Cleopatra (1934)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Cecil B. DeMille

Writers:

Bartlett Cormack (adaptation)
Waldemar Young (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 October 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

History's most seductive woman! The screen's mightiest spectacle!

Plot:

The man-hungry Queen of Egypt leads Julius Caesar and Marc Antony astray, amid scenes of DeMillean splendor.

Plot Keywords:

Julius Caesar | Marc Antony | Egypt | Queen | Cleopatra

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations

Cast

Claudette Colbert	...	Cleopatra
Warren William	...	Julius Caesar
Henry Wilcoxon	...	Marc Antony
Joseph Schildkraut	...	King Herod
Ian Keith	...	Octavian
Gertrude Michael	...	Calpurnia
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Enobarbus
Irving Pichel	...	Apollodorus
Arthur Hohl	...	Brutus
Edwin Maxwell	...	Casca
Ian Maclaren	...	Cassius (as Ian MacLaren)
Eleanor Phelps	...	Charmion
Leonard Mudie	...	Pothinos
Grace Durkin	...	Iras
Ferdinand Gottschalk	...	Glabrio (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #80)

Filming Locations:

El Segundo, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by MCA ever since.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As you look at Pothinos' chariot as it comes at you the horse in the right side is a good hand shorter than the horse on the left.

Quotes:

Cleopatra: It's not the Senate I'm worried about but their fat wives. Do you know anything about senators, Charmion?
Charmion: Well, we only got here yesterday, Majesty.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Behind the Tunes: Crash! Bang! Boom! - The Wild Sounds of Treg Brown (2004) (V)

Cleopatra one of DeMille's more literate pictures

I have been very fond of this movie for years, particularly as compared with Fox's bloated monstrosity of 1963. Colbert is admittedly somewhat miscast (her face is altogether Parisienne), but she handles the part with considerable charm. Warren William, usually a very limited actor, is as good a Caesar as I have seen on film, commanding and uncomfortable by turns; while Henry Wilcoxon is the definitive Mark Antony, laughing, brawling, swaggering, crude and brooding. C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus, the last of the hardcore Roman republicans, is perfect. Victor Milner's cinematography is superb, if old-fashioned. There is one magnificent pullback shot aboard Cleopatra's barge, with more and more stuff entering the frame, which as pure cinema is worth more than all four hours of the Liz Taylor version for my money. Shakespeare and Shaw have both been drawn upon here and there, and the movie has generally good (and fun) dialogue, not always one of DeMille's strengths. Consider also the scene of Cleopatra's entrance into Rome: contrary to DeMille's usual reputation, this scene is underplayed, depicting a plausible parade through a very real Roman street with authentic trappings, compared to the outrageously bogus and overblown spectacle given us in 1963. A word is also in order for the music of Rudolph Kopp, an extremely obscure Hollywood composer, who turns in an atmospheric score redolant of the old silent movies. This style is easy to make fun of, but see how effective it is in the highly theatrical opening credits! DeMille used silent film technique well into the talkie era, particularly in crowd scenes, and it still works. The battle scenes are the weakest point, since evidently Paramount ran out of cash and C.B. had to make do with a bunch of short shots put together with Russian cutting; nevertheless, this is still as good a picture on the subject as has yet been made, a bit of extravagant old Hollywood at its most polished.