Platinum blonde high priestess - Lana Turner in The Prodigal, 1955

The Prodigal was a big budget CinemaScope and Eastmancolor biblical epic from MGM; it was also a lavish bomb. Very loosely based on the parable of the Prodigal Son, it lost the studio nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. (More than seven million today.) Dore Schary, head of production at MGM at the time, had tried to pull the plug on it after only a few weeks of shooting. He realized too late that Cecil B. DeMille held the franchise for this brand of Bible spectacle, but so much money had already been spent that they were forced to continue. Schary later said The Prodigal was the worst film he ever green-lighted during his tenure at the studio. Inspired by the garish splendor of the photograph above - yet another fabulous image I just stumbled across while looking for something else - G and I watched the film recently; we agree with Dore.

Why the high priestess of Astarte is presented in an oyster shell, I can't imagine...!

Top-billed Miss Turner appears to have had no illusions about the merits of the film, then or later. Still one of the studio's big stars at the time, she had to be coerced by Schary into making the film. In her memoirs she was quite frank about how stupid she found the script, how bad the costumes. (Apparently, she took the reigns as to her costuming and was responsible for paring them down to almost nothing.) She played Samarra, high priestess of the goddess Astarte, raised from early childhood to be little more than a lavishly adorned prostitute. She finds her humanity by the end, but still has to pay for all that previous and illicit sex with a fiery suicide. (Oh, sorry; SPOILER ALERT!) Her co-star was a wooden Edmund Purdom; Miss Turner had no kind words for him either. The saddest victim of the extravaganza, though, has to be Louis Calhern. Aside from his eventual dispatch via a stab to the neck - there's a curious amount of neck-stabbing in this film - it seems the film's only use for this fine actor is to embarrass him with an astonishingly ridiculous wardrobe: yards of satin drapery, gold fringe, spangles and beads... and those hats!

Frolicking with the huge statue of Baal which plays a dramatic role in the proceedings.

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There's that statue of Baal at the top of the stairs.

Stuntman George Robotham as a soon-to-be human sacrifice, Turner, and a silly looking Louis Calhern. Not the worst of his costumes, though. Not even close.

In her "leaning board", on the set with Edmund Purdom.

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Baal resting behind a palisade in Lumberton, New Jersey.

And what of Baal, you might ask? Along with a half-sized replica, the statue was reused in several subsequent films, but after the massive MGM auction of 1970, the eleven foot tall, 1.5 ton fiberglass statue found its way into the possession of a junk shop in Delaware. At some time before 1980, it was sold to a real estate company in the same state. In 2003 or 2004, and a little worse for the wear, it turned up in New Jersey; the neighbors complained. At last report - 2011 - it had been sold to a bar in Philadelphia.

"The Archers" - a portrait of the Ferguson brothers by Sir Henry Raeburn, circa 1789-90

This portrait of two Scottish brothers, Robert Ferguson of Raith (18 September 1769 – 3 December 1840) and the future Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Ferguson (8 February 1773 – 10 April 1841), was painted at the turn of the last decade of the eighteenth century, when the two subjects would have been twenty and sixteen, respectively. The only direct light in this striking and atmospheric painting plays along the face and flexed right arm of the elder brother, while the younger is completely in shadow, his portrait contained within the triangle of his brother's left arm, the bow, and the taught bowstring. The composition would seem to have been inspired by a contemporary revival of archery as a fashionable sport. Both of the brothers - Robert in 1792, Ronald in 1801 - went on to become members of the Royal Company of Archers.

Both would later serve in Parliament, but the younger prefaced his political concerns with a very successful and much decorated career in the British Army. The elder is most remembered now for his infamous affair with Mary Nisbet, the Countess of Elgin. Her husband - that same Elgin who carried off to England the Parthenon marbles which still sit, most controversially, in the British Museum - sued Ferguson and won a huge settlement. After her inevitable divorce, the Countess and Robert Ferguson married. As they had no children together, his estates passed to his brother Ronald and down through another two generations until the family line died out.

Randomly XIII

Self-portrait, by Marc Chagall, 1919.

Lana Turner, circa late 1940s-early 1950s.

Unknown, circa last quarter of the 19th century.

Amarillis Crowning Mirtillo, by Jacob van Loo, circa 1640-60.

Estudio desnudo masculino de Guadalajara, by Librado García "Smarth", circa 1922.

Monks in a monastery courtyard, by Franz Ludwig Catel, 1856.

Self-portrait, by George Frederic Watts, 1879.

Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Gustave Courbet, 1862.

Cover illustration, by Loris Riccio, 1929.

The Parasol, by Richard Edward Miller, 1913.

Waiting for the Sunday Boat, by William Henry Jackson, 1902.

The Grand Duchess Xenia and Princess Irina Yusupova in mourning for the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (their husband and father, respectively), 1933.

Le Chat gourmand crévant une toile pour manger des harengs (trompe-l'oeil with a cat and fish), by Louis-Léopold Boilly, circa 1822.

Jacob's Dream of the Heavenly Ladder, by Domenico Fetti, 1619.

Ménagère (set of flatware), by Salvador Dalí, 1957.

Mary Astor and John Barrymore in "Beau Brummel", 1924.

Lieutenant of the 6e Cuirassiers, circa second half of the 19th century.

Young Man with a Sword, Max Švabinský, 1896.

Unknown, circa late 19th-early 20th century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Unknown, European, circa 1820s.

Burmese "lady boy", by Émile Gsell, circa 1880.

Lithograph after a portrait of John "Gentleman" Jackson, prizefighter and businessman, by Benjamin Marshall, before 1812.

Rendezvous, by Arthur Georg von Ramberg, 1870.

The Hon. Ruth Cable, Lady Benthall, by Glyn Philpot, circa 1935.

Unknown, circa early 20th century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Winifred Shaw and Dick Powell with Ramon & Rosita (not actually Rosita) in the "Lullaby of Broadway" production number from Gold Diggers of 1935, 1934-35.

Turkish Groom Holding An Arab Stallion, by Carle Vernet, circa first quarter of the 19th century.

James Dean during the filming of East of Eden, 1954.

Fashion plate, December 1787.

Zofia Potocka, née Branicka, by Giuseppe Molteni, circa 1830.

Alice Vronska and Konstantin Alperov - "Vronska and Alperoff" - shipboard, circa 1924-25.

A Shepherd Boy, Franz von Lenbach, 1860.

Daguerreotype by Gustav Oehme, circa 1845.

New York, New York: waiting for trains at Pennsylvania Station, by Marjory Collins, 1942.

Probably Pauline de Chauvigny, duchesse d'Aumont, by François Dumont, 1794.

Venus Consoling Cupid Stung by a Bee, Benjamin West, circa 1802.

Opium smokers, by Lai Afong, circa 1880. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Szidónia Deák, by Alajos Györgyi Giergl, 1861.

Unknown, circa 1860s. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

The Artist's Bedroom in St. Petersburg, by Konstantin Somov, Paris, 1932.

Unknown, circa late 19th-early 20th century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Saint Sebastian, by Gerrit van Honthorst, 1623.

Self-portrait, by Rita Angus (signed "Rita Cook", her married name at the time), 1936.

Portrait of a Man in Armor with Two Pages, by Paris Bordone, circa 1530.