![]() ![]() Though the play was minor and the film bombed at the box office despite mostly favorable reviews, there were still wonderful performances by both Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh to rave about that made this a special film despite it being too theatrical for cinema. This was England’s most expensive film to date, and the money shows in the stunning visuals, colorful sets and terrific production values. Inexcusably dull in parts, while in other parts capturing some of Shaw’s sharp wit, his Shavian dialogue, his cynical view of the military and empire and, at times, it was able to make Shaw’s acerbic comedy come to life in a somewhat slapstick manner. It’s concerned with the nice old man Caesar (Claude Rains) and his visit to Egypt to stave off civil unrest among his subjects and collect taxes, who takes time off his political/military mission to guide in a paternal way the immature child queen of Egypt, Cleopatra ( Vivien Leigh ), on how to act like a queen. ![]() Pascal directs with conviction this lavish, slow-moving, talky, 1898 Shaw theatrical production, scripted by Shaw. ”ĭirector and producer Gabriel Pascal (“Major Barbara”), an Hungarian exile in Great Britain, associated with Alexander Korda, felt it was his mission in life to bring George Bernard Shaw to film and thereby to the masses (the box office failure of this film put a damper on his ambitions and he only got one more shot at Shaw in 1952 producing Androcles and the Lion ). “ Inexcusably dull in parts, while in other parts capturing some of Shaw’s sharp wit. Sullivan ( Pothinus ), Basil Sydney ( Rufio ), Cecil Parker ( Britannus), Anthony Harvey (King Ptolemy), Raymond Lovell (Lucius Septemus), Ernest Thesiger (Theodotus), Anthony Eustral (Achillas) Runtime: 134 MPAA Rating: NR producer: Gabriel Pascal MGM Home Entertainment 1945-UK) CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (director: Gabriel Pascal screenwriter: George Bernard Shaw/from the play by George Bernard Shaw cinematographers: Jack Cardiff/Jack Hildyard/Robert Krasker/Freddie Young editor: Frederick Wilson music: Georges Auric cast: Claude Rains ( Julius Caesar ), Vivien Leigh ( Cleopatra ), Stewart Granger ( Apollodorus ), Flora Robson ( Ftatateeta ), Francis L. ![]()
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