"SIGN OF THE CROSS"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21462, 8 April 1933, Page 14

"SIGN OF THE CROSS"

REGENT'S EASTER FILM ' / ' An outstanding film event will take place on Easter Saturday, when the initial presentation will be given at the Regent Theatre of "The Sign of the Cross," an elaborate film version of Wilson Barrett's celebrated play. It is another triumph for Cecil de Mille. An eminent English critic refers to the production as follows: — "In spectacle, everything we saw on the old Lyric stage is outdone upon the screen. According to the official figures, over 7500 perfoimers take part in the Roman street scenes, and in the area over which the Emperor Nero gloats in the person of our own Charles Laughton. So, too, with those exotic dances which were supposed to shock the early Christians in the story, but have always been a source of delight to their successors in the audience. These are, of course, exploited by de Mille on a much-extended scale, with SO votaries of Proserpine engaging in a Grecian ballet. Over 40 gladiators in complete armour meet in mortal combat,, and 50 Amazons, with scimitars. do battta against 40 dwarfs armed with javelins and flaming torches.

"Then there are fights between boxers with spiked gloves. In a grand finale 40 lions join in the massacre of 100 Christians 'to make a Roman holiday.' '

"It is noticeable that the chief hit of the film in America has been not too much the spectacle, nor the simplehearted appeal of Fredric March's Superbus, or of Miss Elissa Landi as 'the gel, Mussia.' It has been rather Charles Laughton's performance of Nero, who went for very little in the original play. Mr. Laughton has -worked out a conception altogether his own, based on an exhaustive study of Nero s life, and sets himself to suggest, a definite blend'of high intelligence and inhuman ''mania."