The Epic That Never Was (1965) (TV)

Writers:

Bill Duncalf (writer)
Robert Graves (novel)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The story of the aborted 1937 filming of "I, Claudius", starring Charles Laughton, with all of its surviving footage. |

Plot Keywords:

Claudius | Caligula | Based On Unfinished Work | Based On Novel

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	Tiberius Claudius (archive footage)
Robert Graves	...	Himself (author)
Josef von Sternberg	...	Himself (director) (also archive footage)
Merle Oberon	...	Herself (Messalina) (also archive footage)
Flora Robson	...	Herself (Livia) (also archive footage) (as Dame Flora Robson)
Emlyn Williams	...	Himself (Caligula) (also archive footage)
Eileen Corbett	...	Herself (script girl)
John Armstrong	...	Himself (costume designer)
Dirk Bogarde	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Abbott	...	Ms. Robson's host
Robert Newton	...	Captain of Caligula's guard (archive footage)

Runtime:

USA:74 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Movie Connections:

Edited from I, Claudius (1937)

Good documentary, colorful participants; one bona fide genius

This is a good, entertaining and revealing document of the abandonment in mid-production of a film spectacle, begun in England in the mid-1930s, but which happily still saw the light of day thanks to the preservation of several reels of assembled footage in mint condition. Those involved in the production still alive by 1964 are interviewed with their slightly divergent points of view, and they are a colorful lot: Von Sternberg, Oberon, Emlyn Williams, Flora Robson. Dirk Bogarde is impeccable as the host-narrator who observes of Charles Laughton, immediately following a stunning monologue, that he was "kissed with genius." And so he was.