“Hail! The Sign of the Cross”: industrial campaigns and commanding performances in The Sign of the Cross (1932) and Cleopatra (1934)

Abstract

The chapter uses as its key case studies two historical epics directed by Cecil B. DeMille for Paramount: The Sign of the Cross (1932) starring Charles Laughton as Emperor Nero and Frederic March as Marcus Superbus, Prefect of Rome, along with rising star Claudette Colbert as Empress Poppaea; and Cleopatra (1934) with Colbert’s titular performance dominating the film’s press alongside her co-star, Henry Wilcoxon, who played Marc Antony. Wilcoxon’s brawny muscularly was received as an authentic depiction of Roman command, chiming with the film’s lauded fight scenes that culminated in the impressive montage sequence of the Battle of Actium.

Margaret Malamud (2008) has demonstrated that “DeMille saw a clear analogy between depression America and imperial Rome,” and examined how SOTC resonated for Depression era audiences. As I will demonstrate, DeMille and the Paramount studio also marshalled Roman imagery -- most obviously the imperial Eagle and a discourse of shining light seen throughout SOTC -- as part of a very real industrial battle to stir exhibitors into action as part of a campaign to drive audiences back to the box-office as the studio struggled to survive the Great Depression. I apply this contextual reading to a new focus on stardom and how the studio and trade and fan press aligned their stars and the characters they played with contemporary ideas about leadership, politics, gender, and sexuality. The specific qualities of screen stardom, in tandem with analysis of the individual star personae featured in this chapter’s selected films, are a matter that has not been explored before in detail. As well as utilizing textual analysis of the selected films, the chapter will primarily draw on archival research into their promotion and reception in American and British fan-magazines of the 1930s, as well as trade and in-house publications.

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ORCID for Michael Williams: orcid.org/0000-0001-5386-5567

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