name | The Robe |
---|---|
director | Henry Koster |
screenplay | |
based on | |
starring | |
editing | Barbara McLean |
producer | Frank Ross |
music | Alfred Newman |
cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
distributor | 20th Century Fox |
released | |
runtime | 135 minutes |
country | |
language | English |
followed by | Demetrius and the Gladiators |
budget | $5 million |
gross | $36 million (United States) }} |
It was directed by Henry Koster and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was adapted by Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz, and Philip Dunne from the Lloyd C. Douglas novel of the same name. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman and the cinematography was by Leon Shamroy.
It stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie, with Dean Jagger, Jay Robinson, Richard Boone, and Jeff Morrow.
The Robe had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators.
Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), son of an important Roman senator (Torin Thatcher) and himself a military tribune begins the film in a prologue that introduces the viewer to the might and scope of the Roman empire. He is notorious as a ladies’ man, but he is captivated by the reappearance of a childhood sweetheart Diana (Jean Simmons), ward of the Emperor Tiberius (Ernest Thesiger), in Caligula's pavilion. As Caligula is the grandnephew and heir to Tiberius, Diana is unofficially promised in marriage to him.
When Caligula comes to the marketplace with military fanfare to take part in the slave auction, Marcellus makes the mistake of bidding against him for a defiant Greek slave Demetrius (Victor Mature) - and winning. Caligula feels he had been made a fool of in front of Diana, while Marcellus feels that he had wronged Demetrius by stopping him earlier when he had escaped from his slaveholders. Angrily Caligula leaves with Diana and the rest of his military escort and issues orders for Marcellus to receive a military transfer to Jerusalem in Palestine.
Marcellus has Demetrius released, and he orders him to go on his own to the Gallio home. Marcellus is surprised to find Demetrius waiting for him when he gets home. Unofficially Marcellus had freed Demetrius, but Demetrius feels honor bound to compensate Marcellus by being his servant.
Demetrius accompanies Marcellus to Palestine, but before the galley sails, Diana comes to see Marcellus, pledging her love for him and her intention to intercede on his behalf with Tiberius. Marcellus declares his love for Diana and asks her to make the emperor promise not to give her in marriage to Caligula.
Marcellus rides into Jerusalem with the centurion Paulus (Jeff Morrow) on the same day as Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Jesus confronts Demetrius as he rides into Jerusalem, silently calling him with his eyes to be his follower. When Demetrius later finds out what the Romans have in store for Jesus, he tries to warn him about the intentions of the Romans to arrest him. However, Jesus has already been arrested, as Demetrius finds out from a chance meeting with Judas.
Jesus is arrested and condemned by Pontius Pilate (Richard Boone), the procurator, who sends for Marcellus to take charge of the detail of Roman soldiers assigned to crucify him. Marcellus is also told that he is being recalled to Italy by the emperor.
The reason Lloyd Douglas wrote the novel The Robe was to answer the question: what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe through a dice game? It is Marcellus that wins the robe, and he compels Demetrius to throw it over him as the two of them are caught in the rain on the way back into Jerusalem. It is then that Marcellus begins to feel remorse for the crucifixion of Jesus. When the robe is on him he has a painful seizure, and he orders Demetrius to take it off him. When Demetrius does so he has had enough: he curses Marcellus and the Roman Empire and runs away.
Marcellus now behaves like a madman haunted by nightmares of the crucifixion. What sets him off is any reference to being "out there" on Calvary. He cries out fitfully, "Were you out there?!" He does this in the presence of Tiberius himself when he reports to him on Capri. Fictionally Tiberius is portrayed as a benevolent elder statesman, who wants to help Marcellus, so, at the prompting of his soothsayer Dodinius (Francis Pierlot) and Marcellus's own enthusiasm, he gives him an imperial commission to find and destroy the robe while gathering a list of names of Jesus' followers. At Diana's request Tiberius leaves her free to marry Marcellus even though Tiberius believes him to be mad.
After leaving Capri Marcellus is next seen sometime later with a Syrian guide Abidor (Leon Askin) outside the village of Cana. He is posing as a cloth merchant going about buying up homespun cloth. To further his investigation Marcellus pays exorbitant prices for any kind of cloth, even rags. Justus, a weaver in Cana (Dean Jagger), reprimands his fellow Christians for accepting such unfair prices as being contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Seeing Justus as a lead in his investigations Marcellus seeks to ingratiate himself with Justus by giving his young grandson Jonathan (Nicolas Koster) one of his pack donkeys. Marcellus also wanders in on a public performance by the paralytic Miriam as she sings a song of Jesus' resurrection.
When Marcellus returns to his camp he is confronted by a greedy Abidor, who wants to turn in Justus and the others to Pilate, who has ordered the arrest of Jesus' followers. Abidor, who is obsessed with making money threatens to tell the people of Cana that Marcellus crucified Jesus, which drives Marcellus to beat Abidor and send him away violently.
The next day Marcellus is furious with Jonathan for giving his donkey to his physically challenged friend David. Miriam, who is sitting nearby kindly confronts Marcellus, and urges him to see Peter (Michael Rennie), who has come to Cana with a Greek companion. Marcellus guesses that this is Demetrius and goes off to Shalum's Inn to confront him.
Marcellus finds Demetrius alone, and demands that he get the robe and destroy it. Demetrius gives the robe to Marcellus, who refuses to touch it, and Demetrius tells him that if he wants it destroyed, he will have to destroy it himself. Marcellus picks the robe up with his sword, and as he becomes frozen with fear, the robe slides down the sword onto him. He is terrified, but this time, as the robe touches him, he finds that the pain he has been carrying since the robe first touched him vanishes and that he is no longer afraid. He feels the true power of the robe and of the one who wore it. In that moment he becomes a Christian.
The two men go outside and Justus calls the villagers together and begins to introduce Peter. But suddenly he is pierced by an arrow and falls. The assembly turns to see Paulus and a large detachment of Roman soldiers, with the gloating Abidor lurking among them. Several other villagers are killed before Marcellus intervenes, ordering them to stop. Paulus informs him that his orders are no longer valid; Tiberias is dead and Caligula is emperor. Marcellus thus has no choice but to fight a duel with Paulus, and after a prolonged struggle Marcellus prevails. Rather than killing Paulus, as is expected of him, Marcellus hurls his sword into a tree, thus winning the admiration of the villagers. He orders Paulus and his soldiers to leave.
Peter invites Marcellus to join him and Demetrius as missionaries. Marcellus hesitates, and when Peter tells him of his own denial of Jesus on the night he was arrested, Marcellus confesses his role in Jesus' death. Peter points out to him that Jesus forgave him from the cross in the dramatic words showcased before, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34a). Marcellus then pledges his life to Jesus and agrees to go with them. Their missionary journey takes them to Rome, but they must proceed "undercover" with their base in the catacombs because the Emperor Caligula has proscribed them.
In Rome, Caligula summons Diana from her retreat at the Gallio home to tell her that Marcellus has become a traitor to Rome by being a Christian. He takes her to the guard room where a captured Demetrius is being tortured. Diana runs out of the palace to Marcipor (David Leonard), the Gallio family slave, who is a secret Christian. Diana guesses that Marcipor is a Christian and has seen Marcellus, and she gets him to take her to Marcellus.
Marcellus and Diana are reunited, and Marcellus tells her the story of the robe and his own conversion. Diana gives Marcellus information on where Demetrius is in the imperial palace, and Marcellus and his fellow Christians manage to rescue him. They are almost too late as Demetrius is near death, but Peter comes to the Gallio home where Demetrius has been taken and heals him.
A physician friend of Senator Gallio, Thaddeus (Thomas Browne Henry), who had been called in to help Demetrius, betrays Marcellus to Caligula when he resents the fact that Peter had healed Demetrius when he could not. Marcellus flees with Demetrius but, when they are pursued by soldiers, Marcellus gives himself up so that Demetrius can escape. He is captured and put on trial. At Diana's request he agrees not to defy Caligula. He kneels to Caligula with the intent to renew his oath of loyalty, but when Caligula demands that he renounce Jesus, Marcellus refuses. Caligula condemns him to death. Diana seeks to join Marcellus, and she exposes Caligula as the "evil, insane monster" that he is. The film ends with Diana giving the robe to Marcipor and her and Marcellus walking out of the imperial palace into the clouds, their entrance into eternity.
The film was advertised as "the modern miracle you see without glasses", a dig at the 3D movies of the day. Since many theaters of the day were not equipped to show a CinemaScope film, two versions of The Robe were made: one in the standard screen ratio of the day, the other in the widescreen process. Setups and some dialogue differ between the versions.
The film was usually shown on television using the standard 1.33:1 aspect ratio version that fills a standard television screen rather than the CinemaScope version. American Movie Classics may have been the first to offer telecasts of the widescreen version. Recent DVDs and Blu-Ray discs of the film, however, present the film in the original widescreen format, as well as the multitrack stereophonic soundtrack. The 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray releases contain a special feature that compares selected scenes between the Cinemascope version and the standard version.
When the original soundtrack album was issued on LP by Decca Records, it used a remix for only monaural sound rather than the stereo sound that was originally recorded. MCA, which acquired the rights to the American Decca recordings, issued an electronic stereo version of the mono tape. RCA Victor included a suite from the film, recorded in Dolby surround sound, in its album Captain from Castile, which honored longtime Fox musical director Alfred Newman (composer of the The Robe's musical score); Charles Gerhardt conducted London's National Philharmonic Chorus. In 2003, Varèse Sarabande released a two-CD set of the original stereophonic recording on their club label. The 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray releases contain isolated stereophonic score tracks.
The film had one sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), which featured Victor Mature in the title-role, making The Robe the only Biblical epic with a sequel.
Category:1953 films Category:American films Category:20th Century Fox films Category:Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners Category:Christian films Category:Epic films Category:Films based on the Bible Category:Films shot in CinemaScope Category:Films shot in Technicolor Category:Religious epic films Category:Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award Category:Films set in ancient Rome Category:Films set in classical antiquity Category:Films directed by Henry Koster
ca:La túnica sagrada de:Das Gewand es:The Robe fr:La Tunique it:La tunica nl:The Robe ja:聖衣 pl:Tunika (film) pt:The Robe ru:Плащаница (фильм) fi:Näin hänen kuolevan sv:Den purpurröda mantelnThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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