Cleopatra

Cleopatra's relationship first with Caesar and then with Mark Antony, and Rome splitting between the two men. The real story is in the shooting. It began at Pinewood in September 1960 under Rouben Mamoulian, with Peter Finch as Caesar and Stephen Boyd as Antony. After sixteen weeks and 7 million dollars they had ten minutes of usable footage. Elizabeth Taylor fell seriously ill, was diagnosed with meningitis, and production stopped. Joseph L. Mankiewicz took over and moved everything to Cinecittà in Rome. He rewrote the script while directing it: days on set, nights at the typewriter. He used amphetamine injections to keep going and developed dermatitis from the stress. In Rome the affair between Taylor and Richard Burton became a worldwide scandal. The Vatican condemned her erotic vagrancy, and the scandal only raised interest in the film. Against an initial 2 million dollar proposal the budget reached 31.1 million, with distribution and marketing adding 13 million more. The film came close to destroying 20th Century-Fox. Mankiewicz had planned two separate three-hour films, Caesar and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra. Studio head Darryl Zanuck refused, fearing audiences would not come to both. The premiere ran 244 minutes, then 221, then 184 for general release. Taylor said the cuts took the heart, the essence and the motivations out of her character. Mankiewicz summed up his position: I made the first cut, but after that it's the studio's property; they could cut it up into banjo picks if they want. It took 57.8 million dollars domestically and topped the 1963 box office, and still lost money because of the cost. It won four Academy Awards. American reviews were largely positive at 80 percent; European critics were harsher. Who it is for: viewers interested in the big studio epic and in Hollywood disasters. Who it is not for: anyone not ready for four hours. The film moves under its own weight and the second half is noticeably slower.