The Sign of the Cross (1932)

After burning Rome, Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) puts the blame on the Christians, and issues the edict that any caught are to be sent to the arena to die. When two Christians- Favius (Harry Beresford) and Titus (Arthur Hohl) are caught, Mercia (Elissa Landi) tries to intercede when Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), the highest military official in Rome and Nero's most loyal subject, comes upon them. When he sees Mercia, he falls for her and allows the Christians to be set free. Knowledge of this gets back to Tigellinus (Ian Keith) who wants to get back into Nero's favor. He sets out to find where the Christians are meeting and is about to have them imprisoned when Marcus intercedes again and has them imprisoned at his palace. Marcus would have gotten their sooner but he was held up by Poppaea (Claudette Colbert), Empress to Nero, who loves him, but Marcus, out of respect for Nero, will not have an affair with her. When she learns of his love for Mercia, she persuades Nero not to kill Marcus, whom Tigellinus says is disloyal but instead, Mercia. Poppaea wants Marcus for herself- even by command if neccessary.




Once Marcus has Mercia in his home he tries to persuade her to live his sort of life. Mercia realizes then that Marcus only wants to enslave her, keep her as a posession. His friends interupt him and an orgie commences where Marcus persuades Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner) to encourage Mercia to let go and live a little. Ancaria's performance is interupted by the imprisoned Christians who are singing as they are taken to the arena for the next days activities. Ancaria incurs Marcus' wrath when she slaps Mercia for smiling only when she hears her fellow Christians people sing. He kicks everyone out and is to the point of raping Mercia when Tigellinus intercedes and takes her away to the arena.






In the next scenes the viewer is exposed to the horrors of the arena. Naked virgins used as food for aligators, apes, and lions; dwarves and Amazon women dismembering each other; gladiators killing for sport; elephants crushing human heads. Some scenes are more graphic than others, all scenes are hallmark DeMille. Before Mercia is scheduled to go out and die in the arena alone (as Poppaea has arranged), Marcus, who realizes he really does love her, has come to plead with Mercia one last time. Nero is willing to spare her if she will simply renounce her Christianity. When Mercia refuses, Marcus, out of love for her, decides to enter the ring with her a la We Live Again (1934). Unfortunately, we don't get to see the looks on everyone's faces, especially Poppaea's, when this happens.



This film had many wonderful, naughty things going on. Colbert's breasts. March's legs and wicked perm. Laughton's effiminate characterization of Nero. Joyner's lesbianesque dance admidst an orgy. Naked, sacfricial virgins. The use of blood, so sorely lacking in most classic cinema. DeMille mixes realism with fantasy well and this period piece despite it's length, moves quickly. I probably wouldn't have cast Nat Pendleton as a character in this type of period film, he sounded like he was from the streets of New York, not the streets of early Rome. Also some of the ladies, like Dacia (Vivien Tobin) were squarely stuck in the thirties era with their comportment and dialogue not to mention the wardrobe choices---high heels, ladies? Tsk, tsk. However, anytime I see these little idiosyncracies, I am reminded of what stars like Bette Davis and John Wayne said upon reflecting on the way cinema was heading when they were winding down their careers. Both were of the opinion that cinema was becoming too involved with realism. People went to the movies to escape and when they made movies there was always a sense of make believe, of fantasy. They believed all movies should return to that edict. I'm inclined to agree. Let them wear heels!

Fredric March was particularly delicious in this film with his well-honed speech and graceful stances well suited to the part of Marcus Superbus. He was a wonderful mixture of wicked, sensual, and sweet, and a perfect example for DeMille to display how true Christianity conquers temptation. Superbus is mightily persuasive but Mercia's faith is stronger.

Silence is Golden: The Godless Girl (1929)

Synopsis:
The struggle between an atheist girl and the male head of a Christian youth organization result in the death of a student. Thrown into reform school, the couple fall in love and try to escape only to be caught and brought back to the school where a fire breaks out and their beliefs are tested.







The Godless Girl was DeMille’s last silent feature that flopped against the advent of talkies. Advocate for more realism in films, DeMille’s spectacle set out to expose the atheism in high schools and the hidden tortures of reform school. The character Judy Craig (Lina Basquette) and the storyline for The Godless Girl were based loosely on two events. One: the controversy surrounding Hollywood High School in 1927 when atheist pamphlets were found in student lockers. Two: at the age of twelve, child prodigy Queen Silver wrote a pamphlet on evolution that came to national attention with the Scopes Monkey Trial that made it unlawful, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."
DeMille spent six months researching reformatory schools, going so far as to have a girl go undercover to get information. His research team collected affidavits from the inmates that testified that such things as whipping, water torture, use of straightjackets and solitary confinement were the norm for these establishments. However, DeMille only used that research to his advantage when it came to the portraying the boys side of the reformatory school, subjecting Bob Hathaway (Tom Keene) to being sprayed down with a powerful fire hose and having him beaten and locked into solitary. At another point in the film the head guard (played almost too perfectly by a Beery- Noah Beery) beats Samuel Johnson (Eddie Quillan) unconscious. Judy, by comparison, gets off easy only being subjected to menial tasks such as butcher and garbage duties, suffering torture only once when she and Bob are electrocuted by the charged fence that separates them. The latter resulting in a form of stigmata that has both Judy and Bob questioning their faith, only this time with the roles reversed now that Bob experiences what hell is like and Judy feels the presence of something more powerful for the first time. Either way, they are bound together by that torture and Bob vows to save Judy from the hell they have landed in.
Despite the over baked scenes and the tendency DeMille has for loose realism, I was mostly surprised by the stance DeMille took towards the youth’s atheistic beliefs. For a man so deeply entrenched in stories from the bible as evidenced through his epic filmmaking, it’s odd or perhaps insulting (to the youth of that era) that DeMille does not vilify those who renounce God. Instead he seems to give both sides a voice and send the message that atheism is allowable when it comes to enthusiastic youths since they really don’t know any better while simutaneously putting them in very adult situations and giving them very mature ultimatums. He even gives Bob, the head of the religious group a harder time of it than he does Judy who is the atheist. Satisfying an already loose censorship code, DeMille simply had to display belief in God at the end of the movie to get away with the more uncomfortable aspects of The Godless Girl such as the pamphlets distributed in the school with messages like Kill the Bible and insults written on the backs of those kneeling to Jesus. I can’t imagine what audiences of that era were thinking when those powerful images marched across the screen. However, it was the end of a very decadent decade, the market crash hadn't taken full effect and questioning God and evolution was part of the norm.
Though the film is full of Judy and Bob’s melodrama, the film has some comedic relief because of Mame (Marie Prevost) and Samuel. Both actors have the ability to emote without making it look histrionic and lighten the story with their antics.
Overall the film was good. Like any DeMille film, it tended to run a little long. However, he doesn’t come off preachy and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusion about their religious beliefs.


Tonight on TCM!
Trouble With Harry, The (1955) A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death. Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock Dir: Alfred Hitchcock