Cleopatra (1934 film)

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Cleopatra
Original 1934 Film Poster
Directed by	Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by	Cecil B. DeMille
Written by	Bartlett Cormack Vincent Lawrence Waldemar Young
Starring	Claudette Colbert Warren William Henry Wilcoxon Joseph Schildkraut
Music by	Rudolph G. Kopp
Cinematography	Victor Milner
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 5, 1934
Running time	100 min
Country	USA
Language	English
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Cleopatra is Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 film retelling the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

The Paramount Pictures film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and won for best cinematography (Victor Milner). It was written by Bartlett Cormack, Vincent Lawrence, and Valdemar Young and was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

Claudette Colbert starred as Cleopatra, Warren William as Julius Caesar, Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Antony, Joseph Schildkraut as King Herod, and Ian Keith as Octavian.

In 1934 the Hays code had just taken effect, so DeMille got away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to in his later productions. He opens the film with a naked, strategicly lit slavegirl holding up incense burners as the title appears on screen.

The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco look of its sets (by Hans Dreier) and costumes (by Travis Banton), the atmospheric music by Rudolph Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.