When Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton for the first time after a tumultuous affair on the set of Cleopatra she chose as her wedding gown a canary yellow chiffon dress. Designed by Cleopatra costume designer Irene Sharaff, Taylor paired the dress with hyacinths and lilies of the valley woven into her hair, which was plaited(…)
Some of the biggest movie parts in history were first offered to other actors, including the part of Indiana Jones. Can you imagine anyone else playing that part? Take a look at the actors who turned these parts down below. Do you think the movies would have been as successful if the directors had secured(…)
There are 4 major versions of Cleopatra that I know of: the silent movie version with the exotic vamp Theda Bara in the title role, the art deco masterpiece starring Claudette Colbert, the Taylor-Burton 1960s version and this: Caesar and Cleopatra. This is a very different version of the Cleopatra story to the others which(…)
Elizabeth Taylor wore a staggering 65 costumes during the movie Cleopatra (apparently her costumes alone cost nearly $200,000), so it’s hard to come up with one particular style which sums up the movie. The general rules seemed to be: low plunging necklines or off the shoulder dresses with nipped-in waists and long flowing skirts. Oh(…)
In 1934 Cecil B. DeMille directed a movie version of Cleopatra which was every bit as sumptuous and decadent as the later movie of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor. This Cleopatra was dressed in opulent Art Deco style and Claudette Colbert who played the title role looked just wonderful. The costumes which were designed(…)
A dancer in a fabulous Egyptian costume photographed in 1915. I love this costume, it reminds me of that scene from Cleopatra (the 1963 movie) when Elizabeth Taylor is brought into Rome at the end of that amazing procession. Some of the dancers in that are wearing Egyptian style wings similar these (although with much skimpier(…)
Did you know that Joan Collins was considered for the part of Cleopatra before Elizabeth Taylor finally won the role? Here is her screentest. You see her in full costume and makeup trying out some of the lines- what do you think? Personally, she’s not a patch on Taylor, I think they made the right(…)
When Elizabeth Taylor came to the end of her studio contract in 1961 she was free to finally choose her roles and command her own price. And that’s exactly what she did when she demanded the huge sum of $1 million to play the title role in Cleopatra. Cleopatra started as a small budget-movie which(…)