Cleopatra (1934)

(On Cable TV, April 2022) What a surprise! My intention in watching the 1934 version of Cleopatra was comparative – how would the film compare to the lavish 1963 Elizabeth Taylor spectacle, and how would it compare to the 1925 series-of-tableaux silent version? The surprise was that I really started enjoying the film by itself. Completed right as the Hays Code started enforcing its ludicrous censorship, Cleopatra nonetheless includes scantily clad extras, and a gorgeous Claudette Colbert not wearing much either. (Those cheeks! Those dark bangs!) It helps that the film starts with a semi-comic tone, not daring to be taken quite seriously, as Cleopatra is first tied up to a post in the desert, then rolled up in a carpet from which she emerges triumphantly for her new paramour. The art deco set design doesn’t have much to do with classic Egypt, but it exemplifies classic Hollywood glamour. The dialogue isn’t particularly good, but the amazing images more than make up for it: director Cecil B. DeMille was clearly the reigning master of big-budget spectacle and there are some amazing shots for a 1934 historical epic. Even more impressive is the fast-paced battle montage that illustrates a war episode later in the film: even modern viewers will be amazed at how quickly the images are presented and how much mayhem those second-long bits show– I wonder how it played back then. Right now, though, this 1934 Cleopatra is certainly worth a look, and not simply as a companion to the better-known later version.