Sunday, February 1, 2009

Quo Vadis (1951) Film Review - Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr

Plot Summary - Epic film set in Imperial Rome at the time of Nero, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The story centers around handsome commander of the Roman Army, Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) and his intense admiration and sometimes bumbled pursuit of the beautiful Christian girl Lygia (Deborah Kerr), a "hostage" who lives with loving, adoptive parents. Lygia is by law a ward of Nero, so Marcus arranges to have her delivered to Nero's "House of Women" to be presented to Marcus as a reward for his battles. Meanwhile, Nero sings, writes lyrics, and starts getting crazier and crazier ideas until finally deciding to burn down Rome and build it anew. But when the citizens of Rome form a mob, blaming Nero for ruining their city, he pins the blame on the Christians, has them all arrested and sent to be killed by the lions in the arena.

Review - A lavish spectacle from beginning to end, with edge of your seat storyline filmed in gorgeous Technicolor - I loved this! It's 3 hour length went by very quickly for me. Peter Ustinov gives a spectacular performance as Nero - another film wow! Rating - 10/10 stars

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