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Cleopatra (1934 film)
Encyclopedia
Cleopatra is a 1934 epic film
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
and distributed by Paramount Pictures
, which retells the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt
.
It was written by Waldemar Young
, Vincent Lawrence and Bartlett Cormack
, and was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille
.
Claudette Colbert
stars as Cleopatra
, Warren William
as Julius Caesar
, Henry Wilcoxon
as Marc Antony
, Joseph Schildkraut
as King Herod, and Ian Keith
as Octavian.
The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco
look of its sets (by Hans Dreier
) and costumes (by Travis Banton
), the atmospheric music by Rudolph Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece
of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
(Victor Milner
), and was nominated Best Picture
, Best Assistant Director
(Cullen Tate), Best Film Editing
(Anne Bauchens
), and Best Sound, Recording
(Franklin Hansen
).
It has been released for home viewing several times, including a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
.
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
and distributed by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, which retells the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period...
.
It was written by Waldemar Young
Waldemar Young
Waldemar Young , was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 81 films between 1917 and 1938.He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and died in Hollywood, California from pneumonia....
, Vincent Lawrence and Bartlett Cormack
Bartlett Cormack
Edward Bartlett Cormack was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and producer best known for his 1927 Broadway play The Racket, and for working with Howard Hughes and Cecil B. DeMille on several films....
, and was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
.
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
stars as Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period...
, Warren William
Warren William
Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
as Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Henry Wilcoxon
Henry Wilcoxon
Henry Wilcoxon was an actor born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, and best known as a leading man in many of Cecil B. DeMille's films, also serving as DeMille's associate producer on his later films....
as Marc Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
, Joseph Schildkraut
Joseph Schildkraut
Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian stage and film actor.-Early life:Born in Vienna, Austria, Schildkraut was the son of stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut. The younger Schildkraut moved to the United States in the early 1900s. He appeared in many Broadway productions...
as King Herod, and Ian Keith
Ian Keith
-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...
as Octavian.
Production
In 1934 the Hays code had just taken effect, so DeMille got away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to in his later productions. He opens the film with a naked, strategically lit slavegirl holding up incense burners as the title appears on screen.Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
look of its sets (by Hans Dreier
Hans Dreier
Hans Dreier was a film art director.Born in Bremen, Germany, Dreier began his career in German film in 1919 and by the end of the 1920s had relocated to Hollywood....
) and costumes (by Travis Banton
Travis Banton
Travis Banton was the chief designer at Paramount Pictures. He is considered one of the most important Hollywood costume designers of the 1930s.He was born in Waco, Texas. Travis moved to New York City as a child...
), the atmospheric music by Rudolph Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece
Set piece
Set piece may refer to:* Set piece , an elaborate sequence which sees either a chase, fight, or other action taking place in an original and memorable way...
of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(Victor Milner
Victor Milner
Victor Milner, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He was nominated for ten cinematography Academy Awards, winning once for 1934's Cleopatra...
), and was nominated Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, Best Assistant Director
Academy Award for Best Assistant Director
In the first year of this award it referred to no specific film.*1933 winners** Charles Barton ** Rick James ** Charles Dorian ** Fred Fox ** Gordon Hollingshead ** Dewey Starkey...
(Cullen Tate), Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
(Anne Bauchens
Anne Bauchens
Anne Bauchens was an American film editor who is particularly noted for her collaboration over 40 years with the director Cecil B. DeMille. When the Academy Award for Film Editing was created in 1934, Bauchens received one of the three nominations for her editing of Cleopatra...
), and Best Sound, Recording
Academy Award for Sound
The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...
(Franklin Hansen
Franklin Hansen
Franklin Hansen was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording for the film A Farewell to Arms and was nominated for four more in the same category.-Selected filmography:...
).
It has been released for home viewing several times, including a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Universal Studios Home Entertainment is the home video division of Universal Pictures...
.
Cast
- Claudette ColbertClaudette ColbertClaudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
as Cleopatra - Warren WilliamWarren WilliamWarren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
as Julius CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.... - Henry WilcoxonHenry WilcoxonHenry Wilcoxon was an actor born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, and best known as a leading man in many of Cecil B. DeMille's films, also serving as DeMille's associate producer on his later films....
as Marc Antony - Joseph SchildkrautJoseph SchildkrautJoseph Schildkraut was an Austrian stage and film actor.-Early life:Born in Vienna, Austria, Schildkraut was the son of stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut. The younger Schildkraut moved to the United States in the early 1900s. He appeared in many Broadway productions...
as King HerodHerod the GreatHerod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his... - Ian KeithIan Keith-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...
as Octavian - Gertrude MichaelGertrude MichaelGertrude Michael was an American film, stage and television actress....
as CalpurniaCalpurniaCalpurnia can refer to:In ancient Rome:* Gens Calpurnia, a noble family**Calpurnia Pisonis, third and last wife of Julius Caesar**Calpurnia, third and last wife of Pliny the Younger and grand-daughter of Calpurnius Fabatus... - C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus
- Irving PichelIrving PichelIrving Pichel was an American actor and film director. He married Violette Wilson, daughter of Jackson Stitt Wilson, a Methodist minister and Socialist mayor of Berkeley, California. Her sister was actress Viola Barry...
as ApollodorusApollodorusApollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace... - Arthur HohlArthur HohlArthur Hohl was a stage and motion-picture character actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began appearing in films in the early 1920s...
as BrutusBrutusBrutus is the cognomen of the Roman gens Junia, a prominent family of the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as immortalized in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?", from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar.... - Edwin MaxwellEdwin MaxwellEdwin Maxwell was an Irish character actor in Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s, frequently cast as shady businessmen and shysters, though often ones with a dignified bearing....
as CascaServilius CascaPublius Servilius Casca Longus was one of the assassins of Gaius Julius Caesar, who was murdered on 15 March, 44 BC.... - Ian MaclarenIan MaclarenIan Maclaren was a Scottish author and theologian.He was the son of John Watson, a civil servant...
as CassiusGaius Cassius LonginusGaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus.-Early life:... - Eleanor PhelpsEleanor PhelpsEleanor Phelps was an American theater, film and television actress from Roland Park, Baltimore, Maryland. She appeared in 17 Broadway theater productions....
as Charmion - Leonard MudieLeonard MudieLeonard Mudie was a British-born character actor whose career ran many decades.His first film appearance was in 1921, and his last on-screen performance was in the Star Trek classic TV series....
as PothinosPothinusPothinus , a eunuch, was regent for Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He is most remembered for turning Ptolemy against his sister and co-ruler Cleopatra VII, thus starting a civil war, and for having Pompey decapitated and presenting the severed head to Julius... - Grace Durkin as Iras
- Ferdinand GottschalkFerdinand GottschalkFerdinand Gottschalk was an English film actor. He appeared in 76 films between 1917 and 1938. He was born and died in London, England....
as Glabrio (scenes deleted)
External links
- Greatest Films- Cleopatra Critique and plot description.
- CinemaGraphe | Cleopatra 1934 Images and the Story of the making of the film