SWORDS AND SWAGS

In the films about classical Rome and Egypt, swords of bronze and iron had to be tempered. And only the plentiful use of swags of fabric showing the sexual allure of the feminine figure would do.

Who best to demonstrate the allure of the classical look than Rita Hayworth - done up here  in modern chiffon in Salome from 1953, designed by Jean Louis. This is one of his costume sketches for Rita from that film. Jean Louis designed many of her films at Columbia, including the knock-out Gilda, Cover Girl, and Tonight and Every Night. 

Many of Hollywood's most beautiful stars played in classical films. This costume design sketch by Herschel (Herschel McCoy) is for Deborah Kerr as Lygia in Quo Vadis from 1951. Her role as the Christian demanded a more basic wardrobe than was needed for the Empress Poppaea, below.

Patricia Laffan plays the Empress Poppaea, Nero's wife. She wears this stunning costume as the Romans watch the Christians being thrown into the Coliseum for the lions.

Charlton Heston wears the classic Roman short toga and cape as Judah Ben-Hur in Ben Hur, 1959. Heston's costumes were designed by J. Arlington Valles, although Elizabeth Haffenden, who designed the women's costumes, received the film's design credits (see my post on Hollywood and History). Valles (pronounced in the Spanish manner, Vayes) traditionally designed the men's costumes at MGM.

Academy Award winner Mary Wills designed this Roman captain's costume for William Watson in The Passover Plot, 1976. This was the last film Mary Wills designed in a film career that began with Belle of the Yukon in 1944.

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The classic film about the classic world is Cleopatra, made four times into movies and soon to be a fifth starring Angelina Jolie. Claudette Colbert and Vivien Leigh have also played the role. The biggest Cleopatra and the best known starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton from 1963. It was so big that it nearly bankrupted 20th Century-Fox, and in fact halted production of all planned movies at the studio. The costumes for Elizabeth Taylor were designed by Irene Sharaff, and were meant to be sexy.

Costume designer Renie (Renie Conley) designed the other women's costumes. The early1960's aesthetic for form-fitting clothes influenced the costume designs, including those for Isabel Cooley playing Charmian.

Francesca Annis played Eiras, another Lady-in-Waiting to Cleopatra. Renie's designs, as well as Sharaff's, gave the flavor of classical Egypt and Rome, but they were meant to show sex appeal. Since the early days of Cecil B. De Mille, sex and the visual appeal of classical films has been the magnet for audiences (not to mention the violence). We'll see how the new Cleopatra and Angelina Jolie fares. Maybe its time for another Ben Hur while we're at it. Or maybe there was just never enough sex (appeal) in Ben Hur to temper the violence.