Watch The Sign of the Cross For Free

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (Paramount, 1932), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, returns its director to the genre to what he's best known, the religious spectacle, his first since THE KING OF KINGS (Pathe, 1927) starring H.B. Warner as Jesus the Christ. While this title certainly indicates another retelling into the life of Christ, the script, taken from an old play by Wilson Barrett, focuses more on Christians following in the teachings of Jesus years after His crucifixion, only to face suffering and prosecution for their faith.The setting is 64 A.D. where the Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) is introduced playing his lyre while watching in laughter the flames raging through the city of Rome. Although responsible for starting the fire, Nero places the blame on the Christians, arranging for his guards to have them placed under arrest. His wife, Poppara (Claudette Colbert), is an adulteress whose only desire is the manly Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), a prefect of Rome, but cannot put her hold on him after learning from Dacia (Vivian Tobin) of his love for Mercia (Elissa Landi), a Christian girl. As much as Marcus believes "Christianity is stupid," he tries his best to persuade Mercia to renounce her faith and marry him. Tigellinus (Ian Keith), Marcus' rival, sees an opportunity in making trouble for them both.With crime dramas, drawing room comedies and/or social related issues as common theme during the Depression era, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS was something out of the ordinary. In true DeMille fashion, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS is not only a 128 minute spectacle with a three minute intermission in the midway point, but a large-scale production with lavish sets and cast of thousands accurately costumed according to its time structure. Of the performers in this Biblical story, Elissa Landi, the central character, seems out of place with her 1932 head-dress while Claudette Colbert, in her first "bad girl" role, quite evident with her lipstick and pencil drawn eyelashes, has her cherished moment bathing in a pool of milk gulped along side by two kittens at a distance. Fredric March as the Roman soldier who rules with the cracking of his whip, physically makes a convincing Marcus, though some of his badly scripted dialog, along with others in the cast, may provoke laughter for any contemporary viewer. Charles Laughton's Nero is exceptional, right down to his curly hair with added putty in the middle of his nose adding sharpness to his cruel facial expression. Although his scenes are regrettably limited, Laughton simply stands out, especially as he watches in sleepy-eyed boredom the slaughter of victims at the arena as he sits back eating large portions of food. Other members in the large cast include Tommy Conlan as Stephanus, the teenage Christian boy; Nat Pendleton, Arthur Hohl, Charles Middleton; lions, tigers, crocodiles and elephants as uncredited extras.As much as the plot was reworked into the MGM spectacle of QUO VADIS (1951) starring Robert Taylor as Marcus; with Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov giving a tour-da-force performance as Nero, nothing can compare with the intense arena sequence found in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. Graphic, then and now, this sequence, along with "The Naked Moon" dance performed by the wicked Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner), was all that was missing when THE SIGN OF THE CROSS was not only reissued to theaters in 1944, but when sold to commercial television around the 1960s. In its place was a ten minute prologue written by Dudley Nichols, set during World War II with the cast featuring Stanley Ridges (Chaplain Thomas Lloyd); Arthur Shields (Captain James Costello); James Millican (Captain Kevin Driscoll); William Forrest (Colonel Hugh Mason); Tom Tully (Hoboken); Oliver Thorndyke (Lieutenant Roger Hammond); and Joel Allen. The new opening revolves around bombardiers being assigned on a dangerous mission and heading out to their destination. As the airplane flies over the Colosseum, a discussion about to the prosecution of Christians under Nero's regime leads to a flashback and events that takes place. It wasn't until March 14, 1993, when American Movie Classics cable channel presented the original uncut 1932 theatrical release of THE SIGN OF THE CROSS that was obtained from the DeMille estate, and played it as part of AMC's initial Film Preservation Society festival. Without these missing scenes, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS would have been hopelessly dull and talkie, such as the case with the 1944 reissue that had circulated for nearly half a century. In 1995, Universal Home Video distributed the now uncensored 1932 version to home video and then to DVD in 2006. After AMC ceased airing THE SIGN OF THE CROSS in 1999, Turner Classic Movies picked up its option by airing this DeMille epic where it played from occasionally from 2004 to 2007. Regardless of its flaws, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS is prime DeMille, best suited for viewing during the season of Lent or Good Friday. Hail Caesar!! (***1/2)

As the film opens in 64AD Rome, the city is burning and Nero (Charles Laughton) is playing his hand held harp. He comes up with the idea to blame all the social, political, and economic problems on the nascent Christians, some of whom who are old enough to have witnessed Christ's crucifixion. This leads to one of the better portrayals of the Colliseum "games" that's ever made it to the big screen and surely must have made Depression weary viewers forget their problems for the time being. The love story of the relationship between prefect Marcus Superbus (Frederic March) and the young Christian woman Mercia (Elissa Landi) seems like a distraction, though it was probably necessary to counterbalance the salacious depictions of debauchery, especially Claudette Colbert's bathing scene in milk brought to her by slaves, and a wild dance that goes on while the Christians sing hymns as they're being led to the Colisseum dungeon. I think Frederic March probably became great sometime after this film, but Laughton, who doesn't get that much screen time, is great as Nero the hedonist and also as a serious ruler. But what will surely capture attention is the finale, which goes on quite extensively, and which DeMille in pre-code fashion, let it all fly, while bringing an effective and moving human touch to the suffering.

Set in Ancient Rome, SIGN OF THE CROSS follows Police Prefect Marcus Suberbus (Young Fredric March with eye-shadow and a tendency for delicious barnstorming!) He is ordered to capture and sometimes kill Rome's "dangerous" and elusive underground Christian cult. However, he falls in love with Mercia, a captive girl who refuses to give up her faith. Along the way, we meet Nero. Charles Laughton plays Nero as a boozed, up, spineless, psychotic baby. Claudette Colbert takes it all away as Poppaea, Nero's wife. Her nude milk-bath, constant demonic purring delivery hypnotizes the audience. There's a bizarre orgy sequence about half-way through the film where a crazy lesbian dancer entertains the crowd and us with her "Dance of the Naked Moon". Trust me, you have to see this.Then comes the third act of SIGN OF THE CROSS. The captive Christians are forced to participate in deranged and warped games at the Coliseum. This scene will simply blow you out of your comfy-chair, and still come at ya! Naked girls are fed to alligators, one is offered to what looks like a lovesick gorilla, amazon women fight and behead hopping pygmies, men are made to box grizzly bears, and much, much more. DeMille adds to this craziness by cutting in reaction shots of the Coliseum crowd. Some scream in horror, a woman is obviously sexually turned on by the carnage, many gawk and gamble, while others yawn in boredom.If you watched SIGN OF THE CROSS, let's say on late night TV in the past, you saw the heavily censored version with most of the above insanity cut out. Upon a 1944 re-release, the Production Code forced most of the Coliseum scenes removed. A prologue and epilogue with World War II fighter pilots talking about Nero's Rome was tacked on. This is the original 1932 uncut version, with the Coliseum craziness replaced and the fighter pilot footage removed. Soak in it!

Sign of the Cross, The (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Third chapter in Cecil B. DeMille's religious trilogy. Nero (Charles Laughton) sets fire to the city of Rome and blames the Christians so that they can all be murdered. Nero's number one man (Fredric March) falls in love with one of these Christian girls (Elissa Landi) and must chose sides. Like many DeMille films, this one here looks and sounds great but the smell is rather sour. This is the type of film that begs you to love it and gives you a lot of things to love but when you take a closer look it's rather poorly made. The biggest problem is that there's no emotion throughout the film and the religious aspect is glossed over, which is a shame since it was so wonderfully handled in King of Kings. The love story between March and Landi never really materializes either. Laughton, March and Claudette Colbert all give very good performances but the real star is Landi. Colbert's sexual milk bath is certainly a highlight. The massacre of the Christians at the end, while trying to be shocking, never really packs the punch of other films including Intolerance. Previously made in 1914.