Conference bookie::movies

69.0. "Sign of the Cross" by DSSDEV::RUST () Mon Mar 15 1993 12:48

    "Sign of the Cross" was one of the features of last weekend's "Film
    Preservation Telethon" on AMC. [Luckily, I lost neither power nor cable
    during the blizzard. ;-)] This is one of deMille's epics, a typical
    Romans-and-Christians story with (also typically) lots more emphasis on
    sin and depravity than on redemption. And, in keeping with the purpose
    of the "telethon", the version that was aired included a number of
    scenes that had been cut some time in the 1940's. [Most of these were
    from the segment on Nero's games - gladiators dueling to the death,
    Amazons vs. pygmies (including some beheadings and impalings), men
    being stepped on by elephants (the actual stepping isn't shown -
    today's special-effects technology could have handled it, but the scene
    was pretty effective as it was), women menaced by crocodiles, etc. And
    during all this, we keep cutting back to shots of Charles Loughton's
    Nero, eating grapes or gossiping or whatever, with his empress
    (Claudette Colbert) on one side and a nearly-nude, oiled,
    bronze-skinned beauty of a catamite on the other.]
    
    Early on there was a beautifully hedonistic scene featuring Colbert
    bathing in asses' milk - lots and lots of milk - and doing a sort of
    floating strip-tease in the process; pretty steamy stuff. And a later
    sequence has a notorious prostitute singing a seductive dance while
    kissing and caressing the innocent heroine, as her Roman would-be
    seducer (Frederic March) looks on... 
    
    Still, despite all this wanton debauchery, the film moves pretty
    slowly, the dialogue's unmemorable, and I was never particularly
    interested in the fates of the principals. (Not that there was any
    doubt as to what those fates would be; later films have made the whole
    story a stock plot.) So - it made for fun snowstorm-viewing, and was an
    interesting look at one of the early Hollywood epics (and a nice
    companion piece to "Cleopatra" and "The Scarlet Empress"!), but it
    didn't exactly make me want to run out to the store for a few dozen
    gallons of asses' milk. ;-)
    
    -b

    I wish I got AMC. I've seen many of the films they are
    showing, but not for years, and it would be nice to see them
    again, especially in restored versions.  Don't miss
    "The Scarlet Empress" it's visually stunning.
    
    Richard
    
    P.S. I dedicate this topic to former employee Steve Kallis, original
    Movies conference supernoter and DeMille fan par excellance!

.0>    bronze-skinned beauty of a catamite on the other.]
    				  ^^^^^^^^
    
    Had to go to the big dictionary to find that one!  :-)
    
      John