Product Details

• Actors: Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger, Flora Robson, Francis L. Sullivan
• Directors: Gabriel Pascal
• Writers: George Bernard Shaw
• Producers: Gabriel Pascal, J. Arthur Rank
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: July 5, 2000
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792845870
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,598 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't See How It Could Be Better, November 24, 2000

By	Richard F. Grantges "truth maven" (MN North Woods) - See all my reviews

I own this on Beta and just saw the last half again on Satellite. I was greatly disappointed to find it is not available on DVD. Perhaps the poor reviews you have for it have not helped. This is a great play and movie. All the stars give great performances. Claude Rains is Ceasar as I want him to be -and believe he was. I love the bits of wisdom that GBS sprinkles throughout the script, e.g.,"There's a Roman who knows how to make men love him!" Vivien Leigh is a believable princess of Egypt. Rufio, the ideal Right-Hand Man. Pftatateeta, the perfect chief handmaiden for Cleo. Apollodorus and the British Slave both perfect in their roles. This is one of the small number of films I can see over and over and still enjoy, even though, or perhaps because, every line of dialog is familiar.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vivien is stunning!, December 7, 2003

By	Vivian Hartley (Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

This movie is pretty cool but Vivien makes it marvelous! Hey DVD people! Why does this movie get released on DVD for the UK and not the USA? I would like this movie for my DVD collection!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Still A Delight! Really It Is!..., June 2, 2003

By	Michael Welch (Tempe, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Yes, those that complain that this 1946 film version of Shaw's famous play of the same name is mainly 'stage-bound' and the acting often seems 'stilted'-- well, sigh, they surely have a point.

Bernard Shaw himself (he did not die until the 1950s) is credited with the screenplay, which may have something to do with the criticisms. Shaw is very talky and hard to 'transfer' to motion picture standards of verisimulitude, but this movie has a beautiful, delightful Vivien Leigh, the incomparable Claude Rains, the beautifully dashing Stewart Granger, plus 'old friends' of the classic British cinema such as Flora Robson, Felix Aylmer, Basil Sidney, Stanley Holloway, Leo Genn, Francis L. Sullivan -- all who appeared in wonderful films like Laurence Olivier's 'Hamlet', David Lean's 'Great Expectations' and many other intelligent pictures of that pre- and post-war (WWII, that is) period. (There is even a very very young, but very lovely as always, Jean Simmons as a slave of Cleopatra who plays the harp.)

The picture attempts an 'epic' look, with battles yet noted I'm afraid by unconvincing stunt work and 'casts of thousands' sort of milling about -- and Cecil B. De Mille does this so much better than Gabriel Pascal, the director of 'Caesar and Cleopatra'. But I myself admit I love the Shavian ambience -- the intellectual activist actually attractive (in Shaw's plays at least!) to the winsome young woman; ... friendship, discussion and respect; thought as more important than 'action-adventure'.

If Shaw's plays do seem too dated to you and they generally bore you, yes, stay far away from this film! But if you brighten when 'entertainment' is also provocative to the intellect and not only to the eye (and other sense organs) -- and particularly if you have great affection for the era of British cinema dominated by Olivier, David Lean, and the early Tony Richardson and featuring so many familiar and adept character actors that fill the firmament with 'supporting' stars, you will like the movie, and ignoring its quite obvious flaws, enjoy every minute: I guarantee it!...