Watch Order
0 / 4 watchedAll four versions in release order.
About Cleopatra
Cleopatra films all cover Queen Cleopatra VII, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The 1917 Fox version with Theda Bara is now mostly lost. The 1934 Cecil B. DeMille version with Claudette Colbert runs 100 minutes and won for cinematography. The 1963 Joseph Mankiewicz version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton runs over four hours and nearly bankrupted Fox at 44 million dollars.
The 1999 two part miniseries with Leonor Varela adapts Margaret George's novel and plays as television rather than epic cinema. Each version starts from history rather than from the last film, so release order is simply a tour of how Hollywood's Egypt changed.
Good to know
Watch in release order, with the understanding that the 1917 film survives only in fragments. The 1963 film exists in several cuts around 192 to 243 minutes, so runtimes vary by version. The 1934 version runs a tight 100 minutes and makes a brisk contrast before the long epic. No new theatrical Cleopatra has released, so the 1999 miniseries is the current endpoint.
