The read
Audiences rate it 17 points higher than critics do.
Synopsis
George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.
Ratings
IMDb6/10
Rotten Tomatoes43%
Audiences rate it 17 points higher than critics do.
16 audience votes
Key crew
- Chester ErskineDirector
- Friedrich HollaenderOriginal Music Composer
Cast
- Victor MatureCaptain
- Jean SimmonsLavinina
- Alan YoungAndrocles
- Robert NewtonFerrovius
- Maurice EvansCaesar
- Elsa LanchesterMegaera
- Reginald GardinerLentulus
- Gene LockhartMenagerie Keeper
- Alan MowbrayEditor of Gladiators
- Noel WillmanSpintho
- John HoytCato
- Jim BackusCenturion
Stills
Themes
arenacolosseumlionbased on play or musicalancient rome2nd century