years presents Oscar Wilde's Salome as a play within a film. Wilde (Nickolas Grace) and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (Douglas Hodge), visit a local bordello, where a performance of his banned play Salome is to be staged. Playing Herod, the gluttonous king, is the bordello's proprietor (Stratford Johns). Other bordello residents fill out the remaining roles, including a Cockney servant girl (Imogen Millais-Scott) in the role of Salome, and Lord Alfred plays the prophet, John the Baptist. The play dramatizes an ancient biblical tale: Salome tries to seduce the imprisoned prophet and is repulsed. As a reward fo...