| I, Claudius | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Josef von Sternberg |
| Produced by | Alexander Korda |
| Written by | Robert Graves (adapting own novel) |
| Starring | Charles Laughton Flora Robson Emlyn Williams Merle Oberon |
| Release date(s) | 1937 (intended) |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
I, Claudius was the proposed 1937 film of the book I, Claudius. It was to have been produced by Alexander Korda, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton (as Claudius), Emlyn Williams (as Caligula), Flora Robson (as Livia), and Merle Oberon (as Messalina), but it was dogged by ill-luck, culminating in a car accident involving Oberon, which caused filming to be abandoned. A further attempt to rescue the footage by incorporating it into The Denham Studio Mystery, a proposed sequel to The Arsenal Stadium Mystery also fell through.
Laughton based his interpretation of Claudius on King Edward VIII and his abdication speech.
Other speaking parts included Claudius's servant Narcissus, Claudius's doctor, Senators Sentius and Asiaticus, and soldiers Cassius and Lupus.
The BBC used the existing footage in a 70-minute documentary The Epic That Never Was (1965), hosted by Dirk Bogarde and featuring the opening of Thus Spake Zarathustra ahead of Kubrick's iconic popularization of it in 2001. The documentary is included in the DVD box set of the BBC series I, Claudius, and includes about 25 minutes of original footage from the cancelled film.
Von Sternberg recalled Ralph Richardson having been cast, but Richardson did not agree.
External links
- "Outta Gas - Film Threat's Top 10 Unfinished Films of All Time"
- "The Epic That Never Was"
- "DiCaprio Mooted for I, Claudius Movie"
- I, Claudius at the Internet Movie Database
Bibliography
- John Baxter, "14. The Fall of Claudius", The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg (London: Tantivy Press, 1971), pages 136-149
- Philip Horne, He was a Premier League Film Director in The Daily Telegraph 05 August 2005 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3645546/He-was-a-premier-league-director.html discusses The Denham Studio Mystery)
- Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in the Cinema: Revised and Expanded Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), pages 78-79 ISBN 0-3000-8337-8
- Steve Tucker, "Cursed but a Triumph!", South Wales Echo, December 16, 2005
- Josef von Sternberg, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, New York: Macmillan, 1965) pages 172-189
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
This 1930s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
