Cleopatra

The 1950's and early 1960's were the time of the period epic in Hollywood. But as with most fads and phases, something always comes along at the height of its decadence to put the nails in the coffin. "Cleopatra" effectively ended Hollywood's obsession with period/biblical epics. As it stands now, "Cleopatra" can be seen as the end of Old Hollywood. While there were still many Old Hollywood films still to come in the latter half of the 1960's, the writing was on the wall. Public tastes and audience expectations were changing, and by 1969, a mere six years after "Cleopatra", when "Midnight Cowboy" won Best Picture with an X rating, "NewHollywood" was essentially born. "Cleopatra", when considered in this context, represents one ofHollywood's last great efforts to compete with T.V., a battle it had reluctantly undertaken about ten years prior, attempting to woo people back to theaters with innovations like 3D and super formats like Todd AO, and event films like "The Ten Commandments" and"Ben-Hur". "Cleopatra" is the end of an era, but marked this passing with quite an exclamation point: one historic love affair, cast and director carousels, bloated (to put it mildly) budgets, editing butcher jobs, and over three years of principal photography. In short, the culmination of Old Hollywood's gaudy characteristics, packaged into the film which threatened to ruin 20th Century Fox, one of Hollywood's oldest studios.

In 1958, Fox had a relatively modest Cleopatra biopic set to go into production with Joan Collins as the titular Egyptian queen and stage and screen veteran Rouben Mamoulian behind the camera. Collins' schedule changed though and Fox began to consider replacements, ultimately pitching the idea to Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor dismissed the proposal, jokingly offering to do the role for the then unheard of sum of $1 million dollars (or 25% of the original Joan Collins version budget). Thinking this outlandish request would keep her out of a toga, Fox stunned Hollywood by agreeing and Taylor was shipped to England to begin work on what would now be one of Fox's tentpole event films of 1961. Mamoulian stayed on board, bringing everyone together to begin shooting only a few months off schedule. His leading men were Peter Hinch as Julius Caesar and Stephen Boyd as Marc Antony. By the time the film was released, these three men would have been long gone. The biggest delay can be attributed to the notoriously diva-like Taylor complaining of the weather so much in England that production was halted for months to allow her to "recover". When filming resumed six months later, the entire production had shifted to Rome (at an unimaginable cost to be sure), veteran Mamoulian had been replaced with veteran Joseph L. Mankiwiecz, and both Peter Hinch and Stephen Boyd had left, being replaced with (to Fox's slight credit, both substitutions are inspired choices and definitely benefit the film in my opinion) Rex Harrison as Caesar and Richard Burton as Marc Antony.

With the cast and director finally in place, filming flew by. Only two years (!!) later, Fox's $44 million dollar roll of the dice was ready for its world premiere. (For those keeping score, that would put the budget at roughly $270 million in 2005 dollars). By this point, Taylor and Burton were household names for an entirely different reason: their torrid love affair. Taylor was a known man-eater, going through husbands at an incredible rate. Burton was also a known ladies man and carrouser (fueled by his chronic drinking problem) and the star couple's affair captured the nation's fascination. Fox by this point had no choice but to release the film, after pouring the studio's financial future into it, enduring the firestorm of controversy surrounding its married stars affair, two directors, and three years of filming on two continents, they really had to roll out the red carpet and simply hope for the best. While the finished product is long (four hours and nine minutes), Mankiwiecz would later say that he envisioned two films, each three hours long, one chronicling Cleopatra and Caesar, the other Cleopatra and Antony. Fox, showing unusual modesty in regards to this project, refused, and thus a slightly disjointed, yet still lavishly sprawling epic unspooled for audiences in the summer of 1963. Some final fun facts about the film: (without even getting into the plot: Caesar comes to Egypt, falls in love with Cleopatra, is killed byRome. Antony comes to Egypt, falls in love with Cleopatra, is killed by Rome. The end.) the first 40 minutes are devoted entirely to Caesar, when Cleopatra makes her first appearance around 40 minutes in, she is rarely ever off screen again. Antony does not appear until 70 minutes in, then he too is rarely off screen. Caesar is killed at around 150 minutes in, the films effective halfway point. Taylor would ultimately make closer to $10 million for her role, thanks to a percentage of the film's gross, and her salary for production overruns and re-shoots. Is it any wonder that Hollywood stopped making films like this after 1963?