The Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later rose to No. 1, and held the position for nearly a year. The Robe remained on the list for another two years, returning several other times over the next several years including when the film adaptation was released in 1953.
Quo Vadis is a 1951 American religious epic film set in ancient Rome during the final years of Emperor Nero's reign, based on the 1896 novel of the same title by Polish Nobel Laureate author Henryk Sienkiewicz. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and filmed in Technicolor, it was directed by Mervyn LeRoy from a screenplay by S. N. Behrman, Sonya Levien, and John Lee Mahin. It is the fourth screen adaptation of Sienkiewicz's novel. The film stars Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, and Peter Ustinov, and features Patricia Laffan, Finlay Currie, Abraham Sofaer, Marina Berti, Buddy Baer, and Felix Aylmer. Future Italian stars Sophia Loren and Bud Spencer appeared as uncredited extras. The score is by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography by Robert Surtees and William V. Skall. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 2, 1951.
Titus is a 1999 epic surrealist historical drama film directed and written by Julie Taymor in her directorial debut. Adapted from William Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, the movie stars Anthony Hopkins as the titular Roman general, chronicling his downfall after returning victorious from war. The film was co-produced with Jody Patton and Conchita Airoldi. The film was a co-production of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy; produced by Overseas Filmgroup and Clear Blue Sky Productions and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Roman Scandals is a 1933 American black-and-white pre-Code musical film starring Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Gloria Stuart, Edward Arnold and David Manners. It was directed by Frank Tuttle. The film features a number of intricate production numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. The song "Keep Young and Beautiful" is from this film. In addition to the starring actors in the picture, the elaborate dance numbers are performed by the "Goldwyn Girls". The title of the film is a pun on Roman sandals.
Barabbas is a 1961 religious epic film directed by Richard Fleischer for Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, expanding on the life of Barabbas, from the Christian Passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark and other gospels. It stars Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Harry Andrews, Ernest Borgnine, Vittorio Gassman, and Jack Palance. The screenplay is based on Nobel Prize-winner Pär Lagerkvist's 1950 novel of the same title.
Demetrius and the Gladiators is a 1954 American biblical drama film and a sequel to The Robe. The picture was made by 20th Century-Fox, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was written by Philip Dunne based on characters created by Lloyd C. Douglas in The Robe.
Flesh Gordon is a 1974 American superhero sex comedy feature film serving as a spoof of Universal Pictures's first Flash Gordon serial films from the 1930s. The film was produced by Walter R. Cichy, Bill Osco, and Howard Ziehm. It was co-directed by Ziehm and Michael Benveniste, who also wrote the screenplay. The cast includes Gregory Loquist, Suzanne Fields, John Hoyt and William Dennis Hunt. It was distributed by Mammoth Films.
Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. It stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Tomas Arana, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel, Richard Harris, and Tommy Flanagan.
Empire is an American historical television series for ABC. It is an historical drama set in 44 BC Rome, and covers the struggle of a young Octavius, the nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, to become the first emperor of Rome. Octavius is helped in his quest by a fictitious gladiator called Tyrannus.
Imperium: Augustus is a 2003 joint British-Italian production, and part of the Imperium series. It tells of the life story of Octavian and how he became Augustus. Half the film takes place in the past and the other half takes place in the later life of Augustus.
Cleopatra is a 1999 miniseries adaptation of Margaret George's 1997 historical fiction novel The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment, it stars Leonor Varela as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane as Mark Antony, Rupert Graves as Octavius, Sean Pertwee as Brutus and Bruce Payne as Cassius. Cleopatra was shown first on the ABC television network in two parts on two consecutive evenings in May 1999 and then released on videotape and DVD. Judy Farr, Martin Hitchcock and Frank Walsh were nominated for an Emmy in 1999 for outstanding art direction for a miniseries or a movie for their work on Cleopatra.
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire is a 2006 BBC One docudrama series, with each episode looking at a different key turning point in the history of the Roman Republic and Empire. This docudrama focuses on the Latin western half of the Roman Empire.
The Robe is a 1953 American fictional Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that is responsible for the Crucifixion of Jesus. The film was released by 20th Century Fox and was the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope. Like other early CinemaScope films, The Robe was shot with Henri Chrétien's original Hypergonar anamorphic lenses.
The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public. This American period, which had subsequently spread internationally, and that began before the legalization of pornography in Denmark on July 1, 1969, started on June 12, 1969, with the theatrical release of the film Blue Movie directed by Andy Warhol, and, somewhat later, with the release of the 1970 film Mona produced by Bill Osco. These films were the first adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. Both influenced the making of films such as 1972's Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace and directed by Gerard Damiano, Behind the Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers and directed by the Mitchell brothers, 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger, the "crown jewel" of the Golden Age, according to award-winning author Toni Bentley. According to Andy Warhol, his Blue Movie film was a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released in 1972, three years after Blue Movie was shown in theaters.
Masaru Konuma was a Japanese film director known for his Roman Porno films for Nikkatsu during the 1970s.
George Payne is an American actor and retired pornographic film actor. He found early success as a swimsuit model and was featured in Physique Pictorial. Payne began work in the adult film industry in The Back Row in 1973 opposite actor Casey Donovan. He was featured on the cover of the LGBT magazine The Advocate the same year. He later starred with Jack Wrangler in Navy Blue in 1979, and in Centurians of Rome in 1981. Payne later transitioned to straight roles in the adult industry; his work is considered part of the Golden Age of Porn. He was inducted into the X-Rated Critics Organization Hall of Fame in 1999.
The Spread of the Eagle is a nine-part serial adaptation of three sequential history plays of William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra, produced by the BBC in 1963. It was inspired by the success of An Age of Kings (1960), which it was unable to rival. The episodes also aired in West Germany in 1968-69 and in 1972.
George Manuel Bosque was an American security guard and movie producer. After stealing $1.85 million from a Brink's truck on August 15, 1980, he went on a spending spree, financing and producing Centurians of Rome [sic], a gay pornographic movie.
Ruggero Freddi is an Italian mathematics lecturer and former gay pornographic film actor known professionally as Carlo Masi.
Hand in Hand Films was a New York-based gay pornographic film studio that was founded in the early 1970s, as the Golden Age of Porn took shape. The company released more than 40 titles. It became known for producing avant-garde sex films with high production values, strong narrative throughlines and scenes that often pushed the boundaries of sexuality captured on film.
