Cleopatra (1917 film)

This article is about the 1917 film. For other uses, see Cleopatra (disambiguation).

Cleopatra
Original release poster
Directed by	J. Gordon Edwards
Produced by	William Fox
Written by	H. Rider Haggard (novel - uncredited) Adrian Johnson Émile Moreau (play) Victorien Sardou (play)
Starring	Theda Bara (Cleopatra) Fritz Leiber, Sr. (Caesar) Thurston Hall (Antony)
Music by	José Martínez
Cinematography	John W. Boyle Rial Schellinger George Schneiderman
Editing by	Edward M. McDermott
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	14 October 1917 (USA)
Running time	125 min
Country	United States
Language	Silent film (English) intertitles
Budget	$500,000

Cleopatra (1917) was directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starred Theda Bara in the title role. Fritz Leiber, Sr. played Julius Caesar and Thurston Hall played Mark Antony.

It was one of the most elaborate Hollywood films ever produced up to that time, with particularly lavish sets and costumes. According to the studio, the film cost $500,000 (approximately $8.3 million in 2009) to make and employed 2,000 people behind the scenes. The story of this silent film was very loosely based on the plot of William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Theda Bara appeared in a variety of fantastic costumes, some quite risqué. The film was a great success at the time.

However, years later, with the imposition of Hollywood's Hays Code, the film was judged too obscene to be shown. The last two prints known were destroyed in fires at the Fox studios and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Only a few fragments in the hands of museums survive to this day.^[1]

The picture was filmed on the Dominquez slough just outside of Long Beach, California. The throne prop used in the movie years later ended up in the possession of Leon Schlesinger Productions, the production company behind the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons; its disposition after the acquisition of that company by Warner Bros. is unknown.

Cast

• Theda Bara as Cleopatra
• Fritz Leiber as Caesar
• Thurston Hall as Antony
• Alan Roscoe as Pharon (as Albert Roscoe)
• Herschel Mayall as Ventidius
• Dorothy Drake as Charmian
• Delle Duncan as Iras
• Henri De Vries as Octavius Caesar
• Art Acord as Kephren
• Hector Sarno as Messenger (as Hector V. Sarno)
• Genevieve Blinn as Octavia

See also

• List of American films of 1917
• Cleopatra VII
• List of incomplete or partially lost films

Theda Bara as Cleopatra

Notes

1. ^ Cleopatra (1917) Silent Era

External links

• Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
• Cleopatra at AllRovi