Pre-Code Essentials: The Sign of the Cross (1932)

Plot

When Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) blames Christians for burning down Rome, the lives of all Christians in Rome are put in great jeopardy. Anyone who openly admits to being a Christian can be arrested and when Marcus (Fredric March) sees Mercia (Elissa Landi) defending a couple of fellow Christians, he instantly falls in love with her and tries everything he can think of to seduce her, but her devotion to her faith doesn’t waver.

Marcus’ newfound love for Mercia puts him in a very precarious situation. Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) is madly in love with him and is incredibly jealous when she hears Marcus is in love with a Christian girl. Poppaea wants Mercia killed and Marcus has a rival who wants to use this information to push him out of favor with Nero. Since Mercia refuses to turn her back on her faith, she is ordered to be fed to the lions in the Colosseum. Marcus begs her to renounce her Christianity to save herself, but she would rather die and Marcus would rather die than live without Mercia.

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My Thoughts

“My head is splitting! The wine last night, the music, the delicious debauchery!”  This is a line delivered by Charles Laughton as Emperor Nero, but the phrase “delicious debauchery” is a perfect summation of Sign of the Cross. This is a movie that stars Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, and Charles Laughton, but let’s be honest here — the real star is Cecil B. DeMille; his unmistakable style is all over this movie.

Sin and debauchery never looked better than when it was being directed by DeMille. He made it all look incredibly lavish and decadent. DeMille was responsible for some other rather notorious pre-codes (Cleopatra, Madam Satan), but Sign of the Cross is definitely the most sinful of them all. On the whole, I think Cleopatra is a better movie, but Sign of the Cross has it beat as far as pre-code content goes.

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The Definitive Pre-Code Moments

Claudette Colbert’s milk bath.

The lesbian dance scene.

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Why It’s an Essential Pre-Code

Censors had a field day when Sign of the Cross was first released and many scenes had to be removed for post-1934 re-releases, which have since been restored. Many religious groups despised Sign of the Cross because not only was it full of violence, skimpy costumes, nudity, and one scene that is widely referred to as “the lesbian dance scene,” they loathed DeMille for taking a story they felt should be “theirs” and turning it into this movie that is jam-packed with depravity. Regardless of the fact that the movie condemns Christian persecution, Sign of the Cross still pretty much made censors’ heads explode.

The Sign of the Cross (1932)

As Nero (Charles Laughton) watches Rome burn, he blames Christians for starting the whole thing rather than admit he started it.  Nero’s accusation places all Christians in Rome in great danger.  When Titus (Arthur Hohl) and Flavius (Harry Beresford) publicly admit to being Christians, they are arrested.  But when fellow Christian Mercia (Elissa Landi) tries to defend them, Marcus (Fredric March) sees her, instantly falls in love, and helps save Titus and Flavius.

Marcus is being romantically pursued by the empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert), and when she hears that Marcus has fallen in love with a Christian woman, she becomes extremely jealous.  This places Marcus in a precarious position because not only does Poppaea want Mercia dead, Marcus’ rival takes the opportunity to try to push him out of favor with Nero.  Marcus does everything in his power to seduce Mercia, but there is nothing that can take distract her from her faith.

When all the Christians in Rome, including Mercia, are gathered to be fed to lions for a large crowd’s entertainment, Marcus fights until the very end to save her.  Just before she is to go into the arena, he begs her to renounce her faith to save herself, but she refuses.  Finally, Marcus decides he would rather die in the arena with Mercia than live without her.

The Sign of the Cross is, without a doubt, one of the most completely depraved pre-codes you’ll ever come across.  With Claudette Colbert’s infamous milk bath scene, hedonistic party scenes, revealing costumes, and some rather gruesome moments all mixed together with a message about religious persecution, it’s easy to see why The Sign of the Cross caused quite a commotion.  It’s frequently cited as being one of the movies that drew such a strong reaction from religious groups, it helped usher in the strict enforcement of the production codes.  Even though the movie is actually sympathetic toward Christians, religious groups couldn’t stand Cecil B. De Mille taking stories with religious themes and filling them with so much depravity.

When Sign of the Cross was re-released after the production codes were being strongly enforced, it took quite a bit of work to make it follow the code.  Several scenes had to be cut and in 1944, De Mille filmed a modern-day epilogue and prologue to frame the original movie.  Fortunately, the cut scenes were not lost and have since been restored.

Sign of the Cross isn’t my favorite De Mille movie (that title would go to Cleopatra), but I can’t deny that this movie is completely and totally De Mille’s style.  It’s big, it’s lavish, it’s over the top, it’s everything you expect from a Cecil B. De Mille movie.

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

When Texas ranchers Egbert (Charlie Ruggles) and Effie Floud (Mary Boland) take a trip to Paris, they end up returning with butler Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton) in tow.  Egbert had won Ruggles from the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) in a poker game and the status-seeking Effie hopes having Ruggles will help her uncouth husband become more refined.  Ruggles does his best to get Egbert to adopt a posher lifestyle, but Egbert refuses to treat Ruggles like a servant and in the end, it’s Ruggles who starts adapting to some of Egbert’s ways of life.

When the Flouds return to their hometown of Red Gap, Washington with Ruggles, Ruggles ends up being the talk of the town when everyone gets the idea that he is a man of distinction.  Ruggles also starts to fall in love with local woman Prunella Judson (Zasu Pitts).  After Effie’s brother-in-law fires Ruggles, he considers leaving town, but after having a chat with Egbert and Egbert’s mother-in-law, decides to give up being a butler to open a restaurant in Red Gap.

For the first time in his life, Ruggles is living for himself, not for somebody else.  But then, Effie gets word that his former master, the Earl of Burnstead, is coming to town to ask Ruggles to work for him again.  Effie plans a big party to impress the Earl and is thrilled to be hosting someone so elite, but there’s just one thing missing from the party — Ruggles.  When Ruggles finally arrives, he tells the Earl about his plans and rather than being upset, the Earl is happy for him.  In fact, the Earl is happy to be there for opening night of the restaurant, which is a big success.

Ruggles of Red Gap is one of those movies that was acclaimed in its day, but unfortunately doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves today.  Director Leo McCarey found just the right mix of comedic and heartfelt moments.  Charles Laughton reciting the Gettysburg Address is an absolute must-see moment.  And I absolutely loved the ending of Ruggles reacting to the outpouring of support from the town at the opening of his restaurant.  The entire cast was excellent.  Charlie Ruggles was hilarious and Mary Boland was so perfect as the status-seeking Effie.  The only thing I was disappointed by was the fact that Charlie Ruggles and Roland Young don’t get much screen time together just because I couldn’t get enough of them together in This is the Night.

I very highly recommend Ruggles of Red Gap.  It hits every note just right.

Payment Deferred (1932)

William Marble’s (Charles Laughton) financial problems are hardly a secret.  He can’t go anywhere without someone asking him to pay up on a bill or someone whispering about how he can’t afford to buy his own drinks.  Things really come to a head when his boss finds out about a lawsuit against him and threatens to fire him if he can’t get it straightened out fast.  William thinks he might have found a solution to his problems when he gets an unexpected visit from his nephew James Medland (Ray Milland).  William doesn’t really know James, but he quickly notices that he has money.  First William tries convincing James to act on a financial tip he’s gotten, giving William a 10% commission of course.  James doesn’t like that idea, so William tries just asking him to lend him some money.  Again, James says no and William decides it’s time to move onto Plan C — murder.  He slips some Cyanide into a drink and offers it to James, then buries the body in the backyard.

The next day, William is wracked with guilt and his wife Annie (Dorothy Peterson) and his daughter Winnie (Maureen O’Sullivan) notice something is off about him.  When he goes to work, he takes James’ money and uses it on that hot financial tip and comes home a rich man.  All their debts can be paid off and William is able to quit his job.  Of course the family could also afford to either move or completely renovate their house, but obviously, William doesn’t want strangers poking around the place.  Instead, he sends Anna and Winnie off on vacation for a few weeks.  But while they’re gone, he gets a visit from Marguerite Collins (Verree Teasdale), a local shopkeeper.  Her visit isn’t purely social, though.  She’s there to get some money from William.  She seduces him and the two of them carry on an affair while Annie and Winnie are away, but Winnie finds out about them when she and her mother get home a day earlier than expected.

Not wanting to hurt her mother, Winnie keeps quiet about seeing Marguerite in the house.  But the idea of an unfaithful husband quickly proves to be the least of Annie’s problems when she figures out that William had poisoned James.  She doesn’t turn him in, though.  Life goes on, but Winnie starts hanging out with some more upper class people and becomes a real snob.  After fighting with William one night, she runs away and Annie goes chasing after her in the rain.  She doesn’t catch Winnie, but she does get horribly sick.  William takes care of her and she appears to be making steady progress.  At least she is until Marguerite pays another visit to blackmail William into giving her more money.  Annie overhears their conversation and, heartbroken, poisons herself with the Cyanide he used to kill James.  William doesn’t know she’s killed herself until a doctor arrives and finds her dead.  He is convicted of murder and put on death row.  Even though he didn’t kill Annie, he sees it as payment for killing James.

Payment Deferred was a very solid little movie.  Charles Laughton was pretty darn good in this.  He had some great sinister moments while interacting with James and I loved the scenes where he was paranoid and on edge.  This was a pretty early Ray Milland role and he doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but he does well with what time he does have.  Maureen O’Sullivan really didn’t make much effort to use a British accent, but Dorothy Peterson made a great loyal wife and Verree Teasdale was pretty wonderfully evil.  Plus it’s not even an hour and a half long, so it’s one of those great “short but sweet” movies.  I’d definitely recommend checking this one out next time it’s on TCM.

What’s on TCM: July 2011

TCM for July is one of those months that’s kind of odd, but I can’t help but love the fact that it’s odd just because where else are you going to see this kind of schedule?  I challenge you to find another network where you can see a night dedicated to portrayals of Arabs in film one night and then singing cowboys the next.  I don’t particularly care so much about the singing cowboys, but I like when TCM does the spotlights on minorities in film because a: I find it interesting, and b: they usually play some stuff that doesn’t get shown too often.  Other than that, it’s a little bit of a slow month to me, but I’m going to welcome that break because next month is Summer Under the Stars time again!

My Top 100, 50-41

Another week, another ten movies!  Up this week: Jacques Tati, Marion Davies, and The Ramones.  No, really.  You’re not going to see that combination on any AFI lists!  We’re already up to the halfway point…