HotToastyRag If you've ever wondered why the old Hollywood Hays Code was ever put in place, The Sign of the Cross is a great example of the filth Will Hays tried to scourge the screen of. It's another large-scale Cecil B. DeMille epic, with huge production values and sets and costumes leftover from his silent version of Ben-Hur. A lot of work went into this movie, but it pushed every single boundary that was eventually reined in.Picking up a few decades after where Ben-Hur left off, The Sign of the Cross shows how Christians were persecuted by Romans and punished by the emperor and empress, played by Charles Laughton and Claudette Colbert. Fredric March, a loyal Roman tribune, falls in love with a poor Christian woman, Elissa Landi. Basically, try to imagine if Messala-not acted very well-fell in love with Esther-who miraculously looks like she popped out of the 1980s. Claudette, who has Freddie in her sights, is particularly interested in getting Elissa out of the way, so she doesn't help when asked for mercy.Speaking of Claudette, she plays a very different type of role in this film than she usually plays. Gone are the witty banter and conservative yet adorable clothing. Here, she's a conniving bad girl who's scantily clad in every scene. She really does look beautiful, though, and as there is a nude scene, nothing's left to the imagination of her lovely figure.I wouldn't recommend watching this movie unless you liked Gladiator. Believe it or not, this early talkie is extremely violent and upsetting. Charles, a very unlikable, flippant bad guy, presides over the typical gladiator games, and since there were no censors, DeMille was able to film any number of horrific punishments. Each condemned prisoner who enters the arena is greeted with certain death, either from forced fights between one another or a run-in with a wild animal. Lions are shown chewing on their victims, and one man in beheaded by a woman's sword. This is a very violent part of the movie, as is the torture scene of Elissa's kid brother, Tommy Conlon. It doesn't show what happens to him, but his screams are ear-splitting, and it's a very long scene.Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to some sexual content and upsetting violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

kfarrington48 The Sign of the CrossThe "Sign of the Cross" is a Hollywood film made in 1932. Fredric March plays Marcus Superbus, possibly the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, who falls in love with Mercia (Elissa Landi) a Christian. At the end, they go to their deaths together in the Colosseum. Claudette Colbert plays the empress Poppea. Nero is played by Charles Laughton. It's a fairly spectacular film. There is an orgy at which Marcus tries and fails to seduce Mercia away from Christianity and into sin. Then there is the games in the Colosseum that end with the Christians being fed to the lions. Near the beginning there is the famous scene of Poppea bathing in milk; you may or may not get see a little more, a very little more, than was normal in Hollywood films of the time. The weakness is in the characterisations. When Marcus and Mercia first meet there is absolutely no chemistry between them and it is absent throughout the film. March is too lightweight for a senior Roman officer. He is neither Russell Crowe nor Stephen Boyd. Colbert's Poppea is no more evil than Amanda Barrie's Cleopatra. Colbert's Poppea comes across as being flirtatious and rather vacuous, but far more seductive than the Mercia of Elissa Landi. Although Nero was mad, I always imagined him to be far more dynamic than Laughton's version.

qormi This film stands the test of time. It pulls no punches in showing Roman brutality. The Christians had to hold their services underground, in secret. It is well documented that they were slaughtered in the Coliseum, from being fed to the lions to being used as living torches. The details add to the reality.....cleanup crews dragging containers of dead gladiators, the spreading of scented oils over the carnage, the lions fighting with one another as they ascend the stairs to the arena surface, the Christians awaiting their fate, the wild approval of the crowd as scores of gladiators fight to the death, the marquee advertising the agenda of carnage for the day's events....The acting was very good, as well as the dialogue. The Romans were shown to have personalities and realistic mannerisms and dialogue .....unlike many other historical epics where the characters act in a stilted sort of reverence to the times they are portraying.

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..."