The Sign of the Cross (film)

For other uses, see Sign of the Cross (disambiguation).

The Sign of the Cross
original theatrical poster
Directed by	Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by	Cecil B. DeMille
Written by	Sidney Buchman Waldemar Young Wilson Barrett (play)
Starring	Fredric March Elissa Landi Claudette Colbert Charles Laughton
Music by	Rudolph G. Kopp Jay Chernis Paul Marquardt Milan Roder
Cinematography	Karl Struss
Editing by	Anne Bauchens
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 30, 1932
Running time	125 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$650,000

The Sign of the Cross (1932) is a pre-Code epic film released by Paramount Pictures, produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman, and based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett.

Both play and film have a strong resemblance to the novel Quo Vadis, and like the novel, take place in ancient Rome during the reign of Nero. The art direction and costume design were by Mitchell Leisen who also acted as assistant director. Karl Struss was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

The film stars Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, and Charles Laughton, with Ian Keith and Arthur Hohl. The film is the third and last in DeMille's biblical trilogy with The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927). It was filmed on location in Fresno, California.

Cast (in credits order)

• Fredric March as Marcus Superbus — Prefect of Rome
• Elissa Landi as Mercia
• Claudette Colbert as Empress Poppaea
• Charles Laughton as Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar
• Ian Keith as Tigellinus
• Arthur Hohl as Titus
• Harry Beresford as Favius Fontelas
• Tommy Conlon as Stephan
• Ferdinand Gottschalk as Glabrio
• Vivian Tobin as Dacia
• William V. Mong as Licinius
• Joyzelle Joyner as Ancaria
• Richard Alexander as Viturius
• Nat Pendleton as Strabo
• Clarence Burton as Servillius
• Harold Healy as Tybul
• Robert Seiter as Philodemus
• Charles Middleton as Tyros

Production notes

• The famous scene in which Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) bathes in asses' milk took several days to shoot. DeMille announced to the press that real asses' milk was used; however, it was actually powdered cow's milk. After a few days under the hot lights, the milk turned sour, making it very unpleasant for Colbert to work in the stench.
• To save production expense during the Great Depression, existing sets were reused as well as costumes left over from the making of The Ten Commandments. DeMille also attempted to provide out-of-work actors jobs as extras such as the crowd arena scenes.

Editing for reissue after enforcement of the production code

Still from arena scene featuring nudity which was cut in 1938.

As with many other Pre-Code films that were reissued after the Production Code was strictly enforced in 1934, this film has a history of censorship. In the original version, Marcus Superbus (Fredric March) is unsuccessful in his desire to seduce Mercia (Elisa Landi), an innocent Christian girl. He then urges Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner) to perform the erotic "Dance of the Naked Moon" that will "warm her into life". This "lesbian dance" was cut from the negative for a 1938 reissue, but was restored by MCA-Universal for its 1993 video release. Some gladiatorial combat footage was also cut for the 1938 reissue, as were arena sequences involving naked women being attacked by crocodiles and a gorilla. These were also restored in 1993.

DeMille himself supervised a new version for its 1944 rerelease. New footage with a World War II setting, featuring actor Stanley Ridges (who did not originally appear in the film) was added to make the film more topical. In the new prologue, a group of planes is seen flying over what was ancient Rome. The conversation of the soldiers in one of the planes leads directly into the film's original opening scene. The last few seconds of the edited version of the film showed the planes flying off into the distance, rather than simply fading out on the original closing scene of the movie.

For many years, this edited version was the only one available. The version now shown on Turner Classic Movies has been restored to the original 125 minute length by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with the help of the DeMille estate and Universal Pictures, which now owns most pre-1950 Paramount sound features.

Catholic Legion of Decency

The reaction of the Catholic Church in the United States to the content in this film and in Ann Vickers led to the formation in 1934 of the Catholic Legion of Decency, an organization dedicated to identifying and combating objectionable content, from the point of view of the church, in motion pictures.

References

Bibliography

• Birchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2324-0. http://books.google.com/?id=YLPTleQHkrUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
• Black, Gregory D. (1996). Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56592-8. http://books.google.com/?id=ybKqnNNR7hwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
• Vieira, Mark A. (1999). Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-4475-8. 

Online sources

• "The Sign of the Cross". Sex in the Cinema. The Kinsey Institute. http://iub.edu/~kinsey/services/gallery/cinema/img.php?i=27. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
• Landazuri, Margarita. "The Sign of the Cross". tcm.com. Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/72483%7C0/The-Sign-of-the-Cross.html. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 

External links

• The Sign of the Cross at the Internet Movie Database
• The Sign of the Cross at the TCM Movie Database
• The Sign of the Cross at AllRovi
• The Sign of the Cross at Rotten Tomatoes