Cleopatra [Blu-ray]

Director: Cecil B. DeMille Cecil B. DeMille

Overview

Film historian William K. Everson once observed that the secret to the success of Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 Cleopatra is that DeMille subtly reshaped the known historical events into a contemporary "gold-digger makes good" scenario. Exhibiting the same determination with which Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top in 1933's Baby Face, Queen Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert) uses her feminine wiles to become sole ruler of Egypt. By turns kittenish and cold-blooded, Cleopatra wraps such otherwise responsible Roman worthies as Julius Caesar (Warren William, who wittily plays his role like one of his standard ruthless business executives) and Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) around her well-manicured little finger. To emphasize the "contemporary" nature of the film, DeMille adds little modernistic touches throughout: The architecture of Egypt and Rome has a distinctly art-deco look; a matron at a social gathering clucks "Poor Calpurnia...well, the wife is always the last to know"; and, after Caesar's funeral, Mark Anthony is chided by an associate for "all that 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' business!" Cleopatra's barge scene and her suicide from the bite of a snake marked two of the most memorable sequences in DeMille's career. Remarkably, for all the enormous sets and elaborate costumes, Cleopatra came in at a budget of $750,000 -- almost $40 million less than the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor remake.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/10/2018
UPC:	0191329055120
Original Release:	1934
Rating:	NR
Source:	Universal Studios
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00
Sales rank:	19,423

Special Features

Claudette Colbert: Queen of the Silver Screen; Cecil B. DeMille: Hollywood's Epic Director ; Forbidden Film: The Production Code Era; Feature Commentary with Filmmaker F.X. Feeney; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Claudette Colbert	Cleopatra
Warren William	Julius Caesar
Henry Wilcoxon	Marc Antony
Joseph Schildkraut	King Herod
Ian Keith	Octavian
Gertrude Michael	Calpurnia
C. Smith	Enobarbus
Ian MacLaren	Cassius
Arthur Hohl	Brutus
Leonard Mudie	Pothinos
Irving Pichel	Apollodorus
Edwin Maxwell	Casca
Eleanor Phelps	Charmian
Grace Durkin	Iras
Ferdinand Gottschalk	Glabrio
Claudia Dell	Octavia
Harry Beresford	The Soothsayer
Jayne Regan	Lady Vesta
William Farnum	Lepidus
Lionel Belmore	Fidius
Florence Roberts	Lady Flora
William Mong	Court physician
Robert Warwick	Gen. Achillas
George Walsh	Courier
Jack Rutherford	Flavius
Kenneth Gibson	Scribe
Wedgewood Nowell	Scribe
Bruce Warren	Scribe
John Carradine	Roman
Edgar Dearing	Murderer
Wilfred Lucas	Roman Greeting Antony
Charles Morris	Cicero
Jack Mulhall	Roman greeting Antony
Hal Price	Onlooker at procession
Richard Alexander	Gen. Philodemas
Dorothy White	Dancer
Rudolph Kopp	Composer

Technical Credits

Bartlett Cormack

Waldemar Young

Vincent Lawrence

Cecil B. DeMille	Director,Producer
Bartlett Cormack	Screenwriter
Waldemar Young	Screenwriter
Vincent Lawrence	Screenwriter
Cullen Tate	Assistant Director
Franklin Hansen	Sound/Sound Designer