Cleopatra (1963)

The American historical drama Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963) chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome. It achieved notoriety for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Cleopatra almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, but was also the highest-grossing film of 1963, and it won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture.


Elizabeth Taylor. Belgian postcard by SB (Uitgeverij Best), Antwerpen (Antwerp). Photo: still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Vintage postcard. Image: poster art work for Cleopatra (Joseph l. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by ISV, no. A.104. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Elizabeth Taylor in the epic Cleopatra (Joseph Manckiewcz, 1963).

The triumph and tragedy of a legendary queen

Cleopatra (Joseph Mankiewcz, 1963) was based on a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. It tells the story of the legendary Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt (Elizabeth Taylor), who experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.

In 48 B.C., Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has beaten Pompey the Great in a brutal civil war for control of the Roman Republic and pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Caesar learns that Pompey has fled to neutral Egypt, hoping to enlist the support of the young teenage Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan).

Ptolemy, now supreme ruler of Egypt after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra, attempts to gain favour with Caesar by presenting the conqueror with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinos (Grégoire Aslan) and Achillas (John Doucette). Caesar is not pleased. For him, it is a sorry end for a worthy foe.

To win Caesar's support from her brother, the young Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which her servant Apollodorus (Cesare Danova), disguised as a rug peddler, presents to Caesar as a gift from Cleopatra. When a suspicious Caesar unrolls the rug, he finds Cleopatra herself concealed within. The Roman is immediately infatuated; banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt's sole ruler and takes her as his mistress.

The ambitious Cleopatra uses her charms to manipulate Caesar and to establish her authority. A year later, she bears him the son he never had, Caesarion, and strives that their son will take his rightful place in Rome. Cleopatra can almost taste Egypt's long-awaited union with Rome, and the formation of a mighty empire. Caesar, however, must return to Italy for his triumph.

Two years pass before the two see each other again. After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. On the Ides of March in 44 B.C., the Senate is preparing to vote on whether to award Caesar additional powers for the Republic. Despite warnings from his wife Calpurnia (Gwen Watford) and Cleopatra, he is confident of victory. However, he is stabbed to death by various senators. Octavian (Roddy McDowall), Caesar's nephew, is named as his heir, not Caesarion. Cleopatra returns home to Egypt leaving Rome in turmoil.

Two years later in 42 B.C., Caesar's assassins, among them Cassius (John Hoyt) and Brutus (Kenneth Haigh), are killed at the Battle of Philippi. The powerful Roman general Marc Antony (Richard Burton) establishes a Second Triumvirate government with Octavian and Lepidus. Antony will take control of the eastern provinces including Asia Minor and Syria. In 38 B.C., when Mark Antony, Caesar's protege, beholds the beautiful Cleopatra aboard her elaborate barge at Tarsus, he is smitten and becomes both her lover and military ally.

Octavian uses their affair in his smear campaign against Antony. When Antony returns to Rome to address the situation brewing there, Octavian traps him into a marriage of state to Octavian's sister, Octavia (Jean Marsh). The marriage satisfies no one. Cleopatra is infuriated. Antony, tiring of his Roman wife, soon returns to Egypt and divorces Octavia. IN Egypt, he marries Cleopatra in a public ceremony. It leads the two lovers to a personal and political demise.

Shocked and insulted, the Senators who had previously stood by Antony abandon their hero and vote for war. Octavian murders the Egyptian ambassador, Cleopatra's tutor Sosigenes (Hume Cronyn), on the Senate steps. Sensing Antony's weakness, Octavian attacks and defeats his forces at Actium in 31 B.C. Alarmed, Cleopatra withdraws her fleet and seeks refuge in her tomb. Realising Anthony and her son are death, she arranges to be bitten by a poisonous asp.

In the final shot, Octavian and Agrippa enter Cleopatra's temple afterwords to see her dead, dressed in a gold funeral robe with her two handmaidens, also bitten by the same venomous snake that Cleopatra allowed herself to get bitten, dying by her side. Octavian also finds a last letter from Cleopatra requesting to be buried with Marc Antony.


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. AX 5536. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Elizabeth Taylor and Hume Cronyn. Czech postcard by UPF, Praha / Press Photo. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Czech postcard by UPTF Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 206/7. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).

The most expensive film ever made

As the story of Cleopatra had proved a hit for silent-screen legend Theda Bara with Cleopatra (J. Gordon Edwards, 1917), and for Claudette Colbert with Cleopatra (Cecil B. De Mille, 1934), 20th Century Fox executives hired veteran Hollywood producer Walter Wanger in 1958 to shepherd a new remake into production. Although the studio originally sought a relatively cheap production of $2 million, Wanger envisioned a much more opulent epic, and in mid-1959 successfully negotiated a higher budget of $5 million.

Rouben Mamoulian was assigned to direct and Elizabeth Taylor was awarded a record-setting contract of $1 million. Filming began in England but in January 1961 Taylor became so ill that production was shut down. Sixteen weeks of production and costs of $7 million had produced just ten minutes of film. Fox was reimbursed by the insurance company and Mamoulian was fired.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz was brought on to the production after Mamoulian's departure and the set moved to Cinecittà, outside of Rome. Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd left the production owing to other commitments and were replaced by Rex Harrison and Richard Burton.

During filming, Taylor met Richard Burton and the two began an adulterous affair. The scandal made headlines worldwide, since both were married to others, and brought bad publicity to the already troubled production. Mankiewicz was later fired during the editing phase, only to be rehired to reshoot the opening battle scenes in Spain.

The cut of the film which Mankiewicz screened for the studio was six hours long. This was cut to four hours for its initial premiere, but the studio demanded (over the objections of Mankiewicz) that the film be cut once more, this time to just barely over three hours to allow theatres to increase the number of showings per day. Mankiewicz unsuccessfully attempted to convince the studio to split the film in two in order to preserve the original cut. These were to be released separately as Caesar and Cleopatra followed by Antony and Cleopatra.

Cleopatra ended up costing $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time, and almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. It was also the highest-grossing film of 1963, earning box-office of $57.7 million in the United States (equivalent to $461 million now), yet lost money due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $352 million now), making it the only film ever to be the highest-grossing film of the year to run at a loss. Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture which it lost to the British adventure-comedy Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963).

On 21 May 2013, the restored film was shown at a special screening at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, to commemorate its 50th anniversary. It was later released as a 50th-anniversary version available on DVD and Blu-ray. Unfortunately Fox had long ago destroyed all of the trims and outs from negatives to save costs, preventing the release of traditional outtakes.

Derek Armstrong at All Movie: "Cleopatra is an interesting study in contradictions, as both a dud that won five Oscars and a lavish production that wastes most of its time on scenes of talking heads. Unfortunately, it's also not a 246-minute movie that breezes by; any modern viewer brave enough to sit through its four hours will feel the passage of every minute, with little ultimate reward for the time spent. The leads all acquit themselves admirably, especially Rex Harrison as Caesar, but viewers better acquainted with these characters through Shakespeare's lyrical language will lament the all-too-ordinary and sometimes anachronistic dialogue that comprises Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film. Elizabeth Taylor shines like the star she was, jumping in and out of dozens of ornate costumes, many of which hug her figure tightly, in a way that was provocative at the time. But she's a little too petulant and melodramatic to ultimately be taken seriously."

D.B DuMonteil at IMDb calls the film a 'visual poem, a feast for the eye and for the mind': "it was one of the most underrated Hollywood epics. First of all,it's only partially an epic: most of the scenes are intimate,generally two characters who are constantly tearing each other apart. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the most intelligent director of his time, rewrote the dialogue during the shooting, night after night, and the results are stunning, considering the difficulties he encountered with his budget and his stars. Cleopatra's dream is perfectly recreated, much better than in De Mille's version."


Elizabeth Taylor. German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 824. Photo: Cleopatra / Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1657. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1866. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2163. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2312. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Czech collectors card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 229/2 769. Photo: a 1962 set photo of Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Costume of Richard Burton in Cleopatra (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1963), Cinecittà, Roma. Photo: Ivo Blom.


Portrait of Cleopatra. Hellenistic age. Found at the Via Labicana, Rome (1886). Centrale Montemartini Rome, Machine Hall. Photo: Ivo Blom.

Sources: Derek Armstrong (AllMovie), D.B DuMonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Imported from the USA: Elizabeth Taylor

British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) began as a Hollywood child star. As an adult she came to be known for her acting talent and beauty. She was considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age, but she also made several films in Europe. Taylor had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences. 


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 98.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/20.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 37. Photo: publicity still for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958).

A dual citizen

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in 1932 in Hampstead Garden, a northwestern suburb of London. She was the daughter of Francis Lenn Taylor and Sara Sothern, who were United States citizens residing in England. Her father was an art dealer, and her mother was a former stage actress. So Liz was a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, born British through her birth on British soil and a US citizen through her parents.

At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where her father established a new art gallery, which included many paintings he shipped from England. The gallery soon attracted numerous Hollywood celebrities who appreciated its modern European paintings.

Universal Pictures gave the little, but already breathtakingly beautiful Taylor a seven-year contract, and only nine, Elizabeth appeared in her first film, There's One Born Every Minute (Harold Young, 1942). After less than a year, however, the studio fired Taylor for unknown reasons. MGM was searching for an English actress for Lassie Come Home (Fred M. Wilcox, 1943) with child-star Roddy McDowall. Taylor received the role and was offered a long-term contract.

Her first assignment was a loan-out to 20th Century Fox for a film version of the Charlotte Brontë novel Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1943) with Orson Welles. Taylor returned to England to appear in The White Cliffs of Dover (Clarence Brown, 1944). Taylor's persistence in seeking the role of Velvet Brown in MGM's National Velvet (Clarence Brown, 1944) made her a star at the age of 12. Her character was a young girl, training her beloved horse to win the Grand National. The film costarred Mickey Rooney and English newcomer Angela Lansbury,and became a great success.

Next, she was cast in another animal film, Courage of Lassie (Fred M. Wilcox, 1946). The film's success led to another contract for Taylor paying her $750 per week. Her roles as the neurotic Mary Skinner in a loan-out to Warner Brothers' Life With Father (Michael Curtiz, 1947), Cynthia Bishop in Cynthia (Robert Z. Leonard, 1947), Carol Pringle in A Date with Judy (Richard Thorpe, 1948), and Susan Prackett in Julia Misbehaves (Jack Conway, 1948) were all successful. Taylor earned a reputation as a consistently successful adolescent actress, with a promising career. Her portrayal of Amy in the American classic Little Women (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949) was her last adolescent role.


Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.


Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 524. Photo: Warner Bros.

An easy transition to adult roles

In October 1948, Elizabeth Taylor sailed to England to film Conspirator (1949). Taylor made an easy transition to adult roles. Conspirator failed at the box office, but 16-year-old Taylor's portrayal of a 21-year-old debutante who unknowingly marries a communist spy, was praised by critics for her first adult lead in a film. Her first box office success in an adult role came as Kay Banks in the comedy Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli, 1950), alongside Spencer Tracy. The film spawned a sequel, Father's Little Dividend (Vincente Minnelli, 1951), which also did well at the box office, but it would be Taylor's next picture that would set the course for her career as a dramatic actress.

For her performance in A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951), Taylor was hailed. She played Angela Vickers, a spoiled socialite who comes between George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and his poor, pregnant factory-working girlfriend Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). The film was based on Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Critic A.H. Weiler wrote in The New York Times‍: "Elizabeth's delineation of the rich and beauteous Angela is the top effort of her career".

After some disappointingly run-of-the-mill films, a more substantial role followed opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in the epic Giant (George Stevens, 1956). Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress four years in a row for Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1957) opposite Montgomery Clift; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958) opposite Paul Newman; Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959) with Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; and finally winning for BUtterfield 8 (Daniel Mann, 1960). The film co-starred Laurence Harvey and her then-husband Eddie Fisher. Suddenly, Last Summer's success placed Taylor among the box-office top-ten, and she remained there almost every year for the next decade.


Dutch postcard by Filmphoto Service, Amsterdam, no. KF 41. Photo: MGM.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3515. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Ufa.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1051. Photo: John Everton / Ufa.

Cleopatra

In 1960, Elizabeth Taylor became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood when she signed a $1 million dollar contract to play the title role in 20th Century Fox's lavish production of Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963). During the filming, she began a romance with her future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony in the film. The romance received much attention from the tabloid press, as both were married at the time. Taylor ultimately received $7 million for her role.

Her second Academy Award, also for Best Actress in a Leading Role, was for her performance as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966), playing opposite then-husband Richard Burton. Taylor saw the film as her chance to really act, because her character was to be twenty years older. She added gray hairs and transformed herself both physically and vocally: she intentionally gained weight, minimized makeup, and added excessive mascara to her eyes along with smudgy bags beneath them.

Taylor and Burton appeared together in six other films during the decade, among them The V.I.P.s (Anthony Asquith, 1963), The Sandpiper (Vincente Minnelli, 1965), and The Taming of the Shrew (Franco Zeffirelli, 1967). By 1967 their films had earned $200 million at the box office. Their next films Doctor Faustus (Richard Burton, Nevill Coghill, 1967), The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967) and Boom! (Joseph Losey, 1968), however, all failed at the box office.

Taylor appeared in John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) opposite Marlon Brando and Secret Ceremony (Joseph Losey, 1968) opposite Mia Farrow. By the end of the decade her box-office drawing power had considerably diminished, as evidenced by the failure of The Only Game in Town (George Stevens, 1970), with Warren Beatty.

Throughout the 1970s, Taylor continued to star in numerous theatrical films, such as Zee and Co. (Brian G. Hutton, 1972) with Michael Caine, Ash Wednesday (Larry Peerce, 1973), The Blue Bird (George Cukor, 1976) with Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner, and A Little Night Music (Harold Prince, 1977). With Richard Burton, she co-starred in Under Milk Wood (Andrew Sinclair, 1972) and Hammersmith Is Out (Peter Ustinov, 1972).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 903. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Giant (George Stevens, 1956) with James Dean.


Czech postcard by UPF, Praha / Press Photo. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963) with Hume Cronyn.


Belgian postcard by SB (Uitgeverij Best), Antwerpen (Antwerp). Photo: still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).

Malice in Wonderland

In 1980, Elizabeth Taylor starred in the mystery film The Mirror Crack'd (Guy Hamilton, 1980), based on an Agatha Christie novel. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV film Malice in Wonderland (Gus Trikonis, 1985) opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper. Taylor appeared in the miniseries North and South (Richard T. Heffron, 1985) and her last theatrical film was The Flintstones (Brian Levant, 1994).

Taylor also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a production of Noël Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton Taylor Studio in Oxford was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the Oxford University Dramatic Society production of the Marlowe play. Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by Faustus to make him immortal with a kiss.

In 2007, Taylor acted onstage again, appearing opposite James Earl Jones in a benefit performance of the A. R. Gurney play Love Letters. The event's goal was to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500, and more than 500 people attended. The event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night to allow for the performance.

In the early 1980s, Elizabeth Taylor had moved to Bel Air, California, which was her residence until her death. Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands, including actor Michael Wilding, producer Michael Todd, singer-actor Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton, whom she married twice. In 2011, she died at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, surrounded by her four children.


Trailer Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Source: dameelizabethtaylor (YouTube).


Trailer Cleopatra (1963). Source: dameelizabethtaylor (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Elizabeth Taylor

Today Liz Taylor died. Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (1932-2011) was a great British-American actress.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/20.

Leading Child Star

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London, England, on 27 February 1932. Although she was born an English subject, her parents were Americans, art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri.

Her father had gone to London to set up a gallery. Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married.

Elizabeth lived in London until the age of seven, when the family left for the US when the clouds of war began brewing in Europe in 1939.

Her first foray onto the screen was in There's One Born Every Minute (Harold Young, 1942), released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM.

Liz became a leading child star by the age of 12 after her performance in National Velvet (Clarence Brown, 1944).


Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.


Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.

Taking Your Breath Away

As an adult Liz Taylor came to be known for her acting talent and beauty in such films as Giant (George Stevens, 1956) with James Dean, Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1957) with Montgomery Clift, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958) with Paul Newman.

She reigned the box office as the quintessential movie star taking the breath away from viewers with her glamorous looks and those velvet eyes.

In 1960, she brought the Oscar home, the coveted statue for her flawless performance in BUtterfield 8 (Daniel Mann, 1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man.

In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time - as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000.

This was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton. She had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences.

Liz Taylor was one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Ms. Taylor, rest in peace.


Dutch postcard by Filmphoto Service, Amsterdam, nr. KF 41. Photo: MGM.


Belgian postcard by SB (Uitgeverij Best), Antwerpen (Antwerp). Photo: still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.