sixtieth anniversary of Cleopatra – The making of Hollywood’s best folly

Visitors to cinemas within the US and the UK 60 years in the past would have been effectively suggested to convey a plentiful provide of ice cream, popcorn and the then-popular “drink on a stick” lollipops from the lobby to their seats. For they have been in for an extended night.

It was the early summer season of 1963 and the aftermath of the Cuban missile disaster, the Profumo affair and even Beatlemania have been all being saved off the entrance pages by a burgeoning romance.

It was between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who have been each starring in a newly launched movie that clocked in at a mammoth 4 and 1 / 4 hours.

News of their liaison, consummated whereas each have been married, had filtered out of Hollywood and into the British press.

And now filmgoers had the possibility to see the film the place their off-screen romance started.

READ MORE: What Is a Woman? streaming free: Controversial doc ‘flagged for hate speech’

Cleopatra was speculated to be the film epic that revived the ailing popularity of twentieth Century Fox and cemented its place as one of many nice cinematic epics of the century.

Yet, as author and historian Patrick Humphries contests in his new ebook marking the movie’s sixtieth anniversary, it was a catastrophe so nice it modified Hollywood for ever.

“Cleopatra did win two Oscars for its technical work, it got a good review in the New York Times and was the biggest US box office movie for 12 weeks after it was released,” says Patrick.

“But all this wasn’t nearly enough when you look at the hysterical costs involved in making it.”

Originally supposed to be a car for Joan Collins, Cleopatra was speculated to be a lavish, two-movie portrayal of the story of Caesar and Mark Anthony’s doomed makes an attempt to convey Cleopatra, Egypt and the Roman Empire collectively.

After a string of big-budget field workplace failures, twentieth Century Fox wanted a success.

And it indulged in unprecedented monetary prices with a view to get it.

“Fox gambled Vegas style on Cleopatra,” says Humphries.

“The film cost $44million, around half a billion dollars in today’s money. Six decades on it’s still one of the most expensive ever films.”

After Collins refused the position of Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor was approached. According to legend, she was within the tub when she obtained the decision from Fox and stated, dismissively, that she would solely do it for 1,000,000 {dollars}, a sum that had by no means been paid to an actress earlier than.

Never believing for a second her calls for could be accepted, when the studio agreed to her phrases, Taylor felt she had no choice however to simply accept.

With Burton and Rex Harrison as Caesar additionally on board, location filming started, to the consternation of actors and crew, alike,
far, far-off from the balmy climes of the Med.

“The studio decided to rebuild the ancient Egyptian capital of Alexandria on a 20-acre site at Pinewood Studios in England,” reveals Humphries.

“A Mediterranean city in Buckinghamshire seemed an odd location, but the government of the time offered generous tax breaks if the production included a good quota of UK talent.

“The weather blighted the filming so much that only eight minutes of film ever made it to the finished movie. That 480 seconds came at a cost of $6,450,000.

“There were 500 extras and the director, Joseph Mankiewicz, could hardly find them on the set in the fog, rain and mud.”

And so the roadshow moved to Rome the place, inevitably, cash continued to be spent at a ridiculous charge. George Cole, later of Minder fame, had a task because the deaf-mute slave Flavius.

Originally scheduled for 14 weeks, he ended up staying within the Eternal City for 18 months.

Fellow actor Carroll O’Connor estimated his authentic 15-week contract stretched to 10 months, throughout which era he labored simply 17 days. All, for sure, have been on a full wage.

“The film’s Roman forum was twice the size of the original,” says Humphries.

“The extras were given 5,000 wigs, which viewers couldn’t even see as they were hidden under centurion’s helmets.

“Taylor wore customized items from Bulgari that were glimpsed for just a few seconds. There were 26,000 costumes while a local firm was paid $17,000 to clear the set of stray cats.

“The owner of the film’s elephants sued because he felt his animals were being “slandered”.

“It was even rumoured that when all the ships were assembled for the film’s sea battles, it became one of the world’s largest navies.”

The huge expense did nothing when it got here to translating Burton and Taylor’s infatuation with one another into on-screen fireworks. Indeed, regardless of kinder critiques of Cleopatra on reflection, the chemistry between the 2 stars isn’t remotely palpable.

“They act as if they’ve only just bumped into each other on the stage lot,” remarks Humphries.

“Their love scenes as Mark Antony and Cleopatra seem to belong to an older era of cinema.

“They are very forced and quite wooden.”

By the time it was launched, Cleopatra was an image totally out of step with the film-making developments and tastes of the early Sixties. Also launched that yr have been new wave, low-budget movies like Billy Liar and The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.

Julie Christie and Tom Courtenay have been starring in additional polemical, offended and unfastened kinds of movies.

A Hard Day’s Night was simply across the nook and, inside 5 years, it could be counter-cultural movies like The Graduate and Easy Rider that have been making waves with audiences and critics.

Cleopatra all however completed Joseph L Mankiewicz’s profession as a director. He remembered it as “the toughest three pictures I ever made… conceived in a state of emergency, shot in confusion and wound up in a blind panic.”

That feted on-screen chemistry between Burton and Taylor would later emerge efficiently, firstly in that very same yr’s The VIPs after which to unforgettable impact, of their performances as drunk antagonists in a disintegrating marriage in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

“Cleopatra did finally inch into profit with lots of subsequent television, video, DVD and Blu-Ray sales, and at least managed to cover its enormous costs,” says Humphries.

“Fox executive David Brown revealed, years later, ‘It did go into profit, but the studio went missing’. Even today, Cleopatra makes Avatar look like a home movie.”

Sixty years on, the outrageous excesses of Cleopatra would appear to belong to a misplaced world.

Yet, simply final yr, following disastrous previews, Warner Bros pulled the plug on Batgirl.

Its $100million manufacturing prices resulted in a movie that may by no means be launched in any format, such is the studio’s low estimation of what emerged on display.

“You’d think Hollywood would learn, wouldn’t you?” concludes Humphries. “But Batgirl shows there was never a feeling of ‘this can never happen again’ in Hollywood after Cleopatra.

“Epically expensive movie failures are still happening. Holly-wood never ceases to be inventive when it comes to wasting money.”

• Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios, by Patrick Humphries (The History Press, £20) Find it on expressbookshop.com