Charles Laughton offers the definitive Nero in Cecil B. DeMille's insanely lavish treatise on the decline and fall of Western Civilization. It was made in 1932, shortly before the Production Code fell so heavily on Hollywood, and DeMille seizes the opportunity to indulge the full range of his perversity one last time. Mrs. Nero (Claudette Colbert) bathes in ass's milk while lusting after noble centurion Fredric March, but he, naturally, has fallen in love with a humble Christian girl. Thoroughly mad and immensely enjoyable. 122 min.
By
Dave Kehr
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