Cinema: The New Pictures, Nov. 19, 1951

Quo Vadis (MGM) is the costliest movie ever made—$6,500,000* worth of grandeur, violence, faith and fleshpots, glittering with Technicolor and set against the epic clash of Christianity and paganism in Nero's Rome. The film has more lions (63) than most movies have actors; its 30,000 extras outnumber the working population of Hollywood; its army of technicians spent 24 days stoking the conflagration of Rome, which burned only nine days for Nero himself. For sheer size, opulence and technical razzle-dazzle, Quo Vadis is the year's most impressive cinematic sight-seeing spree.

Six months in the...

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