I saw Cleopatra for the first time yesterday I was 11 when it came out and we were way too Catholic

[jodymarie aimee]

When we were growing up we were only allowed to see movies the Times Review, the Catholic newspaper allowed..that narrowed things down....Plus we had no $$...but the first few movies were Ben Hur, St. Francis of Assisi...so I always loved those Egyptian movies...Cleopatra was way too randy for us of course...the Pope even wanted to excommunicate Liz Taylor for having an affair with Burton..and I was only 11....so I never saw the entire movie until yesterday.

This is 9 mins of the scene where Cleopatra enters Rome...with Ceasar's son...It is magnificent..Man, they sure knew how to make movies....

[CatMor]

1. Wasn't it the most expensive movie ever made at that time.

[jodymarie aimee]

2. yes it was

and remember these are all real humans....no hi tech jazz...so every single one had to be paid.

[CatMor]

4. That had to be quite a payload.

[dameatball]

3. I saw it in our small town theatre and did think the magnificent scenery was wonderful, but had

several other preferences in those years. James Bond, Pink Panther, Magnificent Seven, Great Escape, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad. Mad World, Ben-Hur…….although many of these were not exactly the same year. I think what ruined Cleopatra for me was the constant Richard/Liz crap. It over shadowed the film.


I do remember it was possibly the most expensive film made up until that time. I suppose it made some money, not sure how much.

[rurallib]

5. Liz Taylor was Catholic?

I was raised catholic and the nuns would always bring it up when some famous person was catholic. Liz Taylor was never mentioned. Bing Crosby sure was - a lot.

[jodymarie aimee]

6. she was almost Catholic

her first marriage to Nicky Hilton was in Cath Church...but her Dad Francis refused to have a Cath daughter...and she remained Protestant..so she was not excommunicated.....they provoked the Catholic Church by cheating on their spouses when in Rome shooting “Cleopatra.” “Erotic vagrancy,” the church called it...it was a big scandal and the Catholics went nuts...nobody was to see the film.

Loretta Young was Cath...my Nana bragged on that...that was why when Clark Gable knocked her up, she pretended to adopt her daughter Judy Lewis.....and good old Bing used to beat those boys....the first batch that is...

[rurallib]

7. yeah I knew about Bing and his beatings

[jodymarie aimee]

8. he also drove their mom, Dixie to the bottle

she had very sad demise..he was a dick..

[rurallib]

9. Yeah - had a nun in 7th grade who just obsessed on Bing

and what happened to his first marriage - really strange I thought at the time - of course Bing was totally innocent in her eyes.