QUO VADIS *

"Quo Vadis" is as spectacular as any other mega-buck Roman epic with huge sets and hoards of extras, replete with the requisite howlers in the script but it's a lot more entertaining than most thanks mainly to an Oscar-nominated performance from Peter Ustinov as Nero. Ustinov was sufficiently canny an actor to know he was in a major money-spinner, however terrible, and that it would do his career no harm at all if he hammed it up just a little. The stars were Robert Taylor as a Roman centurion and Deborah Kerr as the Christian girl he falls for; they're decorative in the grand Hollywood style but it's left to Ustinov and Leo Genn, as a decent Roman senator who tries to stand up to Nero without success, to do what acting there is, (and whose demise also prompts Nero to call for 'the weeping vase' so he may collect 'a tear for Petronius'). "The Robe" which came out two years later, went over much the same ground in an even more over-the-top manner than this, and was even more entertaining, (this is a little po-faced). It wasn't really until Wyler got around to "Ben Hur" that this sort of thing perked up and showed some intelligence but as fodder for the masses this will do to be getting on with.