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Mervyn LeRoy
Director -
Tom Howard
Special Effects -
Sergio Leone
Second Unit Director -
John Lee Mahin
Screenplay -
Cedric Gibbons
Art Direction -
Anthony Mann
Second Assistant Director -
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair Designer -
Sonya Levien
Screenplay
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CinemaSerf 6/1/2024 5:38:18PM
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...
Alfredo Varelli
LucanAlfredo Rizzo
Hairdresser (uncredited)Leonardo Scavino
Man (uncredited)Harry J. Vejar
Fisherman (uncredited)Norman Wooland
NervaSophia Loren
Lygia's Slave (uncredited)Patricia Laffan
PoppaeaBud Spencer
Imperial Guard (uncredited)