Word: nero
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...Nero (Niccolo Theodoli; Italian Film Export) is the first of what may be a cycle of foreign films ribbing American movies.** This Italian production, with English dubbed in, is a satire on the type of superspectacle exemplified by Hollywood's Quo Vadis. If Quo Vadis was one of the costliest ($6,500,000) movies ever made, O.K. Nero is certainly one of the silliest. It has knockdown clowning, pratfalls, songs, dances, and an existentialist ballet. Constantly rowdy, it is only intermittently funny...
...sightseeing in the Colosseum and dream that they are having all sorts of misadventures in ancient Rome. Among the picture's low-comedy highlights: the voluptuous Empress Poppea (Silvana Pampanini) taking a milk bath that out-DeMilles De-Mille; the sailors engaging in a pocket-billiard contest with Nero (Gino Cervi); gladiators waging a savage football game in the Colosseum with a Grecian urn as a pigskin; a Roman orgy with jitterbugging; a frenzied chariot race in which one of the vehicles is driven by Hopalong Cassius...
Roman Catholic Archbishop Donald Alphonsus Campbell of Glasgow called Tito a "modern Nero," and Bishop John Carmel Heeman of Leeds threatened Tito with "a warm reception in this country." At this point, Britain's leading Roman Catholic, Bernard Cardinal Griffin, spoke up in a quieter voice. "To say that we find it difficult to understand why this invitation was extended is an understatement." But Anthony Eden, said the cardinal, "need not fear that his visitor will suffer discourtesy, let alone violence, at our hands." The Economist insisted that "the majority of British people are curious...
...chalice. These holy men wear their hair and their platitudes long. Together with Author Costain's lumbering, pseudo-Biblical style, they reduce the pace of The Silver Chalice to the gait of a lame camel. Occasionally, the inferior doings are spiced up with superior settings, e.g., Nero's sycophantic court, a gladiatorial breakfast, Jerusalem's Dock of Atonement...
...When Nero, in a fit of rage, orders the Praetorian Guard to toss Helena from a tower, Basil heads home to faithful little Deborra, who is waiting for him back in Antioch. In no time, they are walking the dog together and billing & cooing over a hoped-for manchild. As for the chalice, it is soon stolen, never to be seen again, but a "miracle" enables Basil to finish the casing: he sees, and carves on it, a vision of Jesus. Author Costain's own vision of all this comes pretty close to reducing early Christianity to soap opera...