Peter Ustinov rules!!

A highlight of the movie is the speech that Nero gives to his court to explain his motivation. That speech--do you know why I condemned my mother and wife to death? It was to make the biggest sacrifice a man could ever make. Now I will see a glimpse of the unknown. Let it be wonderful!--or let it be awful--as long as it is UNCOMMON!--has an eloquence about it that is worthy of Shakespeare and Calderon.

Yeah, I agree (though Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator feels more realistic). You know Ustinov played Adolf Hitler in a UK movie during the war years?

btw I just saw parts of the movie on TCM and the quality looks very good, of course this is probably through analog transfer and not (dvd) digital but the original copies can't be in too bad a shape. Most probaly Warner want some hefty extra material for the dvd release.

Yes, Chilon was an important character in the book, but he's hardly used in this movie. Too bad, but then, the movie is long enough as it is. I guess they just chose to not focus on Chilon that much.

Peter Ustinov (Nero) and Leo Genn (Petronius) were the best actors in this movie, no doubt about it. The best female must have been Patricia Laffan, the actress playing the evil empress Poppaea. Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr weren't that impressive at all in comparison. They were hardly more than eye-candy. And since their characters were written so blandly, they could have been played by any two movie stars of the early 50s, while I can't picture any other actors than Ustinov and Genn as Nero and Petronius.

Yes, it's true! IMDB has reached Sweden!

Agreed. Movie wasn't that great but Ustinov made it worth watching. The character was a bit cartoonish, but I think the part required it to convey his stupidity. Amazing job.

So far I've seen Ustinov in just three films and each time I was left speechless by the brilliance of his performances.

I've recently seen Michael Sheen (of Frost/Nixon) as Nero in a TV production The Battle for Rome, and I thought he was good, but then 30 seconds of Ustinov makes it clear that you're watching a whole other level of acting. Ustinov nailed the narcissistic side of Nero and I absolutely loved every single second of screen time he shared with Leo Genn. They had amazing chemistry and that's about the only thing that was in this movie for me, since, as someone mentioned, Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr looked rather uninspired.

"Martha is 108... years old. She weighs somewhat more than that". - George