Serpent of the Nile ** (1953, Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr) – Classic Movie Review 10,551

Rhonda Fleming plays Cleopatra in William Castle’s amusingly daft, kitsch and campy 1953 Technicolor biopic Serpent of the Nile, with Raymond Burr unexpectedly cast as Mark Antony.

In 1953, Rhonda Fleming portrays Cleopatra in director William Castle and producer Sam Katzman’s amusingly daft, kitsch and campy Technicolor biographical historical adventure film Serpent of the Nile for Columbia Pictures, with Raymond Burr unexpectedly cast as Mark Antony and William Lundigan as Lucilius.

In the story and screenplay by Robert E Kent, the serpentine Egyptian Queen Cleopatra begins a tragic love affair with Roman general Mark Anthony.

Katzman sold the film as ‘2 Years in the Making’ but Castle said it was ‘2 Years in The Talking. Fifteen days in the Making’.

Julie Newmar (listed as Julie Newmeyer) appears as the gilded girl, an exotic dancer clad only in gold paint and a gold fabric bikini of 1953 style. Meanwhile Fleming is wearing a Fifties-style ‘bullet bra’ and the Egyptian dancing girls are wearing Fifties bikinis.

Katzman told Castle that it was his most ambitious film to date, but it had a low budget, and was shot on the sets from Rita Hayworth’s Salome.

A chariot race through the sands of Egypt towards a sand dune, standing in front of a pyramid, shows off one of the film’s many obvious matte shots. The pyramid is a superimposed painting, with the sand dune concealing the join between the live action and the matte.

Also in the cast are Jean Byron as Charmian, Michael Ansara as Captain Florus, Michael Fox as Octavius, Conrad Wolfe as elderly assassin, John Crawford as Captain Domitius, Jane Easton as Cytheris, Robert Griffin as Brutus, Ted Hecht as Serapian Viceroy of cypress, and Frederic Berest as Marculius.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,551

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