David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba is a 1951 American historical drama directed by Henry King and written by Philip Dunne for 20th Century Fox. It centres on King David of Israel, who, after a shepherd boyhood that included the defeat of the giant Goliath and years of victorious warfare, now rules his people but feels isolated at the height of his power. He becomes drawn to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his officers, and the affair has consequences that reach beyond the two of them: Bathsheba is with child, and David arranges for her husband to be placed in the thick of the fighting so that he will not return. The prophet Nathan confronts the king over his conduct, and David must reckon with the cost of his actions for himself, his household and his kingdom.

Gregory Peck plays David, with Susan Hayward as Bathsheba, Kieron Moore as Uriah and Raymond Massey as Nathan, alongside James Robertson Justice and Jayne Meadows. The film sits between King's The Gunfighter and The Snows of Kilimanjaro in the sequence of his directing credits, and producer Darryl F. Zanuck mounted it on a budget of around two million dollars. Audience response has been modest: on IMDb it holds 6.1/10 from about 2,900 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.8/10 from roughly 75 votes.