Very disappointed :(

Undescribable Perfection

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

After seeing the longest movie in my entire life, I ended up watching this because once again, I heard it's a version of Shakespeare's "Antony And Cleopatra". The battle scenes are easily the best parts of the movie. It does kind of drag on with the conversations. Well, who am I say that after watching a four half version? As always, there's no reason to put up spoilers because we already know what's going to happen. Now only is it a story hundreds of years old, but it happened in real life! I knew little about Claudette Colbert.The dialogue is still quite nice. They actually ask at one point if Cleopatra is black. That actually is a realistic representation of her physical appearance because there's no reason to think she was. She was still ugly, though. It does make me wonder if these films could also qualify as versions of Shakespeare's "Julius Caeser" as they also show his assassination. Well, they don't really show the fate of Brutus, so its not quite the same story. ***

Director Cecil B. DeMille pulled out all of the stops for this epic production of "Cleopatra". Following his success with "The Sign of the Cross" two years earlier, and the emergence of Claudette Colbert as a major star, and in spite of the poorly received "Four Frightened People", he went back to what he knew best: the Roman epic.The story in brief, centers around the relationships between the seductive Cleopatra (Colbert), Julius Caesar (Warren William) and Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxen). First when Caesar moves to take over Egypt, she seduces him and convinces him to divorce his wife Calpurnia (Gertrude Michael) and to return triumphantly with her to Rome. Some members of the Roman Senate object to Caesar's plans and assassinate him on the fateful "ides of March".Cleopatra with the help of her faithful Egyptian aide Apollodorus (Irving Pichel), escapes to Egypt. Caesar's friend and ally Marc Antony vows revenge and sets out for Egypt to bring Cleopatra back in chains. Antony's rival Octavian (Ian Keith in a part similar to the one he played in "The Sign of the Cross") waits for Antony to make a mistake. Antony arrives in Egypt and is immediately taken under Cleopatra's spell. Apollodorus sees his opportunity and leads a movement in Rome to have Antony declared a traitor and wage war against Antony and Cleopatra. Antony's generals led by the steadfast Enobarbus (C. Aubrey Smith) desert him and..............................As the new Production Code was adopted in 1934, DeMille didn't have the leeway with nudity, sex and violence that he had two years earlier. Still and all he managed to sneak a few scenes past the censor. Colbert's costumes though less revealing still left the viewer with the impression that he had seen something. The scenes on Cleopatra's barge with the scantily clad dancers and the drawing of the drapes scene, left little to the imagination.As was the custom with DeMille epics, he spared no expense when it came to the lavish costumes and stunning sets. The battle scenes are excellent and realistically staged.Claudette Colbert was the perfect choice as Cleopatra. She was at the top of her game at this time and created what is widely believed to have been her greatest role although she never worked with DeMille again. Warren William makes an excellent Julius Caesar displaying poise and maturity as the Roman emperor and the weakness which ultimately proves to be his downfall. Henry Wilcoxen makes a viral and ambitious Antony who follows Caesar into Cleopatra's web of lust and deceit. Mention should also be made of Joseph Schildkraut as the deceitful King Herod who brings word from Rome. David Niven is listed on the cast list as a slave, but I couldn't spot him.Demille was able to tell the same story in 100 minutes that took the 1963 re-make with Elizabeth Taylor over four hours to tell. No body could better Demille's skill with epic film.

Time is not always kind to movies, and Cecil B DeMille's 1934 version of Cleopatra is certainly a case in point. Although interesting for its risqué imagery and impressive set pieces, the film holds up less well in terms of performance and plot. It's easy enough to get hold of a really crisp print of the film on DVD, but this can't disguise the fact that it offers little to entice modern viewers beyond an element of curiosity value.Julius Caesar (Warren William) arrives in Egypt intent on adding it to his long list of conquered kingdoms. He is quickly beguiled by the Egyptian queen Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert), who promises him the riches of her great nation, plus India too, if he agrees to spare Egypt from the wrath of Rome. Later, Cleopatra foils an assassination attempt on herself and Caesar, further gaining the admiration of the Roman leader in doing so. Back in Rome, the senators are concerned that Caesar plans to abolish their Republic and install himself and Cleopatra as emperor and empress. Unhappy at this idea, they assassinate him on the Senate steps, leaving two of his most trusted subordinates, Octavian (Ian Keith) and Marc Anthony (Henry Wilcoxon), to take joint control of the Roman Republic. Marc Anthony vows to capture Cleopatra and bring her back to Rome in chains, after which he intends to lead a total invasion of Egypt. However, once he meets the alluring and beautiful Egyptian queen, he quickly falls in love with her. This in turn invites the full fury of Rome upon him, and gives Octavian all the excuse he needs to curse him and declare war against him. Abandoned by his old allies, and doomed to destruction for the sake of his love for one woman, Marc Anthony has no choice but to face his tragic fate alongside Cleopatra.DeMille's film has moments of interest for movie buffs and film historians, but the wooden performances and several tediously unspooled scenes restrict its wider appeal. Colbert utterly owns the movie as the title character, floating elegantly across the sumptuous art deco sets in an array of revealing outfits. Alas, she is not helped much by the supporting players, many of whom chew the scenery most unconvincingly. Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony is especially guilty of this, giving a performance that's slightly more wooden than Cleopatra's barge. The dialogue is generally pretty terrible, a mismatched muddle of jarringly modern talk delivered in English and American accents. It hardly fits the 'feel' the film seems to be going for, and by the end becomes something of an annoyance. That's not to say there aren't occasional highlights along the way. The film's most famous sequence, which involves Cleopatra's seduction of Marc Anthony aboard her barge, lives up to its reputation, while the sequence detailing the assassination of Caesar is handled effectively in a nicely underplayed way. All in all, the 1934 Cleopatra is unlikely to be picking up a whole generation of new admirers any time soon - it's not just that the movie is old-fashioned, it's positively archaic. Having said that, it has sufficient points of interest to make it worthwhile for anyone interested in early sound cinema, or the vulgarly overblown film-making style of Cecil B. DeMille.

A very stagy looking film with dazzling sets and costumes that were the trademark of the (in)famous Director. But this film seems unnecessarily studio bound and that is not typical C.B.Almost every scene is an exercise in opulent, overdone wonder that stuns the senses with hypnotic beauty and sound. All the indoor sets are impressive and sensuous.However, the battle scenes in the middle are pedestrian by the standards set in other, earlier films (some directed by DeMille), and are clumsily cut, and seem, unfortunately, unsatisfying and out of place. This is some lazy movie-making from a Director, that one doubts, has ever been accused of such.Cleopatra is alluring and sweet, beautiful and sexy, as are all the female extras semi-clad in sheer material and stepping sensuously throughout. The male leads are less than Shakespearean and are completely extinguished by the lavishness of it all and that's acceptable if one is looking for an example of a large number of pretty pre-code sex-pots and sensational choreography, but the dialog and story are nothing but sophomoric strings that loosely, and "barely" hold it all together.