Discover
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Sergio Leone
Second Unit Director -
Mervyn LeRoy
Director -
Anthony Mann
Second Assistant Director -
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Novel -
John Lee Mahin
Screenplay -
A. Arnold Gillespie
Special Effects -
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair Designer -
Sonya Levien
Screenplay
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CinemaSerf 6/1/2024 5:38:18 PM
Oscar-nominated Peter Ustinov is superb as the Emperor Nero in this depiction of the end of the reign of this flawed megalomanic. His behaviour is only tempered by the clever Leo Genn ("Petronius"), his arbiter of arts who manages by deft use of language and his wits, to keep the lunatic emperor from his worst excesses. Robert Taylor turns in a pretty standard performance as the film's hero "Vinicius" and Deborah Kerr looks stunning, though acts woodenly, as the rather simpering "Lygia". A wonderfully colourful spectacle of a film showing off the costumier and set designers arts to best effect. Miklós Rósza's score is suitably grand as our story gives the rise of Christianity the Hollywood treatment. It does run on a bit long, and I'm sure I spotted Sophia Loren driving a chariot...
Christopher Lee
Chariot Driver (uncredited)Sophia Loren
Lygia's Slave (uncredited)Bud Spencer
Imperial Guard (uncredited)Peter Ustinov
NeroElizabeth Taylor
Christian Prisoner in Arena (uncredited)Deborah Kerr
LygiaFinlay Currie
PeterWalter Pidgeon
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)