The Robe (1953) on Netflix
Marcellus Gallio, a Roman tribune, is ordered to carry out the execution of Jesus. He wins the condemned man's robe in a dice game, and nightmares of the crucifixion follow him.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Marcellus Gallio, a tribune and the son of a senator, is traveling to a slave sale when he helps retake Demetrius, a Greek slave who refuses to submit. At the sale he meets Diana, his childhood love, now in the care of Emperor Tiberius and promised in marriage to the regent Caligula. Marcellus and Caligula are longtime enemies, and Marcellus outbids the regent for Demetrius, who feels honor-bound to serve his new owner and will not run again. Caligula retaliates that night by sending Marcellus to distant Jerusalem. When he arrives, Pontius Pilate gives him one last duty: the execution of three criminals, among them Jesus. Marcellus wins the condemned man's robe in a dice game, and nightmares of the crucifixion follow.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Robe (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Robe was the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope, and like other early CinemaScope films it was shot with Henri Chrétien's original Hypergonar anamorphic lenses.
- Jean Peters was originally cast as Diana but became pregnant and was replaced by Jean Simmons. The film's poster had already been designed by then and was not changed, so it shows the wrong "Jean" between the likenesses of Burton and Mature.
- Albert Maltz's place among the blacklisted Hollywood 10 meant he was denied his writing credit on The Robe for many years, even though the screenplay was adapted from Lloyd C. Douglas's 1942 novel.
- Because many theaters could not screen films shot in the new CinemaScope process, each scene of The Robe was shot twice, with and without anamorphic lenses, giving it a "scope" and a "flat" version. Setups and some dialogue differ, as the takes were filmed back-to-back, not simultaneously.
- ABC paid a record $2 million to screen The Robe on American television four times, and its 1967 Easter telecast, sponsored by Ford, drew 60 million viewers, the second-largest TV audience for a film behind The Bridge on the River Kwai.
- Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the role of Demetrius. Victor Mature instead signed in December 1952 to make both The Robe and a sequel about Demetrius.
- The Robe was due to open at Radio City Music Hall, but the Hall would not drop its stage show for the film's planned run, so it premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City on September 16, 1953 instead.
