Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Cleopatra (1934)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Cecil B. De Mille
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal)

Laborious soap opera with Claudette Colbert as the Queen of the Nile, seducing hapless Roman leaders for her own pleasure and political gain. First, she easily manipulates Julius Caesar into her corner against his homeland, leading to his untimely death at the hands of Brutus and others. His successor is Marc Antony, while at first resistant finds that after a couple of goblets of wine Cleo is beautiful enough for him to turn traitor as well. The few battle scenes are actually just montages incorporating stock footage. Cleo and Antony's tragic ending elicits little, if any sympathy, and the whole thing just crumbles like Rome in an earthquake.

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