A Few Words About A few words about...™ Cleopatra (UK) -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

Do I have any more? Well, yes. I have more on Cleopatra (1963), if you want to see that. There is a lot of paper on the 1934 version, on the George Bernard Shaw play adaptations, and on more recent versions. I particularly like the European 1999 min-series directed by Franc Roddam which puts some historical content through dramatic paces. To be historically accurate is expecting too much, I guess, but in an accurate film Cleopatra would not be a white woman, and Egyptian society would be preoccupied with carnal behavior in addition to the sexual politics. There would be slavery, body paint, piercings, skin carvings, casual and abundant nudity for all the characters, and fabrics wove out of see-through corn-husk and animal pelts. But of course legitimate cinema doesn't go there. But I digress. Of the spin-offs, I have a couple of posters:

I'd like to see this obscurity from 1960, unless it turns out to be "peplum" which bores me:

 

[Ethan Riley]

Thanks for the reassurance.
It's one of the few epics where pomp and circumstance and spectacle for it's own sake aren't tedious.
It spawned a number of European-made spin-offs in the mid-1960s, some of them with a budget, which might make an amusing box-set if gathered together.
But then I like this story, and I have all the films about Antony and Cleopatra and Caeser except for the porns (there are several) and the 1917:

"Cleopatra: The Vampire Supreme???" Now that's a way to get an easy remake in this day and age!!

 

[OliverK]

I am pretty sure that Cleopatra was one of the very first 4k scans for movies shot 65mm 5perf.
To the best of my knowledge a wetgate IP was scanned for this in 2005 or 2006.
Imo the three Todd AO showcases for Fox are Cleopatra, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Hello Dolly! Same as with The Sound of Music and hopefully soon Patton it would be nice for Fox to go the extra mile for these.

 

[benbess]

Wasn't there a rumor that Agony and Ecstasy was scanned a while ago too. Maybe that one will go to Twilight Time?

 

[OliverK]

I think there was some kind of lowrez, lowcost job done on Agony and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying machines.
Imo Fox should do these prperly or not at all. If they have to air the low quality stuff on TV, but go for better quality on Blu-Ray later.

 

[usrunnr]

Cleopatra originally played in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre. At the same time, down the street, Warner's Cinerama (presently a slum pavement home for the destitute) was showing "How the West Was Won".

 

[rsmithjr]

Cleopatra originally played in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre. At the same time, down the street, Warner's Cinerama (presently a slum pavement home for the destitute) was showing "How the West Was Won".

Those were heady days.
Lawrence of Arabia had premiered at the Warner Beverly Hills (I believe) and was still playing.
Mutiny on the Bounty had premiered at the Egyptian in Nov. 1962 (following the plan set by Ben-hur 3 years earlier) and was perhaps still playing when Cleopatra opened, I am uncertain on this point.
So, together with HTWWW and Cleopatra, we had 3 or 4 of the great big-screen films all still in their premiere roadshow engagements.
To top it off, the Cinerama Dome was under construction and would open with IAMMMMW a few months later.

 

[RolandL]

Cleopatra originally played in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre. At the same time, down the street, Warner's Cinerama (presently a slum pavement home for the destitute) was showing "How the West Was Won".

"presently a slum pavement home for the destitute" It's currently used as a church - http://www.churchinhollywood.com/

 

[Michel_Hafner]

There is enough resolution to clearly show Taylor's tracheotomy scar under the make up.

 

[RolandL]

Only $14.76 shipped to the US from amazon.co.uk

 

[benbess]

Only $14.76 shipped to the US from amazon.co.uk

Good price. Great score by Alex North for this film....
[VIDEO]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_etW9XeUHM[/VIDEO]

 

[Mark Collins]

I see Cleopatra is for sale at Amazon USA. 40 bucks and they are out of them right now. I spoke with them and they said they hope to get more. I asked is this a USA release??? Amazon said they were dealing with a 3rd party.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

I think it's just the UK release.
It seems so like so many have been importing this from the UK which I think will impact sales when it's released over here. Fox is going to have to do something extra special for the US release...perhaps include the deleted scenes that have turned up? Since the film is likely never going to be restored, I don't know why they're just sitting on them.

 

[Charles Smith]

Off the top of my head, correcting the placement of the Entr'Acte would be the simplest and most welcome improvement.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Off the top of my head, correcting the placement of the Entr'Acte would be the simplest and most welcome improvement.

Without any inside info I'm 'certain' this will be fixed prior to the US release.

 

[Mark Oates]

perhaps include the deleted scenes that have turned up?

There's a short documentary on the disc about Twentieth Century Fox having all the vault materials for Cleopatra and a load of other movies trashed in the 1970s to save storage costs. Unless one of the principal actors or technicians salted something away in the garage, the impression I got was the original cut, the deleted scenes and all those kinds of materials wound up in a dumpster.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Mark, yes, I've seen the featurette you mention. But some things HAVE turned up...including what would have been our first glimpse of Cleopatra...in her encampment. It can be seen in the 2hr documentary. Why they haven't included that as bonus material is baffling. There is also some costume tests and Pinewood footage that has turned up that would be great to see in full.

 

[Mark Oates]

That's fantastic, Andrew. I wasn't aware of any new material turning up and had been quite annoyed at TCF's cavalier attitude to the material. I wonder if the stuff didn't survive for the same reason as the Superman films' production materials - the squirrel mindset of the vault managers at Pinewood.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Mark, yes, I've seen the featurette you mention. But some things HAVE turned up...including what would have been our first glimpse of Cleopatra...in her encampment. It can be seen in the 2hr documentary. Why they haven't included that as bonus material is baffling. There is also some costume tests and Pinewood footage that has turned up that would be great to see in full.

Isn't all of this in the 5 STAR DVD Set?

 

[EnricoE]

i just ordered it with ben hur ultimate and das boot for $43 incl shipping
i can't wait till the package arives
if the u.s. version is better, i can gift cleopatra to my mom as the u.k. version, not 100% confirmed, has the german dub on it.