Antony and Cleopatra is a 1972 film adaptation

Film adaptation

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

 of the play of the same name

Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...

  by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 made by the Rank Organisation

Rank Organisation

The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....

. It was directed by Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

 and produced by Peter Snell

Peter Snell

Sir Peter George Snell, KNZM, MBE is a former New Zealand athlete, now resident in Texas, United States. He had one of the shortest careers of world famous international sportsmen, yet achieved so much that he was voted New Zealand’s "Sports Champion of the Century"...

 from a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Federico De Urrutia and the director.

The film stars Charlton Heston and Hildegarde Neil

Hildegarde Neil

Hildegarde Neil is an English actress.She first appeared on television in a BBC schools' television production of Julius Caesar in 1963 and after that appeared mostly as a guest artiste in a variety of TV series over the last 40 years...

 in the title roles, with Eric Porter

Eric Porter

Eric Richard Porter was an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early life:Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth Spall...

, John Castle

John Castle

John Castle is an English actor. Castle has acted in theatre, film and television. He is well known for his role as Postumus in the 1976 BBC television adaptation of I, Claudius and for playing Geoffrey in the 1968 film, The Lion in Winter. He also played Dr...

, Fernando Rey

Fernando Rey

Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...

, Carmen Sevilla

Carmen Sevilla

Carmen Sevilla is a popular Spanish actress, singer and TV presenter. She made her film debut in 1948 in Jalisco Canta en Sevilla. Other roles include Academy Award nominee La venganza, Buscando a Mónica and the 1956 French film Don Juan.She played Mary Magdalene in Nicholas Ray's King of Kings...

, Freddie Jones

Freddie Jones

Frederick Charles "Freddie" Jones is an English character actor.Jones was born in the town of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of Ida Elizabeth and Charles Edward Jones. He became an actor after ten years of working as a laboratory assistant with a firm making ceramic products,...

 and Douglas Wilmer

Douglas Wilmer

-Early life:Wilmer was born in London and educated at King's School, Canterbury and Stonyhurst College. He trained at RADA but was called up to the Army in World War II. Posted to an antitank battery in the Royal West African Frontier Force, he was invalided out after he acquired tuberculosis. He...

.
The film received poor reviews and, as a consequence, a very limited release in the USA.

Heston had played Mark Antony in two other Shakespearean films - the 1970 film, Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar (1970 film)

Julius Caesar is a 1970 independent film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Stuart Burge from a screenplay by Robert Furnival. The film stars Charlton Heston , Jason Robards and John Gielgud . It is the first film version of the play made in color...

, also produced by Peter Snell, and a 1950 film, Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar (1950 film)

Julius Caesar is a 1950 film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar. It was produced and directed by David Bradley using actors from the Chicago area. Charlton Heston, who had known Bradley since his youth, and who was establishing himself in television and theater in New York, played...

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