DAVID AND BASHSHEBA Alfred Newman
David and Bathsheba was 20th Century-Fox’s initial entry in the Biblical-spectacular trend of the late 1940s and early ’50s. Released in August 1951, David and Bathsheba received five Academy Award nominations and became at $7 million in domestic box-office rentals not only the biggest moneymaker in Fox history to that time, but also the top box-office film for any studio that year.
Starring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, and a large cast of supporting players, David and Bathsheba, with a script by Phillip Dunne and direction by Henry King, was, as producer Darryl F. Zanuck put it, “an honest, sincere Biblical story dealing with one of the greatest characters of all time,” but also added the all-important “Plus, it is a violent, sexy love story that involves illegitimacy and even murder.” Of course, one of the key components of the film was Alfred Newman’s stunning score.
