Product Notes
Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra, one of the most spectacular motion pictures ever to hit the silver screen, is now available in a new 75th Anniversary Edition DVD. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, the historical epic stars Claudette Colbert as the cunning Queen of the Nile who, wielding her beauty like a weapon, lures Roman leaders Julius Caesar (Warren William) and Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) into her web of royal deception and betrayal. Featuring a digitally remastered picture and all-new bonus features, Cleopatra 75th Anniversary Edition is a stunning tribute to one of the most breathtaking motion pictures ever made.
Product Reviews
Film historian William K. Everson once observed that the secret to the success of Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 Cleopatra is that DeMille subtly reshaped the known historical events into a contemporary "gold-digger makes good" scenario. Exhibiting the same determination with which Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top in 1933's Baby Face, Queen Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert) uses her feminine wiles to become sole ruler of Egypt. By turns kittenish and cold-blooded, Cleopatra wraps such otherwise responsible Roman worthies as Julius Caesar (Warren William, who wittily plays his role like one of his standard ruthless business executives) and Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) around her well-manicured little finger. To emphasize the "contemporary" nature of the film, DeMille adds little modernistic touches throughout: The architecture of Egypt and Rome has a distinctly art-deco look; a matron at a social gathering clucks "Poor Calpurnia...well, the wife is always the last to know"; and, after Caesar's funeral, Mark Anthony is chided by an associate for "all that 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' business!" Cleopatra's barge scene and her suicide from the bite of a snake marked two of the most memorable sequences in DeMille's career. Remarkably, for all the enormous sets and elaborate costumes, Cleopatra came in at a budget of $750,000 -- almost $40 million less than the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor remake. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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7 April 2009 |
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UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ( UNLS ) |
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112 |
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1: USA, Canada |
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1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard), Black and White, Pan and Scan, NTSC |
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English, French, Spanish |
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DDM2.0, English, Spanish |
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Discs:1 ~ Format:Ntsc ~ Region:1 |
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Arthur Hohl(Brutus), Bruce Warren(Scribe), C. Aubrey Smith(Enobarbus), Charles Morris(Cicero), Claudette Colbert(Cleopatra), Claudia Dell(Octavia), Dorothy White(Dancer), Edgar Dearing(Murderer), Edwin Maxwell(Casca), Eleanor Phelps(Charmian), Ferdinand Gottschalk(Glabrio), Florence Roberts(Lady Flora), George Walsh(Courier), Gertrude Michael(Calpurnia), Grace Durkin(Iras), Hal Price(Onlooker at procession), Harry Beresford(The Soothsayer), Henry Wilcoxon(Marc Antony), Ian Keith(Octavius), Ian MacLaren(Cassius), Irving Pichel(Apollodorus), Jack Mulhall(Roman greeting Antony), Jack Rutherford(Flavius), Jayne Regan(Lady Vesta), John Carradine(Roman), Joseph Schildkraut(King Herod), Kenneth Gibson(Scribe), Leonard Mudie(Pothinos), Lionel Belmore(Fidius), Richard Alexander(Gen. Philodemas), Robert Manning(Aelius), Robert Warwick(Gen. Achillas), Warren William(Julius Caesar), Wedgewood Nowell(Scribe), Wilfred Lucas(Roman Greeting Antony), William Farnum(Lepidus), William V. Mong(Court physician) |
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Cinematographer:Victor Milner, Composer (Music Score):Rudolph G. Kopp, Director:Cecil B. DeMille, Producer:Cecil B. DeMille, Screenwriter:Bartlett Cormack, Screenwriter:Vincent Lawrence, Screenwriter:Waldemar Young |
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