Lot in Sodom in the Rosenbach

Check out this stunning movie still from James Sibley Watson’s and Melville Webber’s Lot in Sodom found in the Marianne Moore papers. The 1933 short film tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis, Ch. 19) in what appears to be fine avant-garde style.

When not making experimental films (his only other film, also made with Webber, The Fall of the House of Usher, is in the Library of Congress’s National Registry of Film), the wealthy doctor Watson was the co-owner of The Dial magazine. Marianne Moore edited The Dial in the late 1920s and became a close friend of Watson’s wife Hildegarde. Hildegarde plays the ill-fated wife of Lot in the film. She presumably gave this still and a few others to Moore.

Hildegarde is on the right in the image above. The sword-brandishing figure in the middle may be one of the angel’s sent to visit Lot and destroy Sodom (or maybe both angels?) And is that Lot’s daughter on the left? One of the two virgin daughters he offered up to the angry mob of Sodomites who surrounded his house and insisted upon getting to know his heavenly visitors?

I don’t know. Before I say anything more, I’d better track down a copy and actually watch the film. I’ll report back and let you know who’s who.