Cleopatra **** (1934, Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Henry Wilcoxon) – Classic Movie Review 2413

Producer-director Cecil B DeMille’s incredibly lavish and kitsch 1934 epic version of the Cleopatra story is infectiously extravagant in every way, as befits the ultimate showman he was. He was determined to make a popular movie of the story, feeling that the William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw play versions were too highbrow.

And he did. The film was one of Paramount’s biggest hits of the year. It won One Oscar – for Best Cinematography for Victor Milner – and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Sound Recording (Franklin Hansen), Best Assistant Director (Cullen Tate) and Best Film Editing (Anne Bauchens).

Looking magnetic and magnificent, Claudette Colbert is authoritative and imperious, stamping her personality all over the Egyptian Queen of the Nile title role, but Henry Wilcoxon and Warren William haven’t worn so well as Marc Antony and Julius Caesar. However, there’s a clutch of admirable support turns to relish, led by Ian Keith’s Octavian, Gertrude Michael’s Calpurnia, Joseph Schildkraut’s King Herod, C Aubrey Smith’s Enobarbus and Arthur Hohl’s Brutus. A very young David Niven has a bit part as a slave.

In 48 BC, Cleopatra welcomes the arrival in Egypt of Julius Caesar to solidify her power under Rome. Man-eater Cleo leads Caesar astray, but he is killed, so she quickly transfers her love onto Marc Antony.

Even if the pacing is jerky and some of Waldemar Young, Vincent Lawrence and Bartlett Cormack’s screen-writing is hesitant, this gorgeous antique show is still great loads of enormous fun, with deliciously camp performances, glorious black and white cinematography, and the accent on eye-popping spectacle. The film is also memorable for Hans Dreier’s sumptuous Art Deco sets, Travis Banton’s costumes, Rudolph George Kopp’s atmospheric music and DeMille’s legendary set piece of Cleopatra’s seduction of Antony on her barge.

Also in the huge cast are Leonard Mudie, Irving Pichel, Claudia Dell, Robert Warwick, Edwin Maxwell, Ian McLaren, Eleanor Phelps, Grace Durkin, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Harry Beresford, Jayne Regan, William Farnum, Lionel Belmore, Florence Roberts, Richard Alexander, Celia Ryland, William V Mong, George Walsh, Jack Rutherford, Edgar Dearing, John Carradine, Jack Mulhall and Agnes DeMille.

The just pre-Hays Code movie could still be risqué, and it opens with an apparently naked but strategically lit slave girl holding an incense burner in each hand as the title appears on screen.

Universal released a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009.

DeMille borrowed a copy of the 1917 silent version of Cleopatra with Theda Bara from the Fox studio for a private viewing. On July 9 1937, a fire at the storage facility destroyed almost all of Fox’s archived prints, presumably including Cleopatra. DeMille’s screening is probably the last time anyone saw the legendary film. 

It was Colbert’s year. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for It Happened One Night, made the same year (1934). Unfortunately Colbert was terrified of snakes and very uneasy about her climactic scene with an asp. DeMille had a huge snake sent from Los Angeles Zoo and approached Colbert on set with it as she sat in costume on her throne. The actress was terrified and DeMille produced a little asp and said ‘How about this instead?’ Colbert was happy to film with the small snake.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2413

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