Androcles and the Lion will be released on R-1 DVD on Feb. 23, 2010, as part of Criterion's Eclipse Series No. 20, George Bernard Shaw on Film. The set features three adaptations of Shaw plays by producer Gabriel Pascal. The other films are Caesar and Cleopatra and Major Barbara. Go to Criterion.com for complete information.
shareHey hobnob, thanks for the info, as I have not seen ANDROCLES AND THE LION since the Stone Age! (I ordered a VHS copy from AMAZON several years ago, and they ended up giving me the wrong tape! When I told them about it, they said they actually didn’t have the movie, so I fought and eventually got my money back).
I've never seen CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (and thanks to the Elizabeth Taylor version, I'm hesitant to watching a Cleopatra film!). And I’ve also never seen MAJOR BARBARA. Looking at the info on MAJOR BARBARA on IMDB, it is interesting to see the involvement of David Lean and this being the first film for Deborah Kerr.
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Well Wendy, since I'm unfamilar with either movie, I dug into Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide book and he gave the 1934 version ***1/2 stars while CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA only two stars. But again that is his own view. When I eventually get ANDROCLES AND THE LION, then I will have a chance to see and critique CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA for myself.
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Hey, Big-G2! Well, I've never seen Androcles and the Lion (only a few clips), so am looking forward to it. I'm surprised Maltin gives C&C only two stars -- it's much better than that, though certainly with its flaws (and very stagy too). Major Barbara is good, and Lean's involvement was I believe as its film editor, a position he held on a number of prestigeous British films before becoming a director in 1942. But none of these quite comes up to Pascal's adaptation of Pygmalion. Still, looking forward to a most worthwhile set.
BTW, per the discourse below, Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's play, has nothing to do with Liz T's movie (or the '34 De Mille epic), though obviously there are some points of similarity (such as having Caesar and Cleopatra in them). That's about it.
When the whole set is released, I will watch and judge C&C for myself and not have to defer to Leonard Maltin (and I think we all have disagreed, as well as agreed to some of his reviews, although Wendy, I am pretty sure you are correct that he doesn't see all of the movies and relies on others to review some of the pictures).
In remembering what I can from ANDROCLES AND LION, (from many, many years ago) there were scenes where the lion was clearly not real, but for me, that was OK, since I was basically seeing a fairy tale. And of course it has Alan Young, who would later communicate with another animal!
Yes, I think the only clip from that film I've ever seen is Androcles dancing with the (very fake) lion in the arena. Can't wait to see what precedes that.
Maltin lists a ream of people who help write the guide in a section called "About the Editors", so clearly others see and write reviews for many films in ths book. Of course, that doesn't mean Maltin doesn't see any of the things he doesn't personally write the reviews for in the book. I'd say I have maybe a 65-35 rate of agreement with his ratings. (One contributor is a guy named Bill Warren, who wrote the book Keep Watching the Skies, a compendium of sci-fi movies from 1950-1962. I assume he's responsible for the reviews of most of the sf films in Maltin. His book is well written and entertaining, but I was shocked at the volume of mistakes in it -- I'd estimate at least 70% of his film synopses have errors, ranging from minor to astonishingly significant.)