“Quo Vadis”, based on the recent by Henryk Sienkiewicz would have to be come the top of my list of favourite 1950’s religious legend productions. Indeed “Memoir” is the word to fittingly report this large MGM production that cost an extraordinary 7 million dollars to develop in 1950 and was the studio’s biggest money maker since “Gone With The Wind”. It has everything an record movie lover could desire, the already stated aesthetic literary source, breathtaking sets (no computer generated effects here!), meticulously researched historical costumes, titanic crowds scenes and a lovely recreation of Pagan Rome at it’s height. The film boasts an fabulous cast but towering over all of them is the behind Peter Ustinov in his unforgettable performance as the deranged Nero. His interpretation of this evil Emperor who began the first concentrated persecution of the early Christians is collected the visual image for a lot of people, myself included,that first comes to mind when Nero’s name is mentioned. Already having been filmed a number of times in the peaceful era and once again since this 1951 film, this is tranquil the definitive version of the myth of the early Christian Church struggling to survive in Nero’s Rome after the tremendous fire.
With the advent of television in the early 1950’s Hollywood fought abet with splashy, lavish productions that could not be matched by the flickering dusky and white image of television in it’s infancy. “Quo Vadis”, lent itself perfectly for this purpose and an already shaky MGM save all of it’s resources into the filming of this define production. The sage centres around cocky Roman soldier Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) who after three years of successful campaigning returns to savour the delights of Nero’s Rome. Detained at the villa of a retired Roman general Marcus falls for the simple charms of the general’s adapted daughter Lygia (Deborah Kerr) who unbeknown to Marcus is secretly a Christian. Seeing her care for for him but not belief the families idea in the admire of a single god and in loving your fellow man despite their background or accelerate Marcus has Lygia taken to Rome and placed in Nero’s “House of Women” and seeks to obtain her is enjoy. Lygia escapes and is taken in by other believers but in the meanwhile Marcus finds himself the focus of the unwelcome and quite unsafe affections of the Empress Poppaea (Patricia Laffan) . Meanwhile Nero’s meglomania continues to grow and he develops a wild plot to rebuild Rome to his believe glory and secretly sets the city on fire. The backlash from this act however sets Nero to procure a scapegoat and thus begins the persecution of the Christian sect that are, to the amazement of the Romans, the disciples of a simple young carpenter from Galilee who was executed for his beliefs. Marcus finds Lygia however both are imprisoned together as Christian believers to become the sport of Nero’s festivities in the arena. The appearance of the Apostle Peter who has been called to Rome by Christ’s message gives the Christians the strength to endure their ordeals and Marcus and Lygia are married by him unbiased prior to his have matrydom on Vatican Hill. Nero however goes too far in his persecution and the mob turns on him resulting in his descend from power and suicide and the reins of power being taken over by the more level headed General Galba.
While “Quo Vadis”, in some areas is not always proper historically the faults are not glaring ones and it does give a intellectual represent of the growth of the early Christian movement and the persecution it endured which of course went on long after Nero’s death. First and foremost it is piquant and dramatic viewing and is the classic example of archaic style movie making at its most lavish. The film is filled with unforgettable images, for example the spacious crowd scenes during Marcus’ triumpiant entry into Rome, and the burning of the city by Nero which incredibly was done on both fat sized and petite sets. The wintry blooded destruction of the Christians in Nero’s Circus of course is probably the most luminous image in the film and is riverting in it’s terror and fair depiction of people being eaten by lions or being ancient as human torches. These scenes in “Quo Vadis”, have I absorb never been bettered in depicting the insanity and brutality of Nero and his regime. Performances are uniformily aesthetic here. As the two lovers Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr are honest perfect as the two illmatched lovers from different worlds. Finlay Currie does a most inspirational fraction of work as Peter and special mention must go to Patricia Laffan who is perfect in a chilling performance as the faulty Empress Poppaea. Directed by MGM feeble Mervyn LeRoy, who was responsible for such diverse MGM productions as “Waterloo Bridge”, and “Blossoms in the Dust”, here he is smooth honest as at home with this orderly scale type of film and his directoral integrity is evident in every frame of this film. “Quo Vadis”, ended up being nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Narrate and Best Supporting Actor for Peter Ustinov.
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I always net “Quo Vadis”, a inviting viewing experience generally around Easter time when my thoughts often go serve to the earliest years of my religion. Liking the older style of movie making I can also relish the film on its pleasurable technical achievements and massive historical recreation. This however never submerges my appreciation of its very simple message that all people need to cherish each other despite their differences for the world to be a happier set. Recall time soon to conception this tale production of “Quo Vadis”, you wont regret it.
This biblical legend has Peter Ustinov giving the definitive performance of the emperor Nero, in spite of the motion characterize code. But then, it seems they were always relaxing that motion portray code befriend in the 40’s and 50’s as long as it was for a biblical legend of some kind. In this case, you seek – although from a distance – lions carrying the limbs of dismembered Christians upon which they are feeding, along with all of the other insinuations of decadence reveal under Nero. Robert Taylor, who was normally a rather wooden actor IMHO, did a very excellent job in this one as a Roman soldier entranced by a Christian girl. If you didn’t know better you might reflect this film was the work of Cecil B. DeMille, but instead the director was Mervyn Le Roy. Le Roy directed some of Warners fast-paced urban early sound films including Alice White’s musicals, Gold Diggers of Broadway, Cagney’s “Hard to Handle”, Edward G. Robinson’s “Slight Caesar”, and “Three on a Match”. He also directed one of Robert Taylor’s other large performances in 1942’s “Johnny Keen”, unbelievably not yet on DVD. In other words, Le Roy directed many crowd-pleasers. This might justify why this film got seven or eight Oscar nominations, but none for the director himself. He objective wasn’t considered superb enough by the Academy to be “in the club” in spite of this superb individual achievement.
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Everyone knows the accepted record. Nero burns Rome to certain the plan for the ravishing city he wants to form, but the peasants are revolting – literally. He then blames the outlandish and unpopular but like a flash growing sect of the Christians for the burning, and begins feeding them to the lions for the amusement of the Romans. However, the Christians face death so bravely that Rome turns on Nero. Well, that’s the movie.
The facts are considerable more in argument. In an venerable city such as Rome, accidental fires that destroyed cities were accepted. In fact Nero did lead a massive relief trouble after the fire, and fires unbiased as grand broke out in Rome after Nero’s death. Some historians do have the Christians confessing to the crime. The fact is that the people did initiate to circulate rumors that Nero was at fault, and he was responsible for blaming th Christians for the fire to assign himself. He ordered to have them thrown to dogs, though, not lions, as in the film. However, like Showtime’s “The Tudors” one can somewhat overlook all of this historical jumping to conclusions and outright inaccuracy in the name of ravishing entertainment.
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Special Features
Disc 1
Commentary by F. X. Feeney — Filmmaker/writer Feeney explores the genesis of one of M-G-M’s most gorgeous, grand-scale productions
Theatrical trailer
Teaser trailer
Disc 2
Commentary by F. X. Feeney continued from Disc 1
Documentary — In the Beginning: Quo Vadis and the Genesis of the Biblical Tale – This documentary walks the road as long and complex as the film itself, from its roots as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning bestseller to its various ground-breaking adaptations to its space as the most valorous and lavish film that MGM, and Louis B. Mayer, dared to undertake.
Technical notes: Quo Vadis was made prior to the advent of widescreen projection and stereophonic sound. It is presented, as in its unusual theatrical release, with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio and monophonic soundtrack. Because of its obscene length and detailed photography, WHV has spread the film over two discs in order to maximize bit-rate and insure the highest quality portray presentation.
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