Discover
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Sergio Leone
Second Unit Director -
Mervyn LeRoy
Director -
Douglas Shearer
Sound Recordist -
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair Designer -
Cedric Gibbons
Art Direction -
Anthony Mann
Second Assistant Director -
John Lee Mahin
Screenplay -
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)Elizabeth Taylor
Christian Prisoner in Arena (uncredited)Bud Spencer
Imperial Guard (uncredited)Peter Ustinov
NeroDeborah Kerr
LygiaRobert Taylor
Marcus ViniciusWalter Pidgeon
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)