Saturday, April 19, 2014

Flick Pick: Spartacus

Spartacus
(Universal, 1960)

Universal's biggest-grossing picture to date, directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Dalton Trumbo based on Howard Fast's novel, the later two both blacklisted and unable to work in Hollywood since the '50s. To his everlasting credit, executive producer/star Kirk Douglas publicly announced their participation and basically dared anybody to make anything out of it. Audiences showed up in droves to see one of Hollywood's classic historic dramas, with Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, and Tony Curtis, and the film won four Oscars, including one for Peter Ustinov for Best Supporting Actor.

No comments: