"Fine retelling of the story of Ruth." If you're familar with the book of Ruth, you'll know that most of the characters are dead from the beginning. Therefore, liberties had to be taken to give the audience a grasp on Jewish and Moabite culture. Henry Koster does a very good job filling in the gaps--nothing hokey or heretical--and when Ruth joins Naomi, the film gets into the meat of the story. Elena Eden (who looks a lot like Haya Harareet from "Ben-Hur") has a pleasant Jewish accent and does an exceptional job as the pagan-turned-believer. She displays love, faith, beauty, devotion and courage and you don't wonder why Mahlon and Boaz fell in love with her. Peggy Wood plays Naomi with a sense of faith and conviction and Viveca Lindfords is paticulary good as the sinister high priestess of Chemosh. The pacing is a little slow for modern audiences, but all in all, "The Story of Ruth" is a sweet, heartwarming film that hits the highlights of the book and deserves to be included in the group of sword-and-sandal epics who do their job well.