QUO VADIS ? (1951) Dir: Mervyn LeRoy - CINEMIN movie review

Quo Vadis ? 1951 USA 171min – Color – Historical Epic “Now indeed, Nero has his place in history.” Quo Vadis? ushered in the last era of sword-and-sandals sagas. Long before the appearance of Ben-Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960), this third film adaptation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s famous novel set new standards for the historical epic. Though the movie’s overt “message” was unmistakably Christian, the spectacular crowd scenes and unprecedented extravagance of the sets bore witness to the moviemakers’ pagan delight in excess for excess’s sake. And it was a small, podgy, barely-know actor who embodied his excess to perfection: Peter Ustinov, as a cruel tyrant Nero. Was overacting ever as brilliant as this? Has it ever seemed so perfectly, right? Nero is a self-appointed Artist-God, and his music is as dodgy as his divinity. As a ruler, he’s prone to outbursts of rage and childish defiance, and when he reaches his lyre; his lackeys break out in a cold sweat. He orders killing of his own mother and