Caesar and Cleopatra *** (1945, Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger, Cecil Parker, Flora Robson, Francis L Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 7427

George Bernard Shaw’s clever, though minor play Caesar and Cleopatra is perfectly cast for the screen in 1945: Claude Rains as the ageing Roman conqueror Julius Caesar and Vivien Leigh as the young Nile beauty Cleopatra are both brilliant at the head of a large cast of British luminaries. It was nominated for one 1947 Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (John Bryan) and was a nominee for Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

With Shaw adapting his own play, director Gabriel Pascal keeps most of Shaw’s wit, and adds lavish spectacle, ravishing photography (in the most alluring Technicolor) and stunning sets and costumes. Sadly Pascal also allows what was then Britain’s most extravagant movie to be overblown, over-wordy and overlong at 138 minutes. It cost £1,278,000, but grossed $1,363,371 in the US alone.

Nonetheless, it can be judged a worthy effort and a fascinating folly. It is Kay Kendall’s fourth film, as a slave; and, in his second film, Roger Moore plays a Roman soldier.

Also in the formidable cast are Cecil Parker as Britannus, Stewart Granger as Apollodorus, Flora Robson as Ftatateeta, Francis L Sullivan as Pothinus, Raymond Lovell as Lucius Septimius, Anthony Harvey as Ptolemy, Jean Simmons (uncredited) as Harpist, Basil Sydney as Rufio, Anthony Eustrel, Ernest Thesiger as Theodotus, Renée Asherson, Olga Edwardes, Stanley Holloway, Michael Rennie, James McKechnie, Esme Percy, Leo Genn, Alan Wheatley, Anthony Holles, Charles Victor, Ronald Shiner, John Laurie, Charles Rolfe, Felix Aylmer, Ivor Barnard, Valentine Dyall, Gerald Case, Gibb McLaughlin, H F Maltby, Don Stannard, Russell Thorndike, Charles Deane, John Bryning, Harda Swanhilde, Zena Marshall, Peter Bayliss, Marie Ault, Olwen Brookes, Michael Cacoyannis, Cathleen Nesbitt, Charles Paton and Mackenzie Ward.

Caesar and Cleopatra is directed by Gabriel Pascal, runs 138 minutes, is made by Gabriel Pascal Productions, Independent Producers and Two Cities, is released by Eagle Lion and Rank, is written by Bernard Shaw, adapting his own play, is shot in Technicolor by Freddie Young, Robert Krasker, Jack Hildyard and Jack Cardiff, is produced by Gabriel Pascal, is scored by Georges Auric, and is designed by John Bryan and Oliver Messel.

Jean Simmons was married to Stewart Granger from 20 December 1950 to 12 August 1960 (divorced, with one child).

During the shoot, Leigh found that she was expecting a baby with Laurence Olivier. While filming a scene where she had to slide across the floor and run up stairs, she slipped and had a miscarriage, triggering a mental breakdown.

Pascal is also known for his work on Major Barbara (1941) and Pygmalion (1938).

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 but also an Oscar in 1939 – (Best Writing, Screenplay shared) for Pygmalion. Shaw said: It’s an insult for them to offer me any honour, as if they had never heard of me before – and it’s very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to George for being King of England.’

Although legend says Shaw never accepted the Oscar, Mary Pickford said she saw it on his mantle. After his death, the curator of his home museum used the tarnished Oscar statuette as a door stop.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7427

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