BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

poetcomic1 A lot of silly tosh but Claudette Colbert as Poppaea is a gorgeous little thing with a sassy mouth on her and Charles Laughton is WAY over the top. Laughton's Nero set the gold standard for Nero for all time. The two of them are so BAD and WICKED you'll laugh out loud with delight. They were obviously having a lot of fun. The 'early Christians' and their 'camp meetings' are a dreary bore and as always in these - the role of the Apostles is as thankless as can be with big Santa beards and robes and a lot of 'solemnity' . The arena slaughter is justly famous and is well worth finding in the uncensored version with the sexual sadism clearly illustrated in the spectator's lustful faces.I have always had a soft spot for Ancaria 'the wickedest woman in Rome' who has her 'lesbian song and dance specialty act' interrupted by hymn singing martyrs on their way to the arena. If you've ever been up-staged you will sympathize.Frederic March vacillates between tolerably good acting and intolerable ham.De Mille is in his element in the arena and at the orgy. Most of the rest of story creaks along. I give this 7 stars and 8 if you fast forward.

bsmith5552 "The Sign of the Cross" marked Cecil B. DeMille's first epic of the sound era. Produced in the pre-code year of 1932, it gave him license to include some brutal torture and death scenes as well as, some sexy parts too. And yes, this is the film in which Claudette Colbert takes a bath in asses' milk.The story centers around the Roman persecution of the Christians in the time of Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) in 64 A.D. The film opens with the famous burning of Rome while Nero plays his harp. Nero and his confederate Tigellinus (Ian Keith)conspire to place blame for the blaze upon the Christians whom Rome is trying to exterminate.Marcus Superbus (Frederic March), the Prefect of Rome is close to Nero and the rival of Tigellinus. Poppaea (Colbert) is the scheming sexy wife of Nero whom it seems bends to her will. Poppaea has her eye on Marcus even though he doesn't return the desire.One day while riding through the city Marcus comes upon the virginal Christian girl Mercia (Elissa Landi) and saves her from arrest. Tigellius learns of Marcus' interest in the girl and plots to expose him. Marcus comes to fall in love with the girl. Young Stephan a friend of Mercia, is arrested by Tigellinus' spies and is tortured into revealing the location of a planned Christian gathering.Many of the Christians are slaughtered before Marcus can intercede. The survivors including Mercia are taken away to prison to await execution in the arena. Marcus rescues Mercia and takes her to his house. Mercia tries to convince Marcus to become a Christian but he refuses. The scheming Poppaea whose advances toward Marcus have been rejected, convinces Nero not to spare Mercia from the lions in spite of Marcus' protests.The arena scenes are quite graphic for the time. The gladiator combats, the amazon's duels with the pygmies and finally the slaughter of the Christians are graphically depicted. There is some suggested nudity with one girl being left for a gorilla and another, celebrated fan dancer Sally Rand, being fed to the crocodiles. Also Colbert's bath scene contains teasing little glimpses of her assets.If one has a feeling of deja vu while watching this film. the later epics "Quo Vadis" (1951) and "The Robe" (1953) have similar stories and endings. It's likely that Claudette Colbert's performance in this film resulted in DeMille casting her as Cleopatra in his film of that name in 1934.

oldblackandwhite Cecil B. DeMille and others who made movies about Bibical and Early Christian subjects very well knew that they could get away with a lot more sex and violence in this type of picture. In The Sign Of The Cross Cecil B. pushes both to and over the limit that was allowable in the early talkie era.The basic plot is quite similar to the now better known Quo Vadis (1950): high-ranking Imperial Roman official (Fredrick March) falls madly in love with pious, aloof Christian girl (Elissa Landi) in the time of Nero's cruel persecution of Christians. The outcome in this earlier epic is quiet different and much grimmer.As with all of Cecil B.'s epic productions, The Sign Of The Cross is big, glossy, splashy, sexy, exotic, exciting, and tasteless. His extravaganzas are usually great fun, even in their tastelessness -- much in the same way the better spaghetti westerns are. This one unfortunately misses the fun angle with the tasteless angle unusually in the forefront. It is a very handsome production with sensuous black and white cinematography by Karl Struss, a rousing score credited to Rudolph G. Kopp, rich sets, and striking costumes -- especially those of Claudette Colbert (as the wicked Poppaea).As in other DeMille Bibical or early Christian epics, he attempts to contrast the purity and faithfulness of God's people with the empty, hedonistic debauchery of the pagans. Unfortunately the comparison here misses the intended mark. The Christians come off as grim and joyless, stoically awaiting death to deliver them into the Promised Land and never enjoying the peace, freedom, security and other blessings of leading a Christian life. On the other hand the scenes of debauchery, including the gorgeous Miss Colbert's famous (or infamous if you will) ass milk bath just make it look as if the pagans have all the fun and never suffer because of it.The violence of the arena scenes is incredible and disgusting for a movie of this era -- human beings decapitated, speared, forked, impaled, crushed by elephants, eaten by crocodiles, and raped by a gorilla. The camera continually panning to the crowd and showing the sadistic pleasure of the spectators heightens the horror of these scenes. Since most of this carnage is visited upon the followers of Christ, it will no doubt be much enjoyed by both gore hounds and Christian-hating modern-day pagans (known as New Agers, secular humanists, and atheists). My Christian bothers and sisters who doubt this need only read the message boards for The Sign Of The Cross and Quo Vadis.The Sign Of The Cross is not a good movie for most Christians. Along with the gross violence, there is much near and partial nudity, including bare breasts and see-thru dresses. A Christian girl is subjected to a lesbian assault, and other scenes picture implied lesbianism and homosexuality. Children and you more sensitive adult Christians will not want to watch this movie. It is loaded with exactly the type of sex and violence you are trying to avoid by watching old-timers like this instead of newer movies. True, the scenes of the Christians bravely meeting martyrdom with a hymn on their lips is moving, but this and the rest of the theme were done much better in Quo Vadis. Besides which Quo Vadis has a better-developed, more believable plot, better-cast leads, a better burning of Rome, a more fleshed out Nero, and it is an even more beautifully turned out production.Nevertheless, The Sign Of The Cross will be especially enjoyed by two other classes of modern pagans who are more sensuous than sinister. First that great mass of mostly young, simple-minded savages who worship the alluring goddesses Slutcia and Pervertcia and the great gods Gore and Bore. They will be thrilled to find in this ancient movie's gratuitous sex and violence the great-great-grandmother of the digital trashoramas now turned out by the hundreds just for them. The priests and priestesses of the great god Auteur (film class graduates) will lead them as they prostate themselves before a giant freeze-frame of Caludette's glorious ass milk scene and chant, "Pre-code....pre-code...pre-code...precode..."

lugonian THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (Paramount, 1932), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, returns its director to the genre to what he's best known, the religious spectacle, his first since THE KING OF KINGS (Pathe, 1927) starring H.B. Warner as Jesus the Christ. While this title certainly indicates another retelling into the life of Christ, the script, taken from an old play by Wilson Barrett, focuses more on Christians following in the teachings of Jesus years after His crucifixion, only to face suffering and prosecution for their faith.The setting is 64 A.D. where the Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) is introduced playing his lyre while watching in laughter the flames raging through the city of Rome. Although responsible for starting the fire, Nero places the blame on the Christians, arranging for his guards to have them placed under arrest. His wife, Poppara (Claudette Colbert), is an adulteress whose only desire is the manly Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), a prefect of Rome, but cannot put her hold on him after learning from Dacia (Vivian Tobin) of his love for Mercia (Elissa Landi), a Christian girl. As much as Marcus believes "Christianity is stupid," he tries his best to persuade Mercia to renounce her faith and marry him. Tigellinus (Ian Keith), Marcus' rival, sees an opportunity in making trouble for them both.With crime dramas, drawing room comedies and/or social related issues as common theme during the Depression era, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS was something out of the ordinary. In true DeMille fashion, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS is not only a 128 minute spectacle with a three minute intermission in the midway point, but a large-scale production with lavish sets and cast of thousands accurately costumed according to its time structure. Of the performers in this Biblical story, Elissa Landi, the central character, seems out of place with her 1932 head-dress while Claudette Colbert, in her first "bad girl" role, quite evident with her lipstick and pencil drawn eyelashes, has her cherished moment bathing in a pool of milk gulped along side by two kittens at a distance. Fredric March as the Roman soldier who rules with the cracking of his whip, physically makes a convincing Marcus, though some of his badly scripted dialog, along with others in the cast, may provoke laughter for any contemporary viewer. Charles Laughton's Nero is exceptional, right down to his curly hair with added putty in the middle of his nose adding sharpness to his cruel facial expression. Although his scenes are regrettably limited, Laughton simply stands out, especially as he watches in sleepy-eyed boredom the slaughter of victims at the arena as he sits back eating large portions of food. Other members in the large cast include Tommy Conlan as Stephanus, the teenage Christian boy; Nat Pendleton, Arthur Hohl, Charles Middleton; lions, tigers, crocodiles and elephants as uncredited extras.As much as the plot was reworked into the MGM spectacle of QUO VADIS (1951) starring Robert Taylor as Marcus; with Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov giving a tour-da-force performance as Nero, nothing can compare with the intense arena sequence found in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. Graphic, then and now, this sequence, along with "The Naked Moon" dance performed by the wicked Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner), was all that was missing when THE SIGN OF THE CROSS was not only reissued to theaters in 1944, but when sold to commercial television around the 1960s. In its place was a ten minute prologue written by Dudley Nichols, set during World War II with the cast featuring Stanley Ridges (Chaplain Thomas Lloyd); Arthur Shields (Captain James Costello); James Millican (Captain Kevin Driscoll); William Forrest (Colonel Hugh Mason); Tom Tully (Hoboken); Oliver Thorndyke (Lieutenant Roger Hammond); and Joel Allen. The new opening revolves around bombardiers being assigned on a dangerous mission and heading out to their destination. As the airplane flies over the Colosseum, a discussion about to the prosecution of Christians under Nero's regime leads to a flashback and events that takes place. It wasn't until March 14, 1993, when American Movie Classics cable channel presented the original uncut 1932 theatrical release of THE SIGN OF THE CROSS that was obtained from the DeMille estate, and played it as part of AMC's initial Film Preservation Society festival. Without these missing scenes, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS would have been hopelessly dull and talkie, such as the case with the 1944 reissue that had circulated for nearly half a century. In 1995, Universal Home Video distributed the now uncensored 1932 version to home video and then to DVD in 2006. After AMC ceased airing THE SIGN OF THE CROSS in 1999, Turner Classic Movies picked up its option by airing this DeMille epic where it played from occasionally from 2004 to 2007. Regardless of its flaws, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS is prime DeMille, best suited for viewing during the season of Lent or Good Friday. Hail Caesar!! (***1/2)