1964's
The Fall of the Roman Empire is set at the end of the reign of Emporer Marcus Aurelius and the rise of his son Commodus. Although it was poorly received at the time, it's maintained a lot of interest over the years and it does
maintain a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes (though in fairness it only has 5 reviews posted).
The film opens with one of Aurelius' last battles against the Germanic tribes in the forests along the Danube frontier, during which time he indicates his desire to see his throne go to his chosen successor, a little-known protoge who happens to be in love with his daughter Lucilla. Aurelius is poisoned and Commodus ascends the throne, exiling the protoge, which leads to war. Eventually the hero deposes Commodus by dueling him to the death surrounded by a cadre of soldiers, saving Lucilla, but refusing the throne for himself.
Wait... have I possibly confused this with
another Oscar-winning film?!?! Oh, whew, of course not, silly me!
(How about some props for my mad googling skills?!?!)
Anyway, in THIS version of the story, Marcus Aureilus is played by Alec Guinness, Commodus is played by Christopher Plummer (two reasons that alone make the film worth seeing), and the film also stars Omar Sherif, Sophia Loren (Lucilla), James Mason, and Stephen Boyd as the hero, whose name is Livius. Boyd is mostly famous for playing Massala in Ben Hur.
Ironically, the original intent was to cast Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius! He, of course, went on to play Aurelius in Gladiator. Harris took the starring role in
This Sporting Life instead, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
Boyd was actually offered the role of Antony with Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, but had to turn it down for this part, which turned out to be a huge mistake. The
Fall of the Roman Empire flopped, and Richard Burton was nominated for an Oscar for his Antony (Cleopatra received 9 nods and 4 awards).
Fall was recognized by the academy only for its musical score.
Anyway, the movie has been available for several years on a really poor import DVD, but now it's getting a full star treatement from The Miriam Collection, the Weinstein Company's new video rejuv enterprise, which recently did El Cid. Netflix, unfortunately, only carries the old version, but it is already listed at Amazon for only 18 bucks. Not bad.
Something to watch for.
Here are a couple of YouTube videos related to the film. The first one is a 7-minute clip that someone placed on YouTube for no apparent reason (good clip, though), and the second is the official theatrical trailer, which runs about 4 minutes.