Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

59. Cleopatra

59 Cl~opatra A Paramount Picture, A Cecil B, DeMille Production, Produced and directed by Cecil B, DeMille, Screenplay by Waldemar Young and Vincent lawrence, from an adaptation of historical material by Bartlett Cormack (additional, uncredited writing by Manuel Komioff. Jeanie Macpherson, and Finley Peter Dunne Jr.). Costumes: Travis Banton, Art directors: Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson, Assistant directors: Cullen B, "Hezie" Tate and David MacDonald, Montage sequences: William Cameron Menzies, Photography: Victor Milner, AS,C Film editor: Anne Bauchens Picture started: March 12, 1934, Picture finished: May 2, 1934, Montage and special effects shots: May I I through June 12 and June 20, 1934, Preview length: 9,191 feet Final length: 9,046 feet (eleven reels), Cost: $842,908,17. Released: August 16, 1934 (New York premiere), Gross: $1,929,161, I0 Cast: Claudette Colbert (Cleopatra), Warren William Uulius Caesar), Henry Wilcoxon (Marc Antony), Gertrude Michael (Calpurnia), Joseph Schildkraut (Herod), Ian Keith (Octavian), C Aubrey Smith (Enobarbus), Ian Maclaren (Cassius), Arthur Hohl (Brutus), leonard Mudie (Pothinos), Irving Pichel (Apollodorus), Claudia Dell (Octavia), Eleanor Phelps (Charmian), John Rutherford (Drussus), Grace Durkin (Iras), Robert Warwick (Achillas), Edwin Maxwell (Casca), Charles Morris (Cicero), and Harry Beresford (the soothsayer ) On February 10, 1938, after seeing a revival of Cleopatra, movie fan Hildegarde Merta of Chicago wrote Cecil B. DeMille questioning the historical accuracy of the women's costumes. It seemed to her that they looked remarkably modem. Answering for DeMille, Frank Calvin replied on February 16: For your information, over six months were spent in the research work on this picture, including a very careful study of the costumes and head dresses of the period, and you can rest assured that they were correct. Quite often modem clothes designers copy ancient costumes , and it is for that reason that you noticed a similarity. 275 276 / Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood DeMille always made a great point of stressing the effort he and his staff put into historical research for his films, but Hildegarde Merta's suspicion that Cleopatra's gowns owed more to Hollywood than ancient Alexandriawere well founded. WhileTravis Banton was certainly "inspired" by Egyptian and Roman art, he did his best to make sure his designs were ala mode and would reveal as much of Claudette Colbert's 5'3", 34" x 26V2" x 37" figure as industry censors permitted in the last days before a toughened Production Code took effect on July 1, 1934.1 In a letter to his niece, dancer-choreographer Agnes deMille, Cecil outlined his approach to Cleopatra's story, noting that he was consciously attempting to avoid characters that were painted only in tones of black and white. "The treatment may be a little startling to you at first," he wrote, "because it is neither the Shavian [George Bernard Shaw] treatment , nor the Shakespearian treatment. It is an endeavor to humanize characters, and ... I am confident that I am giving the characters their first really human chance. They have always been ponderous and pompous , villains and heroes."2 Indicative of his take on the characters were some of the actors he considered for the picture. In a quick note to Al Kaufman, DeMille asked, "Don't faint! Do you think Menjou could play Julius Caesar?" Adolphe Menjou had risen to stardom in the silent era playing a lovable cad-a relentless, womanizing lounge lizard who still managed to command audience sympathy. His image changed somewhat with the coming of sound, and he was often cast as a seemingly respectable character with a slightly seedy edge. The idea of the distinctly modern Menjou brought a derisive comic reply from Kaufman. "I did faint. That's why it's taken me until now to say I don't think SO."3 But DeMille did not alter his basic concept of Caesar's character. He looked at film on former silent screen lover John Gilbert, an actor who occasionally enjoyed going against his romantic image to play manipUlative scoundrels in films like Man, Woman and Sin (M-G-M, 1927) and Downstairs (M-G-M, 1932). Ultimately, after screening The Mouthpiece (Warner Bros., 1933), DeMille settled on Warren William to play Caesar. William carved a unique place in precode Hollywood, playing a series of hustlers, con men, unscrupulous politicos, and ambulance chasers who had no redeeming social value but who nevertheless delighted audiences with the sheer audacity of their guile. DeMille discussed the role of Marc Antony with Richard Dix and Charles Bickford and offered William Gargan a test...