Quo Vadis Review

"Is this the end of Nero?"

A film that ends with the infamous Emperor Nero paraphrasing Edward G Robinson's Capone-esque Little Caesar, the 1951 version of Quo Vadis is a fine example of cinema as over-the-top entertainment. Made at a time when film was keenly aware of the competition it faced from TV, Mervyn LeRoy's picture took the Roman epic - a staple since the silent days - and ladled on huge quantities of camp and excess. That the end product poached eight Oscar nominations might suggest this is a worthy affair along the lines of The Ten Commandments or The Robe. However, Quo Vadis is neither as respectable nor as boring as those movies. Rather this is what HBO's wonderful 'Rome' might have been like had it been made in the days before gore and graphic sex were considered fine for mass consumption.

Rome, 64AD: and after three years at war, General Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor, the biggest star of his day) is ready to find a wife and settle down. Unfortunately, the woman he falls for, Lygia (the immaculate Deborah Kerr), is a Christian who would rather sleep with the lions than a legionnaire. Not used to being denied, Marcus approaches the Emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov, clearly having the time of his life) and asks that since Lygia was adopted by a fellow general, she be placed under his command. Needless to say, such a situation doesn't make for the most straightforward of relationships. The fact the couple slowly overcome their differences is eclipsed by the increasingly eccentric behaviour of the emperor. Not content with making his favourite horse a senator, Nero blames the Christians for trying to burn Rome to the ground. With Lygia and her creed on their way to the arena, it falls to Marcus to save the love of his life.

Available for the first time in an extras-packed two-disc set, it's now easier than ever to appreciate Quo Vadis' qualities and ignore its failings. Indeed, thanks to the fast-forward button it's a simple task to slice through the hour or more of wretched excess that the editors forgot to remove. As for the picture's high points, Robert Surtees' cinematography is now almost as radiant as Deborah Kerr. Even if you were to see the film on a scratchy old black-and-white portable, you'd quickly realise that the best thing about Quo Vadis is Peter Ustinov's lip-smacking Nero.