File:Cleopatra_poster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Cleopatra
Sign in to save1963 film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
OverviewAI-generated
*The motion picture the world has been waiting for!* is the tagline for *Cleopatra*, a 1963 biographical, war, romance, and drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was written by Ranald MacDougall, Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, and Mankiewicz. The cast includes Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, and Roddy McDowall. Walter Wanger produced the film, which was distributed by 20th Century Studios, Netflix, and Disney+. It was filmed in Malibu and Almería Province, with Leon Shamroy and Jack Hildyard serving as directors of photography.
The film’s original language is English. It has a duration of 241 minutes, though other sources list runtimes of 251 and 320 minutes. Alex North composed the score, while Dorothy Spencer edited the film. Herman A. Blumenthal was the production designer, and Hermes Pan was the choreographer. The production companies included MCL Films S.A., Walwa Films S.A., and 20th Century Fox.
*Cleopatra* was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. It received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The film has a Metascore of 60 and an IMDb rating of 7.0. It has a budget of 44,000,000 and revenue of 57,779,280.
Synthesized by Vinony from 51 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.1Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans.
Cast
- Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
- Richard Burton as Marcus Antonius
- Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar
- Pamela Brown as High Priestess
- George Cole as Flavius
- Hume Cronyn as Sosigenes
Themes
- egypt
- snake
- greece
- nile
- cleopatra
- historical figure
- ancient rome
- ancient egypt
- library of alexandria
- alexandria egypt
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7/10
40,521 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
55%
Metacritic
60/100
- Year
- 1963
- Runtime
- 320 min
- Genres
- Biography, Drama, History
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- Won 4 Oscars. 7 wins & 13 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Screenplay by
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz Ranald MacDougall Sidney Buchman
- Based on
- The Life and Times of Cleopatra , by Carlo Maria Franzero , Histories, by Plutarch , Suetonius , and Appian
- Produced by
- Walter Wanger
- Starring
- Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton Rex Harrison Pamela Brown George Cole Hume Cronyn Cesare Danova Kenneth Haigh Roddy McDowall
- Cinematography
- Leon Shamroy
- Edited by
- Dorothy Spencer
- Music by
- Alex North
- Distributed by
- 20th Century-Fox
- Release date
- June 12, 1963 ( 1963-06-12 )
- Running time
- c. 251 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $31.1 million
- Box office
- $57.8 million (US and Canada) , $40.3 million (worldwide theatrical rental )
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Cleopatra is a 1963 American epic historical drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman, adapted from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor in the eponymous role, along with Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall and Martin Landau. It chronicles the struggles of the young queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.
Walter Wanger had long contemplated producing a biographical film about Cleopatra. In 1958, his production company partnered with Twentieth Century Fox to produce the film. Following an extensive casting search, Taylor signed on to portray the title role for a record-setting salary of $1 million. Rouben Mamoulian was hired as director, and the script underwent numerous revisions from Nigel Balchin, Dale Wasserman, Lawrence Durrell, and Nunnally Johnson. Principal photography began at Pinewood Studios on September 28, 1960, but Taylor's health problems delayed further filming. Production was suspended in November after it had gone over budget with only ten minutes of usable footage.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cleopatra” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.