Movie review - "The Robe" (1953) **

There was a time in the mid 50s when the coming of Cinemascope was hailed by many in the movie business as an important event as the coming of sound - film attendances had been declining since 1946, partly due to television, partly because people were spending money on other things, but they flocked to see this big screen epic, and a for a few years it seemed all a film needed to be was Big.

The story was ideal for big screen treatment, featuring more than a few similarities to Quo Vadis: its set in Ancient Rome, there's a mad Emperor (Caligula here), shenanigans involving early Christians including a cameo from Peter, an arrogant Roman soldier becomes involved in Christianity and turns into a better person, a finale involving martyrdom.

While Richard Burton is a more dynamic actor than Robert Taylor, the film isn't as good as Quo Vadis, though - the action in Quo Vadis was powered logically and strongly, motored by Taylor's pursuit of Deborah Kerr and tracking down Christians; here the action is motored by Jesus' robe sending Richard Burton into an early mid life crisis, which makes him just go all weird; while Jesus' robe is a great gimmick, its not really exploited (the sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators, gave the robe more dramatic weight, i.e. by having it have a reputation for curing people). Jean Simmons is a Roman not a Christian, so she has nothing much to do dramatically except stand around.

Too much time is taken up with Burton trying to save Victor Mature - like who cares? Why is Mature so important? It's not as though he's super important for the Christian cause or Burton is romantically love with him like Simmons (though you could arguably read the film this way), so when the film turns into Robin Hood with the Christians busting into the dungeon it's irritating. 

 Also it makes no sense while Burton martyrs himself at the end - he (and Simmons) practically throw themselves into the arena, whereas in Quo Vadis the Christians behaved a lot more understandingly, i.e. they wanted to get out of there.

 Marture copes reasonably well in what is a terrible role, really, requiring him to look up into the sky a lot; I kept thinking maybe he and Burton should have swapped roles, but while Burton would have been better in Mature's part, Burton is better than Mature would have been in Burton's part - his youth and tortured idealism bring a lot to the party. 

The role of Caligula is an absolute gift for any half decent actor and Jay Robinson's performance is about half decent but they don't exploit the potential of this like they could have.