The Robe (film) producer Frank Ross
The Robe is a 1953 American fictional Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that is responsible for the Crucifixion of Jesus. The film was released by 20th Century Fox and was the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope. Like other early CinemaScope films, The Robe was shot with Henri Chrétien's original Hypergonar anamorphic lenses.
The film was directed by Henry Koster and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was adapted by Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz, and Philip Dunne — although Maltz's place among the blacklisted Hollywood 10 led to his being denied his writing credit for many years — from Lloyd C. Douglas's 1942 novel. The score was composed by Alfred Newman, and the cinematography was by Leon Shamroy.
The film stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie, and co-stars Dean Jagger, Jay Robinson, Richard Boone and Jeff Morrow. The 1954 sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators, picks up exactly where The Robe ends.Cast
Background and production
Frank Ross acquired the rights to the novel in 1942, before it was completed for $100,000.The Robe was originally announced for filming by RKO in the 1940s and was set to be directed by Mervyn LeRoy, but the rights were eventually sold to Twentieth Century Fox. Ross received $40,000 plus 20% of the profits. RKO received $300,000 plus $650,000 from future profits.Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the role of Demetrius. Victor Mature signed in December 1952 to make both The Robe and a sequel about Demetrius. John Buckmaster tested for the role of Caligula.Filming finished on April 30, 1953, two weeks ahead of schedule.The film was advertised as "the modern miracle you see without glasses", a dig at the 3D movies of the day. Since many theaters of the day were not equipped to show a CinemaScope film, two versions of The Robe were made: one in the standard screen ratio of the day, the other in the widescreen process. Setups and some dialogue differ between the versions. The film was usually shown on television using the standard 1.33:1 aspect ratio version that fills a standard television screen rather than the CinemaScope version. American Movie Classics may have been the first to offer telecasts of the widescreen version.  Recent DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of the film, however, present the film in the original widescreen format, as well as the multitrack stereophonic soundtrack.
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