Androcles and the Lion (1952)
Country: US
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Chester Erskine, Nicholas Ray
Cast: Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Alan Young, Robert Newton, Maurice Evans, Elsa Lanchester
Synopsis:
In the time of Antoninus Pius, the latest haul of Christians for the circus contains within it a headstrong girl who turns the head of her gaoler, an irascible hulk who has renounced violence, and a tailor who has made friends with one of the lions.
Review:
Gabriel Pascal's last George Bernard Shaw production relishes its anachronisms, such as Onward Christian Soldiers, and manages its mixture of accents by having Romans played by Americans and Christians by Brits (Alan Young, though a ringer for Danny Kaye, was in fact from the north of England via Canada). The RKO production is handsome enough, within studio limitations, and contains enough women's fashions to pique the interest of its studio head, Howard Hughes. The lightness of tone veers wildly, and the film ceases to be a polemic about religious intolerance, or even the cruelty of gladiatorial sports, while the doctrine of non-violence so steadfastly advocated in the script is itself turned on its head by a bloodthirsty denouement as Newton loses control in the amphitheatre. Mature is presumably wheeled on since he looked good in Samson and Delilah, and Simmons sparkles as pretty much the character she would later play in The Robe. In short, it is not without interest, and even the lion turns in a reasonably convincing performance, but it will remain a footnote in the far more solemn cycle of Biblical epics that had already begun.
Country: US
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Chester Erskine, Nicholas Ray
Cast: Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Alan Young, Robert Newton, Maurice Evans, Elsa Lanchester
Synopsis:
In the time of Antoninus Pius, the latest haul of Christians for the circus contains within it a headstrong girl who turns the head of her gaoler, an irascible hulk who has renounced violence, and a tailor who has made friends with one of the lions.
Review:
Gabriel Pascal's last George Bernard Shaw production relishes its anachronisms, such as Onward Christian Soldiers, and manages its mixture of accents by having Romans played by Americans and Christians by Brits (Alan Young, though a ringer for Danny Kaye, was in fact from the north of England via Canada). The RKO production is handsome enough, within studio limitations, and contains enough women's fashions to pique the interest of its studio head, Howard Hughes. The lightness of tone veers wildly, and the film ceases to be a polemic about religious intolerance, or even the cruelty of gladiatorial sports, while the doctrine of non-violence so steadfastly advocated in the script is itself turned on its head by a bloodthirsty denouement as Newton loses control in the amphitheatre. Mature is presumably wheeled on since he looked good in Samson and Delilah, and Simmons sparkles as pretty much the character she would later play in The Robe. In short, it is not without interest, and even the lion turns in a reasonably convincing performance, but it will remain a footnote in the far more solemn cycle of Biblical epics that had already begun.
Country: US
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Chester Erskine, Nicholas Ray
Cast: Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Alan Young, Robert Newton, Maurice Evans, Elsa Lanchester
Synopsis:
In the time of Antoninus Pius, the latest haul of Christians for the circus contains within it a headstrong girl who turns the head of her gaoler, an irascible hulk who has renounced violence, and a tailor who has made friends with one of the lions.
Review:
Gabriel Pascal's last George Bernard Shaw production relishes its anachronisms, such as Onward Christian Soldiers, and manages its mixture of accents by having Romans played by Americans and Christians by Brits (Alan Young, though a ringer for Danny Kaye, was in fact from the north of England via Canada). The RKO production is handsome enough, within studio limitations, and contains enough women's fashions to pique the interest of its studio head, Howard Hughes. The lightness of tone veers wildly, and the film ceases to be a polemic about religious intolerance, or even the cruelty of gladiatorial sports, while the doctrine of non-violence so steadfastly advocated in the script is itself turned on its head by a bloodthirsty denouement as Newton loses control in the amphitheatre. Mature is presumably wheeled on since he looked good in Samson and Delilah, and Simmons sparkles as pretty much the character she would later play in The Robe. In short, it is not without interest, and even the lion turns in a reasonably convincing performance, but it will remain a footnote in the far more solemn cycle of Biblical epics that had already begun.