Running time171 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$7.6 millionBox office$21 millionQuo Vadis ( for 'Where are you going?' ) is a 1951 American made by in. It was directed by and produced by, from a by, and, adapted from the novel (1896) by the Polish Nobel Laureate author. The score is by and the cinematography. The title refers to an incident in the apocryphal.The film starred, and, and featured,. Worked on the film for four weeks as an uncredited second-unit director.
Quo Vadis 1951 (tt0043949) Set against the back drop of Rome in crisis, General Marcus Vinicius returns to the city from the battle fields and falls in love with a Christian woman, Lygia.
Was an uncredited assistant director of Italian extras. Future Italian stars and appeared as uncredited extras. The film was nominated for eight (though it won none), and it was such a huge box-office success that it was credited with single-handedly rescuing MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Contents.Plot The story, set in during the final years of Emperor 's reign, 64–68 AD, combines both historical and fictional events and characters, and compresses the key events of that period into the space of only a few weeks. Its main theme is the ’s conflict with and persecution of Christians in the final years of the line. Unlike his illustrious and powerful predecessor, Emperor, Nero proved corrupt and destructive, and his actions eventually threatened to destroy Rome's previously peaceful social order.Marcus Vinicius is a Roman military commander and the of the.
Returning from wars in Britain and Gaul, he falls in love with Lygia , a devout Christian, and as a result he finds himself increasingly drawn to her religion. Though she grew up as the foster daughter of , a retired Roman general, Lygia is legally a hostage of Rome in the old general's care. , Marcus' uncle, persuades Nero to give her to his nephew as a reward for his services. Lygia resents this arrangement, but cannot resist falling in love with Marcus. Screenshot of from the trailer for the film Quo VadisMeanwhile, Nero's atrocities become increasingly outrageous and his behavior more irrational.
After Nero and blames the Christians, Marcus sets out to rescue Lygia and her family. Nero arrests them, along with all the other Christians, and condemns them to be slaughtered in his Circus: some are killed by lions.
Petronius, Nero's most trusted advisor, warns him that the Christians will be celebrated as martyrs, but he cannot change the emperor's mind. Then, tired of Nero's insanity and suspecting that he may be about to turn on him too, Petronius composes a letter to Nero expressing his derision for the emperor (which he previously had concealed to avoid being murdered by him) and commits suicide by severing an artery in his wrist.
The Christian apostle has also been arrested after returning to Rome in response to a sign from the Lord, and he marries Marcus and Lygia in the Circus prisons. Peter is later, a form of execution conceived by Nero's Praetorian Guard as an expression of mockery. Screenshot of from the trailer for the film Quo Vadis, Nero's wife, who lusts after Marcus, devises a diabolical revenge for his rejection of her. Lygia is tied to a stake in the Circus and a wild bull is released into the arena. Lygia's bodyguard Ursus must attempt to kill the bull with his bare hands to save Lygia from being gored to death.
Marcus is taken to the emperor's box and forced to watch, to the outrage of his officers, who are among the spectators. But Ursus is able to topple the bull and break its neck. Massively impressed by Ursus's victory, the crowd exhorts Nero to spare the couple.
He refuses to do so, even after four of his courtiers, , architect , poet (Alfredo Varelli), and musician Terpnos (Geoffrey Dunn) add their endorsement of the mob's demands by putting their thumbs up as well. Marcus then breaks free of his bonds, leaps into the arena, and frees Lygia with the help of the loyal troops from his own legion.
Marcus accuses Nero of burning Rome and announces that General is at that moment marching on the city, intent on replacing Nero, and hails him as new Emperor of Rome. Ringling Museum Sarasota, Florida. Bronze statue of Lygea tied to the bull byThe crowd revolts, now firmly believing that Nero, not the Christians, is responsible for the burning of Rome. Nero flees to his palace, where he strangles Poppaea, blaming her for inciting him to the Christians. Then , Nero's discarded mistress who is still in love with him, appears and offers him a dagger to end his own life before the mob storming the palace kills him. Nero cannot do it, so Acte helps him to push the dagger into his chest, and he dies.Marcus, Lygia and Ursus are now free, and they leave Rome for Marcus' estate in Sicily. By the roadside, Peter's, which he had left behind when he returned to Rome, has sprouted blossoms.
A radiant light appears and a chorus intones, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,' words reported to have been spoken by Jesus ( 14:6, ).Cast. Screenshot of from the trailer for the film Quo Vadis. In the late 1930s, M-G-M bought the talking picture rights to the 1896 novel Quo Vadis from author Henryk Sienkiewicz's heirs. (At the same time they had to buy the 1924 silent screen version.) The company originally intended to make the film in Italy, but the outbreak of WWII caused it to be postponed. After the war, production was restarted. A lease was obtained on the huge Studios, eight miles outside Rome, with its 148 acres and nine soundstages.
After months of preparation, the art director, costume designer and set decorator arrived in Rome in 1948. Construction of the outdoor sets began at once: the huge Circus of Nero and exterior of Nero's palace, a whole section of Ancient Rome, a great bridge, and the Plautius villa. The manufacture of thousands of costumes for extras began, along with drapes and carpets, metal and glass goblets, and ten chariots. Official permission was granted to refurbish a section of the Appian Way. One of Hollywood's foremost animal experts began to procure lions, horses, bulls and other animals from around Europe. Well in advance of filming, the producer, director, chief cinematographer and casting director arrived in Rome. The film finally went into production on Monday, May 22, 1950.
The film was originally cast in 1949 with as Lygia and as Marcus Vinicius. When the production changed hands the following year, the roles went to Deborah Kerr and Robert Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor had an uncredited cameo role as a Christian in the Circus prisons. Although most of the cast was British and a few Italian (Marina Berti, Alfredo Varelli, Roberto Ottaviano), Robert Taylor was certainly not the only American. Others included Buddy Baer (Ursus), Peter Miles (Nazarius), Arthur Walge (Croton) and William Tubbs (Anaxander). There were also several among the uncredited cast.
Perhaps the most notable of these was 70-year-old Irish-American character actor as the public slave who stands behind Marcus in his chariot, holding a victory laurel above his head, and repeating 'Remember thou art only a man.' . recalled how he was cast as Nero in 1949: 'An exciting proposition came my way when I was twenty-eight years old.
Were going to remake Quo Vadis, and I was a candidate for the role of Nero. Jr was to be the producer, and I was tested by the director.
I threw everything I knew into this test, and to my surprise John Huston did little to restrain me, encouraging me in confidential whispers to be even madder. Apparently the test was a success, but then the huge machine came to a halt, and the project was postponed for a year.
At the end of the year the producer was and the director. They also approved my test, but warned me in a wire that I might be found to be a little young for the part. I cabled back that if they postponed again I might be too old, since Nero died at thirty-one. A second cable from them read 'Historical Research Has Proved You Correct Stop The Part Is Yours'.
turned down the role of Marcus Vinicius very early in the film's production history because he thought he would look ridiculous in Roman costumes. appeared in the film as an extra. (Attempts to identify her don't seem to have been successful.) The Italian star also had an uncredited extra role as a Praetorian Guardsman inside Nero's summer palace at Antium. (He answers Nero, but his voice may be dubbed.)., still widely unknown when the film was released, was considered for the part of Lygia.
Director Mervyn LeRoy wanted to cast her, but the role went to established M-G-M contract star Deborah Kerr instead. Wardrobe stills of her in costume for the film still exist. Produced for $7 million, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time. It would become M-G-M's largest grosser since (1939). The film holds the record for the most costumes used in one movie: 32,000. relates in his autobiography Dear Me that director summarized the manner in which he envisioned Ustinov should play the Emperor, very salaciously, as 'Nero. The way I see him.
He's a guy plays with himself nights.' Ustinov comments: 'At the time I thought it a preposterous assessment, but a little later I was not so sure. It was a profundity at its most workaday level, and it led me to the eventual conviction that no nation can make Roman pictures as well as the Americans. The inevitable vulgarities of the script contributed as much to its authenticity as its rare felicities. I felt then as I feel today, in spite of the carping of critical voices, that Quo Vadis, good or bad according to taste, was an extraordinarily authentic film, and the nonsense Nero was sometimes made to speak was very much like the nonsense Nero probably did speak.' Screenshot of from the trailer for the film Quo Vadis. In the summer of 1950, when Quo Vadis was in production, Rome was in the grip of an intense heatwave, as Peter Ustinov recalled: 'Rome was in the throes of, and bursting with pilgrims.
It was also one of the hottest summers on record.' The heat affected not only the cast and crew but also the lions. Mervyn LeRoy recalled that because of the heat the lions were reluctant to enter the arena. was selected by the producer and director for the major role of Poppaea after they watched a screen-test she made for a smaller part in the film. At one point in the film Nero shows his court a scale-model illustrating his plans for the rebuilding of Rome as a new city to be called Neropolis.
Studio publicity claimed that this was the famous model of Ancient Rome housed in the and that it had been borrowed from the Italian government. (This was originally constructed by Mussolini's government for a 1937 exhibition of Roman architecture.) However, the museum model is of 4th Century Rome, not of 1st Century Rome as it would have looked when rebuilt after the Great Fire of 64AD. The screen model looks nothing like the museum model. (It was almost certainly constructed especially for the film – perhaps by its special effects model-maker,.). The first use of the phrase ' – which has come to refer to a golden era of American in Italy – was as the title of a magazine article in the issue dated June 26, 1950, published while Quo Vadis was being shot in Rome. Filmed at the sprawling that had been opened by in 1924 as part of the dictator's master plan to make Rome the pre-eminent world capital. (Mussolini and Hollywood producer later negotiated to form the R.A.M.
'Roach and Mussolini' Corporation, which was ultimately aborted. This business alliance with the Fascist state horrified 1930s Hollywood moguls and ultimately led to Roach defecting from his M-G-M distribution deal to in 1937).
Filming in post-war Italy offered American studios immense facilities and cheap Italian labor and extras, of which thousands were required. Hollywood would return to Cinecitta often, producing many of its biggest spectacles there, including (1956), (1959) and (1963) – the latter two dwarfing Quo Vadis in scale.
The studio would later be used by many Italian producers and directors, including. Composer said that he wrote most of his score at the Culver City studios while the film was being shot in Italy: 'The rushes were being sent back to Hollywood for cutting at the same time as they were being cut back in Rome. I set to work so that at least something was ready, even if it had to be modified later. I worked with the Chief Supervising Editor, whose technical knowledge is incomporable. Finally the Rome contingent arrived home with their version. It wasn't so very different from the one that Margaret had put together, and there were no insuperable problems.
Was amazed and delighted that I had all the music ready in three weeks, thanks to the work Margaret and I had already done.' . Numerous Italian locations – as many as ten – were used in the film. With the exception of the, most of these haven't been identified. But the final stage of the chariot chase was filmed along 's 2000-year-old Viale dei Cipressi (Avenue of Cypresses).
This famous landmark in is easily recognizable. worked on the film as an uncredited second-unit director. He spent 24 nights (four working weeks) on the Cinecitta backlot shooting scenes for the Burning of Rome sequence. (However, he was not the co-director of the film, as some of his admirers have claimed.) The soundstage scenes for the same sequence were directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
At 104 years of age (on 31 August 2018), Italian actor (Lucan) may be the oldest surviving person associated with the film.Reception Box office performance The film was a commercial success. According to M-G-M's records, during its initial theatrical release it earned $11,143,000 in the U.S. And Canada and $9,894,000 elsewhere, making it the highest-grossing film of 1951, and resulting in a profit to the studio of $5,440,000.Critical reaction of wrote in a mixed review, 'Here is a staggering combination of cinema brilliance and sheer banality, of visual excitement and verbal boredom, of historical pretentiousness and sex.' Crowther thought that even 's 'had nothing to match the horrendous and morbid spectacles of human brutality and destruction that Director Mervyn LeRoy has got in this. But within and around these visual triumph and rich imagistic displays is tediously twined a hackneyed romance that threatens to set your teeth on edge.' Wrote that the film was 'right up there with and for boxoffice performance. It has size, scope, splash and dash, giving for the first time in a long while credence to the now-cliched 'super-colossal' term.
This is a super-spectacle in all its meaning.' Edwin Schallert of the declared it 'one of the most tremendous if not the greatest pictures ever made. Its pictorial lavishness has never been equaled in any other production.' Of called it 'a fabulously entertaining movie.
Though the expansive, expensive film from the celebrated novel runs over three hours on the Palace screen, you won't believe you've been there nearly that long.' Declared, 'For sheer opulence, massiveness of sets, size of cast and beauty of Technicolor photography, no picture ever produced matches 'Quo Vadis'. It is a super-collosal sic spectacle in every sense of the meaning, and on that score alone it is worth a premium price of admission.' Was negative, writing that the film 'demonstrates how inordinately boring the convention of size and spectacle can be, when divorced from taste, feeling, and, to a surprising extent, creative talent. The film is unimaginatively directed, at a very slow pace in keeping with the general larger than life proportions, and its technical qualities are not impressive.' The film holds a score of 88% on based on 16 reviews. Awards and nominations.
Screenshot of & from the trailer for the film Quo VadisQuo Vadis was nominated for eight: twice for ( as Petronius and as Nero), and for (, ),. However, the movie did not win in any categories.Peter Ustinov won the for.
The Golden Globe for Best Cinematography was won by Robert Surtees and William V. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama.Mervyn LeRoy was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement by the.Home media.
A two-disc special edition of the movie was released on DVD in the U.S. On November 11, 2008, after a long photochemical restoration process. A high definition version was released March 17, 2009. Comic book adaptation. Thriller Comics No 19, July 1952 (, London) Full-color photo-cover image reversed. 64 pages in black-and-white (Adapted by Joan Whitford. Drawn by ) Remarkably faithful to the look of the film.
However, apparently for reasons of space, both Marcus' friend Nerva and Petronius' slavegirl Eunice are excised.See also.References. Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Steve (2010). Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. P. 137. The words 'quo vadis' as a question occur in the Latin Bible - in Genesis 16:8, Genesis 32:17, Judges 19:17, John 13:36, and John 16:5.
^. Cite web requires website=. ^ Miklos Rozsa: Double Life (The Baton Press. Tunbridge Wells, UK.
1982) pp144-155/p216. Miklos Rozsa Treasury (Audio CD.
FSM Box 4. 2009). Great Movie Themes composed by Miklos Rozsa (Vinyl LP. M-G-M E-SE-4112. 1963). Miklos Rozsa – Epic Film Scores (Vinyl LP.
Capitol ST2837. 1967). Quo Vadis – Miklos Rozsa (Vinyl LP.
Decca PFS4430. 1977). Quo Vadis – Miklos Rozsa: world premiere recording of the complete film score (Audio CD. Prometheus Records.
2012). Ben-Hur – Miklos Rozsa: original motion picture soundtrack (Audio CD. Sony Music. 1996). Cite web requires website=.
^ M-G-M presents Quo Vadis (original film brochure. 20 pages, including covers) 1951. ^ Peter Ustinov: Dear Me (William Heinmann.
London. 1977) pp217-244. ^ Mervyn LeRoy: Take One (W H Allen. London. 1974).
Spoto, Donald (2006). Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn. London: Hutchinson. 2.bp.blogspot.com. 'The Life Story of Patricia Laffan' Vol63 No1832, July 10th, 1954 (, London) p12. Wyke, Maria (1997).
New York: Routledge. Retrieved 5 April 2012. Kelly, Christopher (2006).
Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 April 2012. Wrigley, Richard (2008). Cinematic Rome. Leicester: Troubador.
P. 52. 'The cypress tree-lined road of Bolgheri' on YouTube. Jeanine Basinger: Anthony Mann (Wesleyan University Press.
Middletown, Conn. 1979/2007) pXX. Crowther, Bosley (November 9, 1951). 22. 'Film Reviews: Quo Vadis'. November 14, 1951. 6.
Schallert, Edwin (November 30, 1951). 'Quo Vadis' Triumphant As Great Film Spectacle'. 26. Coe, Richard L. (December 26, 1951).
'The Writers Rate 'Quo Vadis' Bows'. B8. 'Quo Vadis' with Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov'. November 17, 1951. 182. 'Quo Vadis'. 19 (218): 32.
March 1952. Retrieved April 19, 2019. Murphy, Mekado (2016-12-27). Archived from the original on 2016-03-07.
Retrieved 2017-02-11. Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= ; Cite web requires website= CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown. Business Wire.
Retrieved 2017-02-11. Cite web requires website=. David Ashford and Steve Holland (Eds): The Thriller Libraries: The Fleetway Picture Library Index Volume 2 (Book Palace Books. London. 2010) p146External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to.Wikiquote has quotations related to:. on.
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Ancient Rome never looked so good-especially in the gorgeous MGM technicolor of 1951. Costumes, sets, photography and music are all of a high order-and all of the performances are competent with two outstanding ones by Leo Genn (Petronius) and Peter Ustinov (Nero). Ustinov reminds me of an overbaked Charles Laughton in some of his mad scenes, but he is a convincing weakling as Nero. Leo Genn has some of the wittiest dialogue and handles his lines with professional ease, his eyes flashing with humor as he pretends to agree with Nero on certain points. Robert Taylor is stalwart in the lead giving his usual dependable performance and Deborah Kerr is lovely (if a bit British in manner) as Lygia. All the action and excitement you want from a spectacle-the burning of Rome, Christians in the arena thrown to the lions, the triumphal marches accompanied by Miklos Rozsa's mighty score-and scenes with sentimental and religious overtones (sometimes too extended and talky) -all combine to make the kind of lush spectacle MGM knew would be popular at the box-office.
Although discriminating critics found fault with certain factors, it won eight Academy Award nominations with Ustinov and Genn both nominated for supporting roles. Grand scale spectacle-but don't expect anything deep.