The Robe, Directed by Henry Koster, is set in the Roman province of Judea during the 1st century, where Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, but is tormented by his guilty conscience in the aftermath.
After the Crucifixion he gets drunk and wins
Jesus' homespun robe and suffers nightmares and delusions after the event.
After a period of time in Rome he hopes to
find a way to live with what he has done, and although still not believing in
Jesus as a Messiah, he returns to Palestine to try and learn what he can of the
man he killed.
It’s a poignant script powerfully acted by
Burton, while the lovely Jean Simmons is incredible as the young woman he
loves, Diana. Michael Rennie is a quiet but forceful Peter, but Jay Robinson
steals the picture as the depraved Emperor Caligula, and as he normally did
Victor Mature played himself as Demetrius and there were a host of competent
performances in the minor roles.
The cinematography is quite magnificent filmed
in Cinemascope, while the film is graced by Alfred Newman beautifully and
eerily haunting musical score.
A very watchable movie that stands the test of
time but is not given the exposure it so richly deserves, perhaps because programmers
are of a more secular bent.
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