Egypt in C20: At the Movies

The second of this series focusing on actresses who played Cleopatra in the twentieth century (see the first here) focuses on the film starring the marvellous Theda Bara.

The director was J. Gordon Edwards and it also featured Fritz Leiber and Thurston Hall. It was filmed in the Summer of 1917 and was released in October of the same year.

Both publicity, sets and costumes were lavish.30,000 people were employed in the making of the film as well as 2,000 horses in total Fox spent $50,000 on sets.

 Publicity stated that ancient prophecies had predicted that Theda would play Cleopatra.

She makes a wonderful, exotic and mysterious Cleopatra, if the surviving footage and publicity materials are anything to go by.

Egypt in the C20: At the Movies

The first of this sequence of  'Egypt at the Movies' focuses on the  feature 'Cleopatra' starring Helen Gardner.

Released on the 13th November 1912 it was the first production of the independent production company 'Helen Gardner Productions'. Helen Gardner was the first actress to establish her own production company as well, mainly though her role as Cleopatra, as being the first film "Vamp".

As an actress Helen Gardner appeared in 62 films between 1910 and 1924 and out of these around 18 are known to still survive, at least in part.

Luckily one of these is Cleopatra and you can really get a sense of her appeal.

Her style is the very epitome of late 'Edwardian' glamour with its heady exoticism and sexuality.