Quo Vadis (1951)

Quo Vadis (1951)

Directed by Irving G. Thalberg Award winner Mervyn LeRoy with a screenplay by S. N. Behrman Sonya Levien (Interrupted Melody (1955)) and John Lee Mahin this slightly above average historical drama is much like Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932). It’s set during the time of the fading Roman Empire and Christianity’s birth. In both films a decorated Roman war hero named Marcus is influenced by a female "believer" e.g. when he falls in love with her his eyes are "opened". Marcus’s infatuation with the Christian woman enrages Empress Poppaea who would have the warrior as her own lover; her husband Emperor Nero literally fiddles while eventually Rome burns.

LeRoy spends more time on Robert Taylor’s Marcus’s "conversion" than DeMille did with Fredric March’s making "it" a bit more credible in this one (though overall I prefer the original film). Plus as much as I like actress Claudette Colbert I think Patricia Laffan’s Poppaea was much more believably evil (e.g. I hated her more as one should) than Colbert’s. Deborah Kerr plays the Christian woman (giving her normal solid performance) the object of Marcus’s love and Poppaea’s jealousy. I didn’t even recognize Charles Laughton as Nero at first in the original and I found Peter Ustinov to be rather annoying in the role. Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen him play that kind of character so many times before and I found his mannerisms tiresome. Though Ustinov (as well as Leo Genn as Petronius – a rival to Marcus as Ian Keith’s Tigellinus is in the original) did receive a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination losing to Karl Malden in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). One other difference between the films is that the original begins with the burning of Rome while this remake almost ends with it. In this one with Petronius’s encouragement Nero blames the Christians for the fire (when it was really his plan to remake the city in "his own image") to justify rounding them up and feeding them to the lions etc..

The film received 8 Academy Award nominations: besides those for Genn (his only) and Ustinov it was nominated for Best Picture as well as Color Art Direction-Set Decoration Cinematography & Costume Design Editing and Score. Two future Oscar winning Best Actresses appear uncredited as extras in the film: Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren.

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