Editing Quo Vadis (1951 film) (section)

==Production==
===Pre-production===
[[File:Marina Berti-Leo Genn in Quo Vadis trailer.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Screenshot of [[Marina Berti]] & [[Leo Genn]] from the trailer for the film ''Quo Vadis'']]

In the late 1930s, MGM bought the talking-picture rights to the 1896 novel ''Quo Vadis'' from author Henryk Sienkiewicz's heirs. (At the same time they had to buy the 1924 silent-screen version.) The company originally intended to make the film in Italy, but the outbreak of WWII caused it to be postponed. After the war, production was restarted. A lease was obtained on the huge [[Cinecitta]] Studios, eight miles outside Rome, with its 148 acres and nine soundstages.

After months of preparation, the art director, costume designer, and set decorator arrived in Rome in 1948. Construction of the outdoor sets began at once: the huge [[Circus of Nero]] and exterior of Nero's palace, a whole section of Ancient Rome, a great bridge, and the Plautius villa. The manufacture of thousands of costumes for extras began, along with drapes and carpets, metal and glass goblets, and 10 chariots. Official permission was granted to refurbish a section of the [[Appian Way]]. One of Hollywood's foremost animal experts began to procure lions, horses, bulls, and other animals from around Europe. Well in advance of filming, the producer, director, chief cinematographer, and casting director arrived in Rome. The film finally went into production on May 22, 1950.<ref name="Bro" />

===Casting===
[[File:Deborah Kerr 5.jpg|thumb|[[Deborah Kerr]] as Lygia]]
[[File:Leo Genn.jpg|thumb|[[Leo Genn]] as Petronius]]
[[File:Peter Ustinov 2.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Peter Ustinov]] as Nero]]
[[File:Patricia Laffan.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Patricia Laffan]] as Poppaea]]
[[File:Marina Berti (Quo Vadis).jpg|thumb|200px|Publicity photo of [[Marina Berti]] as Eunice]]
[[File:Ringling Museum Lygea tied to the bull by Giuseppe Moretti Sarasota Florida.jpg|thumb|right|Ringling Museum Sarasota, Florida: Bronze statue of Lygea tied to the bull by [[Giuseppe Moretti]] ]]

The film was originally cast in 1949 with [[Elizabeth Taylor]] as Lygia and [[Gregory Peck]] as Marcus Vinicius. When the production changed hands the following year, the roles went to Deborah Kerr and Robert Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor had an uncredited cameo role as a Christian in the Circus prisons.

Although most of the cast was British and a few Italian (Marina Berti, Alfredo Varelli, Roberto Ottaviano), Robert Taylor was certainly not the only American. Others included Buddy Baer (Ursus), Peter Miles (Nazarius), Arthur Walge (Croton), and William Tubbs (Anaxander). Also, several were among the uncredited cast; perhaps the most notable of these was 70-year-old Irish-American character actor [[Richard Garrick]] as the public slave who stands behind Marcus in his [[Roman triumph|Triumph]] chariot, holding a victory laurel above his head, and repeating "Remember thou art only a man." Ustinov recalled how he was cast as Nero in 1949:
"An exciting proposition came my way when I was 28 years old. MGM were going to remake ''Quo Vadis'', and I was a candidate for the role of Nero. [[Arthur Hornblow Jr.|Arthur Hornblow]] [Jr] was to be the producer, and I was tested by [the director] [[John Huston]]. I threw everything I knew into this test, and to my surprise, John Huston did little to restrain me, encouraging me in confidential whispers to be even madder. Apparently the test was a success, but then the huge machine came to a halt, and the project was postponed for a year. At the end of the year, the producer was Sam Zimbalist and the director Mervyn LeRoy. They also approved my test, but warned me in a wire that I might be found to be a little young for the part. I cabled back that if they postponed again, I might be too old, since Nero died at 31. A second cable from them read 'Historical Research Has Proved You Correct Stop The Part Is Yours'.<ref name="Ust">Peter Ustinov: ''Dear Me'' (William Heinmann • London • 1977) pp217-244</ref>

[[Clark Gable]] turned down the role of Marcus Vinicius very early in the film's production history because he thought he would look ridiculous in Roman costumes.

[[Sophia Loren]] appeared in the film as an extra. Italian star Bud Spencer (real name: [[Carlo Pedersoli]]) also had an uncredited extra role as a Praetorian guardsman inside Nero's summer palace at Antium. (He answers Nero, but his voice may be dubbed.)

[[Audrey Hepburn]], still widely unknown when the film was released, was considered for the part of Lygia. Director Mervyn LeRoy wanted to cast her,<ref name="LeRoy">Mervyn LeRoy: ''Take One'' (W H Allen • London • 1974)</ref> but the role went to established MGM contract star Deborah Kerr. Wardrobe stills of her in costume for the film still exist.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spoto|first1=Donald|title=Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn|date=2006|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=978-0-09-179655-6|location=London|page=48}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Photo|url=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K1Mw9-Lf1ZA/T-8cUmf5GRI/AAAAAAAAFT8/F3X73lBHA1U/s1600/ah_qv1.jpg|website=2.bp.blogspot.com}}</ref>

Patricia Laffan was selected by the producer and director for the major role of Poppaea after they watched a screen test she made for a smaller part in the film.<ref>"The Life Story of Patricia Laffan" ''[[Picture Show (magazine)|Picture Show]]'' Vol63 No1832, 10 July 1954 ([[Amalgamated Press]], London) p12</ref>

Ustinov relates in his autobiography ''Dear Me'' that director Mervyn LeRoy summarized the manner in which he envisioned Ustinov should play the Emperor Nero, very salaciously, as

<blockquote>Nero ... The way I see him ... He's a guy plays with himself nights.... At the time I thought it a preposterous assessment, but a little later I was not so sure. It was a profundity at its most workaday level, and it led me to the eventual conviction that no nation can make Roman pictures as well as the Americans ... The inevitable vulgarities of the script contributed as much to its authenticity as its rare felicities. I felt then as I feel today, in spite of the carping of critical voices, that ''Quo Vadis'', good or bad according to taste, was an extraordinarily authentic film, and the nonsense Nero was sometimes made to speak was very much like the nonsense Nero probably did speak.<ref name="Ust" /></blockquote>

===Filming===
Produced for $7 million, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time. It became MGM's largest grosser since ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939). Filmed at the sprawling Cinecitta Studios that had been opened by [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1937 as part of the dictator's master plan to make Rome the pre-eminent world capital. (Mussolini's son [[Vittorio Mussolini]] and Hollywood producer [[Hal Roach]] negotiated to form the R.A.M. ["Roach and Mussolini"] Corporation later in 1937, which was ultimately aborted. This business alliance with the Fascist state horrified 1930s Hollywood moguls and ultimately led to Roach defecting from his MGM distribution deal to [[United Artists]] in 1938.)<ref name="hollywoodreporter/167559">{{cite news |last1=Higgins |first1=Bill |title=BACKLOT: Long before Gadhafi, Mussolini tried to muscle into the movies. |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/80-years-hollywood-reporter-167559/ |access-date=11 August 2024 |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |date=16 March 2011 |quote=80 Years of The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref>

Filming in postwar Italy offered American studios immense facilities and cheap Italian labor and extras, of which thousands were required. Hollywood returned to Cinecitta often, producing many of its biggest spectacles there, including ''[[Helen of Troy (film)|Helen of Troy]]'' (1956), ''[[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur]]'' (1959), and ''[[Cleopatra (1963 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (1963), with the latter two dwarfing ''Quo Vadis'' in scale. The studio would later be used by many Italian producers and directors, including [[Federico Fellini]]. The first use of the phrase "[[Hollywood on the Tiber]]", which has come to refer to a golden era of American [[runaway film production]] in Italy, was as the title of a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' article in the issue dated June 26, 1950, published while ''Quo Vadis'' was being shot in Rome.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wrigley|first1=Richard|title=Cinematic Rome|date=2008|publisher=Troubador|isbn=978-1-906510-28-2|location=Leicester|page=52}}</ref>

Composer Miklós Rózsa said that he wrote most of his score at the Culver City studios while the film was being shot in Italy:

<blockquote>[The] rushes were being sent back to Hollywood for cutting at the same time as they were being cut back in Rome ... I set to work so that at least something was ready, even if it had to be modified later. I worked with the chief supervising editor, [[Margaret Booth]], whose technical knowledge is incomparable ... Finally, the Rome contingent arrived home with their version. It wasn't so very different from the one that Margaret had put together, and there were no insuperable problems. Sam Zimbalist was amazed and delighted that I had all the music ready in three weeks, thanks to the work Margaret and I had already done.<ref name="Roz">Miklos Rozsa: ''Double Life'' (The Baton Press • Tunbridge Wells, UK • 1982) pp144-155/p216.</ref></blockquote>

Ten Italian locations were used in the film. With the exception of the [[Appian Way|Via Appia]],<ref name="Bro" /> most of these have not been identified, but the final stage of the chariot chase was filmed along the 2000-year-old ''Viale dei Cipressi'' (Avenue of Cypresses) near the village [[Bolgheri]]. This landmark in [[Province of Livorno|Livorno Province, Tuscany]], is easily recognizable.<ref>"The cypress tree-lined road of Bolgheri" on YouTube</ref>

In the summer of 1950, when ''Quo Vadis'' was in production, Rome was in the grip of an intense heatwave, as Peter Ustinov recalled: "Rome was in the throes of [[Holy Year]], and bursting with pilgrims. It was also one of the hottest summers on record."<ref name="Ust" /> The heat affected not only the cast and crew, but also the lions. Mervyn LeRoy recalled that because of the heat, the lions were reluctant to enter the arena.<ref name="LeRoy" />

Due to equipment shortages in Italy, MGM had to import a reported two hundred tons of generators, lights and other electrical equipment from [[Culver City]].<ref>Steinhart, Daniel. (2019). ''Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting''. University of California Press. p. 90. {{ISBN|978-0-52-029864-4}}.</ref>
The film holds the record for the most costumes used in one movie: 32,000.<ref name="Bro" />

At one point in the film, Nero shows his court a scale model illustrating his plans for the rebuilding of Rome as a new city to be called Neropolis. Studio publicity claimed that this was the model of Ancient Rome housed in the [[Museum of Roman Civilization]] and that it had been borrowed from the Italian government.<ref name="Bro">''M-G-M presents Quo Vadis'' (original film brochure • 20 pages, including covers) [ 1951 ]</ref> (This was originally constructed by Mussolini's government for a 1937 exhibition of Roman architecture.)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wyke|first1=Maria|title=Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History|date=1997|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-90614-2|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vIHMdmVwtEC&q=%22Quo%20Vadis%22%20mostra&pg=PA140|access-date=5 April 2012|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kelly|first1=Christopher|title=The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction |date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-280391-7|page=128|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixUePMNx8BkC&q=%22Quo%20Vadis%22%20mostra&pg=PA128|access-date=5 April 2012|language=en}}</ref> However, the museum model is of fourth-century Rome, not of first-century Rome as it would have looked when rebuilt after the Great Fire of AD 64. The screen model looks nothing like the museum model. (It was almost certainly constructed especially for the film – perhaps by its special effects model-maker, [[Donald Jahraus]].)

[[Anthony Mann]] worked on the film as an uncredited second-unit director.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boxwell |first=David |title=Mann, Anthony – Senses of Cinema |url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/mann_anthony/ |access-date=17 March 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref> He spent 24 nights (four working weeks) on the Cinecitta backlot shooting scenes for the Burning of Rome sequence. However, he was not the co-director of the film, as some of his admirers have claimed.<ref>Jeanine Basinger: ''Anthony Mann'' (Wesleyan University Press • Middletown, Conn • 1979/2007) p. 11</ref> The soundstage scenes for the same sequence were directed by Mervyn LeRoy.<ref name="Ust" />