“CLEOPATRA” PREVIEW

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 87, 7 January 1935, Page 3

“CLEOPATRA” PREVIEW

Naval Officers as Guests Officers of H.M.A.S. Australia were the guests of Paramount Films on2 Friday evening at a P rlval :® screening of “Cleopatra, yhrch s due for early release in New Zealand. This picture, directed by Let 1 B De Mille, constitutes a remarkable screen spectacle. It is typical of th - director to whose name it is linked, an J in scope of scene, lavishness of detail and mass effect, warmth of colour, an 1 general atmospheric magnificence it is fully equal if not superior to anythin,, De Mille has given the screen in the The cast of “Cleopatra,” including Claudette Colbert as the Egyptian Queen, is an impressive one, but it is the picture itself, rather than the people in u. (hat commands attention. It is a bnl--I’ant, sensuous pageant of ancient Egypand ancient Rome—a breath-taking background against which the familiar tale of Cleopatra’s tragic love affairs, first with Caesar and then with blare Antony, is told dramatically and passionately. For the detail of the tale De Mille appears to have borrowed a little from history, ". little from Shakespeare, and a little from Shaw. The dialogue, save for one or tw" quotations, is strictly modern, which, is in tune with (he new method of handling historical subjects. Some of the scenes will be remembered by picture-goers long after the names or the stars are forgotten < The interior of the royal barge of Egypt, where Cleopatra seduces the grim-faced Mare Anthony who has arrived to “lead her to Rome in ehains” is a brilliant stage for a true De Mille entertainment, with . dancing girls swarming like bees in a hive, wine in gorgeous goblets, and lashings of delectable foods borne by burnished negroes. The crowd scenes in Rome, the drainat.c assassination of Cnestr, the taking of Cleopatra’s city following a great battle by land and sea —these are others among the highlights of a picture that will .be eagerly awaited ns one of the outstanding productions of the New Year.