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So much of Shaw's gently playful comedy the movie preserves—and only so much. Bypassing the play's philosophy and blunting its rapier wit, the Hollywood version offers instead some gaudy Colosseum sequences, complete with gladiators, lions and glamorous vestal virgins.
The picture also elaborates on the romance between the beautiful Christian maiden, Lavinia (Jean Simmons), and the handsome Roman captain (Victor Mature). The acting styles range all the way from the theatricalism of Maurice Evans as a simpering Caesar to Mature's deadpanning. As the lion-taming hero, TV Actor Alan Young appears imbecilic rather than amiable. Jean Simmons makes a beguiling Lavinia, while Robert Newton tears ferociously into the role of the Christian warrior, Ferrovius. But this screen adaptation of a Shavian classic succeeds mostly in throwing G.B.S. to the lions.
* Previous screen versions of Shaw plays, all filmed in England by Producer Gabriel Pascal: Pygmalion (1938), Major Barbara (1941), Caesar and Cleopatra (1946).