Julius Caesar

Synopsis: Mankiewicz’s version of the tragedy that ‘some Americans regard as their own has stood the test of time’ (The Guardian 2019). With an impressive cast, including Louis Calhern as Caesar, Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, Deborah Kerr, James Mason and John Gielgud.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film; Video
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1953
Duration: 120 mins; 10,821 feet

Director

Joseph L Mankiewicz

Producer

Cinematographer

Writer

Music

Art Direction

Cedric Gibbons; Edward Carfagno

Cast

Notes: Budget $1.7m.

The Folger Shakespeare Library holds a shooting script dated 7 July 1952 with changes through to 16 July 1952. The Birmingham Shakespeare Library holds a dialogue cutting continuity script.
General: According to producer John Houseman, he and Mankiewicz decided against making the film in colour or CinemaScope as the tragedy called for ‘intensity and intimacy rather than grandeur; for direct violent confrontations that do not benefit from a lush, polychrome background’ (AFI Catalog). A colourised version was made by Turner Entertainments Co, in 1993.
Awards: Academy Awards 1954 - Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, black and white. The film secured nominations for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’ (for Brando) but both lost out to FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and William Holden in STALAG 17.

BAFTA Film Award 1954 - Best British Actor (Gielgud) and Best Foreign Actor (Brando).
Reviews: Peter Morris’ survey ‘Shakespeare On Film’ Films in Review 24:3 (1973), pp. 132-163 observes ‘Although lacking the polish of Olivier’s films and the visual imagination of Welles’, Mankiewicz’s version has an austerity, a dynamic inner force and an absence of externals that finally produce a more effective and dramatically satisfying presentation than does Bradley’s version of the same film’.

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British Universities Film & Video Council