Elissa Landi in The Sign of the Cross
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 176/12. Photo: Paramount. Elissa Landi in the American epic The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932), based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett.
Italian-born actress and writer Elissa Landi (1904–1948) was rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. During the 1920’s she appeared in British, French, and German films before travelling to the United States. In Hollywood, she became a popular star of the 1930s.
The plot of the film [spoiler!]: Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), the proud governor of Rome, falls in love with the Christian girl Mercia (Elissa Landi). Instead, he rejects the love of Emperor Nero's wife, Poppaea (Claudette Colbert), who then takes revenge. Marcus has Mercia kidnapped to his house and tries to 'convert' her by having the woman Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner) dance lust, but Mercia is insensitive to her. She is arrested and imprisoned on Nero's orders. Marcus is so in love with Mercia that he converts to Christianity and dies with her in the arena, as food to the lions.
The Sign of the Cross is a typical pre-Code movie full of sex, violence, and debauchery, such as the daring scene in which Colbert bathes in asses milk (in reality powder cow milk) and invites a courtier to join her. So for a 1938 re-issue, several cuts were undertaken, such as Ancaria's 'lesbian dance', arena sequences involving women dying because of crocodiles and a gorilla, and some gladiator combat scenes. In 1944, DeMille made a new version in which the ancient story was framed within a modern prologue and epilogue, set in WWII. In 1993, a full restoration was done, in which the censorship cuts were put back and the 1944 framing was removed.
Source: IMDB, English Wikipedia.
Elissa Landi in The Sign of the Cross
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 176/12. Photo: Paramount. Elissa Landi in the American epic The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932), based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett.
Italian-born actress and writer Elissa Landi (1904–1948) was rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. During the 1920’s she appeared in British, French, and German films before travelling to the United States. In Hollywood, she became a popular star of the 1930s.
The plot of the film [spoiler!]: Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), the proud governor of Rome, falls in love with the Christian girl Mercia (Elissa Landi). Instead, he rejects the love of Emperor Nero's wife, Poppaea (Claudette Colbert), who then takes revenge. Marcus has Mercia kidnapped to his house and tries to 'convert' her by having the woman Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner) dance lust, but Mercia is insensitive to her. She is arrested and imprisoned on Nero's orders. Marcus is so in love with Mercia that he converts to Christianity and dies with her in the arena, as food to the lions.
The Sign of the Cross is a typical pre-Code movie full of sex, violence, and debauchery, such as the daring scene in which Colbert bathes in asses milk (in reality powder cow milk) and invites a courtier to join her. So for a 1938 re-issue, several cuts were undertaken, such as Ancaria's 'lesbian dance', arena sequences involving women dying because of crocodiles and a gorilla, and some gladiator combat scenes. In 1944, DeMille made a new version in which the ancient story was framed within a modern prologue and epilogue, set in WWII. In 1993, a full restoration was done, in which the censorship cuts were put back and the 1944 framing was removed.
Source: IMDB, English Wikipedia.