Did you happen to record Monty Python’s Flying Circus
when it was shown on PBS back in the 1970s?
Do you still have the tapes?
Is there a TIME LIFE logo at the end?
If so, please write to me. Thank you!


Click here to learn the story.

THE WORKS OF TINTO BRASS

Big Budgets and Big Headaches — Continued


Gore Vidal’s Caligula

a/k/a Caligula
Caligola
Io Caligola
(1976–1979)

The above full-page $469.40 advertisement was laid out by Michael Sweret. This identical ad appeared two days previously on the inside back cover of The Hollywood Reporter (for $1,094.58), which demonstrates that the statement that “Filming Begins Today” should not be taken seriously. The actual start date had already been set at 2 August 1976. This ad was line art with a half-tone black-and-white image, but the main title and the dripping blood were red. The above was printed in two-color in Variety not on a card-stock insert, but on a regular page of newsprint paper. This was rather atypical for Variety, which generally printed only half-tone graphics on its regular pages, even when the ads were submitted in color, as they generally were. But in Variety the two-color process left many artifacts, and converted the half-tone black-and-white medallion into something dark, smeared, and murky-green. I snuck this issue of Variety out of UNM’s Zimmerman Library to take it to a shop that made a color copy for me. And then I snuck it back in to Zimmerman just in time for the librarians to toss all the old copies of Variety into the dumpster, since they were by then available on microfilm. I scanned my photocopy several times in small panels to clean it up, and then I pieced it back together, but it still looked awful. So I separately scanned a much cleaner 5-color copy of Daniel J Maffia’s artwork and laid it over the inferior image as originally published. And so what you see above looks considerably better than the original ad. The above art was Maffia’s second attempt, as Penthouse rejected his first rendering. Maffia was a little bit surprised to see that when the movie finally came out, the advertisements no longer featured his image, but featured instead a photograph of a gold medallion based upon his image. (To see some more examples of Maffia’s works, you may click here and here and here and here.) And, by the way, if you are familiar with Michael Sweret or his works or career, I would love to hear from you.


This original Italian poster from 1979 had an image similar to Maffia’s, drawn/painted by Irio Ottavio Fantini, one of the more famous designers of Vatican postage stamps. Click here to see another Vatican postage stamp that he designed. Click here to buy some of his stuff. Now that we’re at it, click here to buy even more. And click here to see a few of his movie posters. (Click here to order this poster, if it’s still in stock.)

While the poster on the left is a quintessentially simple logo-type poster, the above, on the other hand, is a typical “schmear” poster. Both were used for the 1979 Italian release, apparently to attract two different audiences. I have no idea at all who created it, and would love to learn more — hint hint. (Click here to order this poster, if it’s still in stock.)

This is the US poster as it was finally unveiled on Friday, 1 February 1980, in Manhattan. Later posters would include the distributor’s name, Analysis Film Releasing Corporation. Yet later posters would include the legend “CALIGULA SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON PENTHOUSE RECORDS.” Yet even later posters, as a result of legal difficulties, sported a small claim on the bottom reading “© PENTHOUSE CLUBS INTERNATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT,” and there were probably other variations as well, especially in Massachusetts. Then in October 1981 the “R”-rated poster came in two editions, one with a howling error on it. If you know who designed or worked on the gold medallion, or if you know who designed and laid out this poster, or if you know who did the calligraphy (yes, the letters were all painted, not typeset), please write to me. Many thanks!!!

Click here for a Stuart Urban’s behind-the-scenes reminiscences, added on Sunday, 21 March 2004.

Click here for tantalizing information about the mythical 210-minute version.

BEFORE WE EXPLORE CALIGULA,
LET’S TAKE A FEW MINUTES
TO HANDLE SOME MORE PRESSING MATTERS.

FIRST, I HAVE A REQUEST FOR A LOST TELEVISION SPECIAL
THAT WAS SHOT PARTLY ON CALIGULA’S SETS.

SO, ARE THERE ANY ALAN KING FANS AMONGST US?

His 90-minute “ABC Wide World Special” was entitled Alan King and the Pleasures of Rome. It was shot from 5–10 October 1976, and ABC broadcast it twice, on 24 March 1977 and on 8 December 1977. It was produced by Alan King and Rupert Hitzig in coöperation with RAI, and, distributed by SACIS, it was broadcast on RAI in Italy under the title I piaceri di Roma. This TV special seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. If you know the whereabouts of a rogue copy, PLEASE WRITE TO ME!!!

For more details, please see Alan King and the Pleasures of Rome.


• DID YOU SEE CALIGULA AT A CINEMA OR THEATRE? If so, please write to me with your reminiscences. I am looking to record every public and private screening, and the corresponding audience reactions. That’s a daunting task, yes, I know. If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you will see a long list of screenings, and yet that’s only a small fraction of the full run. I am especially interested in trade screenings as well as showings outside the US, where I’m sure reactions were quite different from what they were here.


• If you are a scholar of Roman art and architecture and wish to make any brilliant and incisive comments about the design of this movie, please write to me. I’m all ears. As wild as the design is, Danilo Donati didn’t invent it out of whole cloth. He was inspired by actual artifacts and paintings and frescoes and sculptures and buildings, and I want to know more.

Help?!?!?! Please?!?!?!? I cannot identify the following pieces of music to save my life. Can any of you identify them? These were among the pieces included on a temporary track of an early pre-release cut of Caligula. They’re probably all public-domain or royalty-free. Probably.
Harem Monsters
Pyramid 1
Pyramid 2
Pyramid 3
Electronic
Temporary Cue 08
Temporary Cue 09
Temporary Cue 10
Temporary Cue 11
Temporary Cue 12
Temporary Cue 13
Temporary Cue 17
Temporary Cue 18 (sounds Spanish or Méxican, doesn’t it?)

And then in the final film there’s this arrangement of some medieval tune played during Mnester’s street performance on the pyramid. What is that piece of music? Does anybody recognize it?

Also, does anybody know the whereabouts of a film print of the 1931 re-release of Ben-Hur? That particular edition, which has never been released on video, contains a rearrangement of the original 1925 score by William Axt and David Mendoza, which I desperately need to study, because an excerpt was presumably used in Caligula. Thanks!

Even more importantly, are any of you in touch with the family or heirs of Fiorenzo Carpi? Or maybe Franco Mannino? If so, please contact me. Thanks!



• NOTE ADDED MONDAY, 24 OCTOBER 2011: WE LOST ANNEKA.

The only two news reports about this are maddening to the nth degree. It is rather easy to see through the reports, and we are not the only ones who caught the contradictions and impossibilities. Though we never knew her, we were nonetheless rather fond of her, and so the news comes as a blow. What is especially frustrating is that Anneka alone held the answers to many Caligulan questions, and we desperately wanted to reach out to her. Now we shall never be able to. For those of you who don’t know, Anneka was one of the bit players in Caligula, and thus we ironically begin our lengthy essay on Caligula with the story of a mere bit player who didn’t have so much as a word of dialogue.

It was not until well after the casting had been completed and the filming was underway that Anneka diLorenzo (birth name Marjorie Lee Thoreson, married name Anneka Vasta) and a few other Penthouse models were awkwardly added to the movie at the insistence of presenter Bob Guccione. Though she quickly became friends with producer Franco Rossellini and his mother Lina Pugni, a friendship she maintained to the end, she had to suffer terrible consequences as a result of the movie. She had a heck of a tragic life and was swindled a thousand times over. After her experiences with the world of Penthouse, she decided to start life afresh, away from the limelight. Despite all she had been through in her teens and twenties and thirties, she refused to be defeated, and she did all in her power to make the most of her life. First, though, she normalized her life. She joined the Screen Actors Guild, married a Philip Vasta Jr, and had a daughter upon whom she obviously doted. Then, to make her contribution to the world, she got help from her husband and friends to attempt several business ventures (The Forever Young Experience Inc, The Anneka Thoreson Yoga and Wellness Corp, and possibly others I don’t know about). They seem not to have been successes, but then only 5% of small businesses succeed at all. We have to give her credit for trying valiantly. Her determination was admirable, undoubtedly, and her determination led her to become a Certified Nursing Assistant, which is not a bad thing to be. She moved about constantly and was probably never listed in the phone book, which made her almost impossible to find.

I just learned that she died on 2 January 2011 on the grounds of a Naval facility. This was mysteriously kept out of the news until 22 October 2011. Military-beat reporter Jeanette Steele of Sign on San Diego News broke the sad story, which was syndicated and picked up by countless news outlets. The Daily Mail was one of these, and it ran an abridgment of Steele’s report with some added background history that puts paid to the widespread claim that Anneka ever saw the money she won in court. Fox News offered the only other report that I know about, and it has to be seen to be disbelieved. From what little has been reported, I can’t make head nor tail of what happened in Southern California last January, though I can certainly think of a plausible scenario. Judging from the sparse release of information, it could not possibly have been suicide or accident, despite official assertions to the contrary. Something odd happened and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is surely withholding important details.

Anneka deserved much better than this.

The Sign on San Diego News story included the above photo (credited to “A Photo/Bocklett”) of Anneka diLorenzo with H R Giger posing in front of one of his paintings. Many of the news outlets that picked up this story have included this photo as well. There has been some concern about the propriety of including a photograph of Giger in the widely published story of an unrelated death. There’s nothing to worry about. Apparently there is a dearth of available vintage photographs of Anneka, and this is simply the best of the batch. But now that we’re on the topic of this photo, we see that it’s most curious. What is its provenance? Let’s do some investigating. According to the various web sites, this photograph was taken in New York City on the opening day of a Giger exhibit, Monday, 8 April 1980 — but the 8th of April 1980 was actually a Tuesday. The New York Times and other contemporary local newspapers make no mention of any such exhibit. With the help of Film Sketcher and Museum HR Giger, we learn that this was indeed sometime in early April 1980 in Manhattan, at the Hansen Galleries, Giger’s American agent at that time. The Hansen Galleries were closed Mondays, and so this photograph was most likely snapped on Tuesday, 8 April 1980. The only details I have been able to garner come from the poster and from an advertisement in New York magazine, volume 13 number 15, Monday, 14 April 1980, p 11.

   

This exhibition was sponsored by Bob Guccione and was entitled “H.R. Giger — Paintings and Graphics: Giger’s Alien Filmdesign, 20th Century Fox.” Guccione’s sponsorship would have entailed almost no cost, firstly because Giger was already on his way to the US since he had been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Alien, and secondly because the Hansen, being Giger’s agent, needn’t have paid an arm and a leg for his services. Further, the concurrent April 1980 issue of Penthouse had a large section devoted to Giger, which was essentially free advertising, piggy-backing on the success of someone else’s hit movie. Guccione’s sponsorship would also explain Anneka’s presence, as he was using her at the time to promote a number of his ventures. For what it’s worth, the Hansen Galleries (41 E 57th St) were a mere four blocks from the Penthouse East cinema (969 3rd Ave) where Caligula was playing, which, in turn, was only three blocks from Penthouse headquarters (909 3rd Ave), which was just a mile from Guccione’s Manhattan townhouse (14–16 E 67th St). When you casually read about these things, all these separate sites seem to cover a dauntingly vast area and give the impression of a massive enterprise. But when you explore a little more you find they can all fit into the palm of your hand.

Okay, now that we’ve finally gotten that photograph out of the way, let’s parse through the only news reports. According to the original Sign on San Diego News report and to the later Fox News TV report:

Anneka left Los Ángeles probably around 4:00 in the morning on Sunday, 2 January 2011, and checked into Room 160 at Motel 6, 750 Raintree Drive, Carlsbad CA 92011, just before 6:00 a.m.
She didn’t call it a night at 6:00 in the morning, because, after all, the 7:20 sunrise would happen soon enough, so what on earth would be the point of crashing in a motel room? She drove around (she probably had a few errands to run, or maybe she just needed an early breakfast at a 24-hour diner), and she made several telephone calls over the next two and a half hours. We are not told with whom she spoke, nor are we told what she said. But we can figure out by reading between the lines that whatever she said did not alarm her family or friends.
There were small incisions on her chest and wrists, “consistent with a halfhearted suicide attempt.” By definition, that means they were also consistent with a halfhearted homicide attempt. The deepest wound was half an inch.
A bloody steak knife was later found on the floor in front of the passenger seat of her car. The blood was Anneka’s, but there was no report about whose fingerprints were found on the knife, and no indication that the knife was ever even tested.
Her bloody clothes were wrapped in a plastic bag.
That means that AFTER she received the incisions from the steak knife, she cleaned up, changed her clothes, and wrapped her bloody clothes in a plastic bag to keep them from ruining the seat and carpet of her car. That is NOT consistent with a suicide attempt.
In the morning when it was only 39°F or 40°F outside (about 4.4°C) she went to a “popular” scenic outlook just off of Interstate 5. It couldn’t have been too popular that particular morning.
Her neck and back were broken WHILE SHE WAS STILL ALIVE.
There is no access to the ocean from the scenic outlook.
“NCIS doesn’t think she jumped into the ocean,” and yet she drowned in the ocean.
On Monday, 3 January 2011, Anneka’s family reported her missing. That means they were either expecting to hear from her, or they were expecting her to answer her mobile phone as she always did when they called, and they were worried by her uncharacteristic silence. (Had they ever reported her missing before after a single day of not answering the telephone? If that had happened in the past, you can bet that the news stories would have capitalized upon that recurring event. But they did not. So the family’s missing-person report was unique, and that alone tells us that Anneka was not in the habit of going silent. On the contrary!)
On the afternoon of Tuesday, 4 January 2011, her naked corpse was discovered washed ashore on restricted Naval grounds. Her age was indiscernible, indicating that she was waterlogged, having been dead a considerable amount of time in the water, though I’m no expert and cannot guess how long.
Says Naval investigator Rachel McGranahan, “we don’t have any evidence that this was a homicide.”
Says Fox News, “They’re pretty sure it’s a suicide.”
The few people who posted comments underneath the Sign on San Diego story for the most part accept the suicide verdict, which may mean that most people who read that leading story will similarly buy into it.
Sil Peña: “How sad, why must our lives end in a why we can’t find an answer?”
Rob Viskil: “Sounds like she might have swam out in the ocean and just drowned herself! and they found her body washed up on the shore.”
Mike Bishop: “I’m very sympathetic to her family, but come on. Her body has a number of hesitation wounds, she’s emotionally unstable, and sometimes a suicide is just a suicide — no matter how much disbelief the family may have.”
Alan Phillips: “Most likely it was a suicide, but we’ll probably never know for sure.”
Sharon Golden: “...I read the article and I personally feel from the evidence collected that she tried to kill herself.... It also sounds like she was bi polar because she was took Lithium but none was found in her blood, clearly one can conclude she most likely tried to end her own life....”
Lisa Merrill: “Mental illness. It is rampant and to me this is what it sounds like.”
Mark Allen: “Sounds like suicide to me, and the family is in denial....”
VaLori Michel Haver: “While it would be wonderful if anyone who had a child never harmed themselves, it just isn’t so.... It’s a shame this woman didn’t have a trusted therapist or more mental health assistance when her family noticed her mental deterioration.... A person whose only value had ever come from being nude may very well strip before exiting.”
 
It doesn’t take much to convince people, does it? (Her “only value had ever come from being nude”????? Oh give me a break! That’s about the nuttiest and most offensive insult I’ve ever read. Talk about a rush to judgment from someone who doesn’t know the first thing about her.) Now, think, please. It is highly unusual for a literate person, who’s gainfully employed in a career that matches her personality and goals, who is not taking any drugs or medications, who has close family ties and is in daily touch with her relatives, who dearly loves her daughter and speaks with her every day, to commit suicide without warning and without leaving a note. Yes? Am I wrong about that?
Her car, parked at the scenic outlook, was not found for over 48 hours — in Southern California, where traffic cops are perpetually hunting for suspicious cars and fanatically ticket/tow cars parked even one second past expiration time, and who log every car parked on public property every several minutes.
There is no obituary. There is no report of her death until Saturday, 22 October 2011, MORE THAN TEN MONTHS LATER.
According to Fox News, the NCIS “wanted to go public over the summer” — HALF A YEAR AFTER HER DEATH — “but her family asked not to,” even though such a request would never be honored by government authorities or the media.
The family do not for a moment believe the suicide verdict, but now that the news media have, effectively, characterized them as being in denial, nobody will ever believe their story, which, admittedly, they cannot prove or back up in any way simply because they have never and will never be granted access to the evidence.
According to Fox News, “In the nearly eleven months since Vasta died, NCIS says it has followed a series of leads,” even though that was impossible since — apart from family and motel staff who had no leads — nobody was informed of Anneka’s death.
According to Naval investigator Rachel McGranahan, “This is our last appeal to the media, to the public,” but in actuality it is the FIRST appeal to the media and to the public. It is the ONLY appeal, and it is TOO LATE.
According to Fox News, “NCIS says if this last appeal for information leads nowhere, the case’ll be closed.”
People in the area would have been hard-pressed to say anything about a stranger momentarily glimpsed a few hours earlier or a day earlier or two days earlier. But people in the area were never asked to say anything until MORE THAN TEN MONTHS LATER, when NOBODY could possibly remember a stranger momentarily glimpsed on the morning of Sunday, 2 January 2011. (To help make that concept clear, think back and try to remember a stranger you momentarily glimpsed on the morning of 2 January 2011. Can’t do it, can you?)
To build the case for suicide, the initial report mentioned that Anneka had been “Divorced and in and out of jobs” (unlike anyone else?), and Fox News spoke about Anneka’s having hit hard financial times (unlike anyone else?). That may or may not be true, but the reports do not connect that statement with another statement they make, namely that Anneka was at the time working as a Nurses’ Assistant. I suspect that was a typo for Certified Nursing Assistant, which Anneka had been previously, and which is a pretty darn good job. The average salary for a Certified Nursing Assistant, according to indeed.com, is $96,000/year, the sort of income few of us dare dream of. Was Anneka actually earning that much money? I have no way of knowing. If she were, in fact, working merely as a Nurses’ Assistant in Los Ángeles, her salary would have been only about a third of that. So we do not know precisely what her job was or what her salary was, but we do know that she had enough money at the very least to own and drive a maroon 2001 Mazda 626 sedan, fill it with gas, rent a motel room, and chat daily with her family on her mobile phone. She was living in Sherman Oaks, near a sister who was apparently close. There is not a chance that Anneka’s family would have abandoned her to hunger and homelessness, nor would they have left her to fend for herself with overdue debts, if there were any. They would have taken care of her, and such an assurance from close relatives would surely have greatly alleviated any financial worries.
Further to build the case for suicide, Fox News mentioned that Anneka was “unstable,” whatever that means. Susan Thoreson was quoted as saying that “I think Anneka did make suicidal gestures to herself,” and yet that quote is most likely spurious, or at least pulled violently from its context, as it contradicts her other statements. Might this statement have been in reference to Anneka’s behavior in her teens or during her worst years of the 1980s? Might this statement have been in reference to a reaction to a trauma, for instance, a divorce? If Susan made such a statement, she couldn’t have been referring to January 2011.
To build up the case even more, the reports mention that lithium and an empty bottle of Xanax were found in Anneka’s car. To the original journalist’s credit, she does admit that no drugs were found during the autopsy, which shows that Anneka was not dependent upon those or any other drugs, which in turn is a strong indication that she was not “unstable” after all. We do not know why the lithium was prescribed, nor do we know why the Xanax was prescribed, nor do we know the dispensing or expiration dates. For all we know, those bottles may not have been touched in years. Let me put this a different way. Have you ever suffered a severe trauma, for instance an attack by a mugger or an assault by the police? Did you find that shortly afterwards you could no longer function or sleep? Did you visit your HMO? Were you surprised to get a prescription for Xanax or something similar? Did you take that medication for only a few days to find that you were well on your way to recovery, upon which you stopped taking the medication? Does that mean that you are “unstable” or “emotionally fragile”? Much of what Anneka had experienced in the 1970s and 1980s was a living nightmare that would have destroyed a lesser person. She came out of it all intact and decided to devote her life to helping people. That’s not what I call “unstable.” Besides, she had recently been through a divorce, and perhaps that brought a temporary relapse that required some sedatives. But she had stopped taking them for a long enough time that there was not a trace of them left in her system! For the news reports even to mention these two medications, which Anneka was not taking, was irresponsible at best. For the news reports to mention these two medications to imply suicidal tendencies is downright outrageous. She was NOT TAKING THEM!!! How can medications NOT being taken suggest suicidal tendencies? That she was not taking them suggests strongly that she did NOT have suicidal tendencies.
Susan did admit that “When Anneka got paranoid, she would run away. It was that fear-or-flight stuff.” Pulled from context, we do not know if that referred to a previous chapter in Anneka’s life or if it was still part of her behavior to the end. Consider what she had lived through during the 1970s and 1980s: theft, breached contracts, sexual slavery, investigators following her every move and probably going through all her garbage cans trying to find every piece of dirt on her, all of which was presented in court in the most sensationalistic ways in order to smear and humiliate her, routinely, for many years. After undergoing that sort of treatment, paranoia and fear were only to be expected. It is really no wonder that she made it enormously difficult for any stranger to trace her whereabouts, and it is really no wonder that she moved about constantly so that the various people-finder services on the Internet would not be able to keep up with her. Further, considering what would happen on Sunday, 2 January 2011, Anneka’s paranoia would seem to have had a reasonable basis in fact. From the way the news story is constructed, we are supposed to infer that Anneka “ran away” as a result of a paranoid panic attack early in the morning on Sunday, 2 January 2011. But she did NOT run away. She took a little two-hour trip and rented a motel room and stayed in touch by mobile telephone. That’s not what I call “running away.” Would you call that “running away”? We are not told why she took that little trip. Could it have been that she just wanted to visit with a friend? attend a conference? meet with someone for a business proposal? shop for a new apartment? or maybe even just see a show? That part of the story is intentionally missing from the news reports. It is also worth noting how Anneka’s sister Susan is quoted only sparingly, and how the two most important quotes are mere fragments of sentences, which seem to be inserted into the news story out of context. What else did she say to the reporters? Probably a great deal, but we’ll probably never get the full quotes.
To recapitulate, a woman stabbed with a knife changes into clean clothes and wraps the bloody clothes in plastic to keep her car from getting soiled. Before she has a chance to make a report or seek help, she drives to a scenic outlook on a chilly morning when no one else would show up. She suffers a broken back and broken neck after which she drowns in the ocean even though there’s no access to the ocean from the scenic outlook and even though the Naval investigator says she did not jump into the ocean. Her naked body is found washed ashore two days later. (What happened to her clothes?) There was no warning and no suicide note. Her car, which would normally have been impounded before close of day on Sunday, is not discovered until Tuesday afternoon or evening. There is no obituary, no people from the area (apart from the motel staff) are questioned, and there is no press story of her death until more than ten months later, when it is announced that the case is about to be closed. The verdict is suicide. You see? That’s how stupid I am. I don’t see how any of that adds up to suicide. I guess I’m just another one of those tiresome feeble-minded nut-cases who’s dumb enough not to believe what our respected authorities tell us to believe. Yup, that’s right. Well, as a former friend repeatedly challenged me years ago in regard to other wild claims made by respected authorities, “Why would they say it if it’s not true?” At least one reader thinks more or less as I do. Check out HK’s comment at Daily Mail Online: “So she stabbed herself in the chest twice? broke her neck & spine magically — yet got down the cliff and into the water — and swam until she drowned? yeah right.” One final rhetorical question: Why was it only Fox News that carried on-camera interviews with the Naval Investigators, and how convincing do we think those Naval Investigators are? The reporters and researchers really had to hunt around to make a case for suicide — empty bottles, fragments of carefully selected quotes, a divorce, a job change — and overemphasized them, blowing them out of all proportion, while at the same time they deliberately underemphasized the most important and telling evidence — sudden unexpected disappearance, knife, fingerprints, bloody clothes, plastic bag, scenic outlook on cold morning, route from outlook to ocean, nature and timing of injuries, timing of discovery of car. As far as I’m concerned, something entirely different happened back in January, and this cockamamie suicide story is a cover that’s being used to libel the victim and her family in a pathetic effort to make a case. And so what else is new? Anyway, this is how you have to read the mainstream media’s news, no matter what the topic. The information is sometimes there, but it’s fragmentary, misleading, lopsided, and sometimes flat-out invented out of nothing. To figure out what actually happened you really have to expend some energy teasing out the clues.

Anneka diLorenzo, director Tinto Brass, and Lori Wagner between takes

Much that never occurs is noised abroad, and much that happens beyond a doubt is unknown, and in the case of nearly every event a version gains currency that is different from the way it really happened.

— Dio Cassius

WHEN I MENTION THAT I’M RESEARCHING AND WRITING A BOOK TO BE CALLED 200 DEGREES OF FAILURE: THE UNMAKING OF CALIGULA, THE REACTIONS ARE SOMETIMES PREDICTABLE. “Why would you want to do that? It’s a terrible movie!” is a frequent response, spoken in irritation, disbelief, and even anger. Another reaction has been a burst of nervous laughter. My favorite reaction so far was one that I received at a gathering of musicians, music historians, theatre historians, actors, writers, journalists, dancers, singers, and so forth. When I was introduced as the author of a forthcoming book on Gore Vidal’s Caligula there was a universal gasp of horror. (But I am not being fair. The most frequent response is “What? On what? What’s that? Who? You mean Julius Cæsar? That’s Shakespeare, right? No? Never heard of it.”) Despite its shortcomings and abrasiveness, Caligula, in my view, is simply the most fascinating movie ever made, and that’s a separate issue from its entertainment value or lack thereof. This movie is a test case of everything that can possibly go wrong in a production. For over thirty years I have been gathering materials related to this movie, and for ten years I have been attempting to hammer this material into book form, since late 2003 with the enormous help of JE Chaffin, a British researcher — and had it not been for his assistance and pathbreaking research I would have had to give up on this monumental task and do something else with my time. (Should not neglect to mention the monumental research assist from Tom Ryerson, who gathered vast amounts of original documentation that most researchers dare not even dream of finding.) After countless thousands of rejected pages, I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only half a chapter more to go. I should have had this thing done by now, but my greatest stumbling block was the language barrier. There are literally hundreds of pages of legal documents, mostly in Italian and French, that I cannot understand to save my life. At long last I have hired a professional translator, and so the book is close to a finish. We originally thought we’d have this done by 2006 at the latest. Not a chance. This book simply won’t allow itself to be rushed. It balks and stubbornly takes the time it wants to take — and it’s demanding perfection. We have learned about the numerous conflicting contracts, the people involved, the financing (all the published information is wrong, including the alleged budget of $17.5 million), the on-set complications and challenges, the countless misunderstandings that converted friendships into enmities, the unforgiving and unforgiveable press, the taxes, the copyright issues, the laws, the numerous protracted legal proceedings (including the mind-bogglingly preposterous and endless battles between the two producers), and so on and so forth. Nearly all of this information was kept out of the press for a reason, and what little was reported was so biased and skewed and fractional and tainted that it was almost worthless. The transformation of this movie from a serious political parable into a work of sexual sensationalism is a perfect demonstration of everything that’s wrong with our popular culture, and an analysis of it brings about many surprises and explains more than one would expect. The process of depoliticizing this movie was in itself a deliberate political act. And the legal manœuverings alone serve as an impressive microcosm of everything that’s wrong with our justice system. But the more I learn about these things, the more confused I get about the movie itself.

I got interested in this movie because of Gore Vidal. When I mention that now, the usual response is “Who’s that?” Thirty years ago that was not the usual response. The world has changed — and not for the better. If you don’t know, and if you’re curious: Gore Vidal is by far the best writer who ever lived, one of the handful of US-based political commentators worth paying attention to, and one of the most charming people anyone could ever hope to meet. In any case, Vidal resigned from this movie and spent a fortune in legal fees to get his name out of the title and to get his “WRITTEN BY” credit deleted.

Caligula is also what director Tinto Brass is best known for. Most frustrating. Well, like I always say: The one thing in your life that most embarrasses you, the one thing you are most ashamed of, the one thing you hope your friends never learn about, the one thing you try to put into the past so that you can move on with your life — that’s the only thing you’ll be remembered for.

THE ORIGINAL IDEAS THAT SOMEHOW GOT LOST: Vidal wanted to do something that had never been done in the cinema before, and still has not been done, and probably never will be done: He wanted to capture the reality of Rome of the first century. He wanted us to see it, feel it, smell it, breathe it, live it, understand it. Yes, he knew that his source materials (Suetonius and Tacitus) were anything but objective, and may well have been rancidly fictional, but in the end that didn’t matter for the basic conception. Even if the stories that he chose to repeat from the ancient sources were entirely make-believe, they nonetheless gave an accurate picture of the atmosphere and ideas of the times. Further, Suetonius wrote from a point of view that most modern readers would find entirely alien: He chose not to explain why the Cæsars were so wild for total power, simply because he thought it went without saying that that’s what everybody wants. After decades of re-reading Suetonius, Vidal finally recognized that unspoken argument. It was a revelation, and he was overwhelmed by excitement.

During the Nixon reign, Vidal was thinking a great deal about the ever-expanding American empire, and he thought Nixon quite Caligula-like. He found himself reading and repeatedly re-reading Camus’s play on Caligula, and after a while he thought he should try his own hand at the story. He could take it a step further than Suetonius. Having been raised in a family of politicians, and having personally known high-ranking officials in the US and elsewhere, including President Kennedy and Princess Margaret, he wished to convey an idea of what politicians must face. Once in office, politicians find that they are under pressure to limit their choices, and many will choose the lesser of several competing evils, which is the best they are permitted to do. Caligula, at least as portrayed by the legends, was an extreme example. He was in no way exceptional, but ordinary, and from the time he was born he was facing assassination, generally by his own family members. In such a situation, a dull, ordinary boy, who is frightened, downright terrified, will have extreme reactions. Vidal wanted to demonstrate that anyone, put into an extreme and frightening situation with limited choices, will become a monster. It is a simple idea, and a true idea, and it has been proved countless times. Yet this is not something that most of us like to think about — ever. To think about this would complicate and upset our judgments — our judgments about bullies, felons, bosses, politicians, war criminals, friends, and our own selves. A three-hour illustration, showing Caligula from his own point of view, would be a most powerful lesson.


Movie producer Franco Rossellini was the son of famous composer Renzo
and nephew of famous filmmaker Roberto.
Franco is probably best-known in the US
for his uncredited appearance in La dolce vita.
There then came a series of the most unlikely coincidences — but yes, they really did happen. At that exact same time, Vidal’s friend Paul Morrissey was thinking about directing a low-budget movie on Caligula’s life at court (no crowd scenes, and using only existing Roman-style European buildings). And by a further unlikely but true coincidence, Morrissey had just befriended Vidal’s film-producer friend Franco Rossellini, who by the unlikeliest of coincidences had been trying to produce his uncle Roberto’s movie on Caligula. Franco showed Paul the treatment that Jean Gruault had written for Roberto, but Paul did not like it at all. He suggested instead that Gore Vidal would be the ideal candidate as screenwriter. The duo approached Vidal to discover, to their amazement, that he was already planning a Caligula. Vidal agreed to do Caligula as a screenplay. He and Morrissey spent some time together choosing which episodes from Suetonius to include and they discussed possible actors and interviewed them. But when Vidal then announced his price, the project folded. It was beyond Franco Rossellini’s budget, and there were no known funding sources. Then by the most extraordinarily unlikely coincidence, Vidal’s Manhattan tenant Jack Silverman phoned one day to say he was now head of the new films division at Penthouse magazine, for which Vidal had written occasional articles. Did Vidal have a serious-but-sexy script they could purchase? Indeed! Vidal regarded Penthouse chief Bob Guccione as a friend and with some difficulty convinced him to work together with Franco Rossellini. The writer, though, instantly started accepting compromises about the budget, about getting a different director, and so on and so on and so on. Suffice it to say that if it could go wrong, it did.

Vidal’s first draft of the screenplay (October 1975) was, well, it was a first draft. (I was in agony when I first read it. But on my umpteenth reading I finally understood what Vidal was trying to say — and what he was trying to say had nothing at all to do with Rome. Now I can see how brilliant that script is. Too long, yes, occasionally clumsy, yes, but overall it is brilliant.) The second draft was an astonishing improvement, and was eminently filmable, powerful, moving, beautiful. Brass loved the script, but he saw how it could be made more cinematographic and more punchy.

Vidal was not at all a fan of Tinto Brass. All he had seen was Salon Kitty, and that was more than enough. He regarded it as one of the very worst movies he had ever seen. (Understandable. That is a common first-viewing assessment, and that was my original opinion as well.) He initially prevented the producers from hiring Brass. Nonetheless, through the strangest twists, Brass found himself hired anyway, while Vidal was back in Los Ángeles for a speaking engagement. During their intensive script sessions they found they were in complete agreement about the story, the characters, and the intentions, and their script discussions were vibrant, exciting, productive, and happy. Their harmonious working relationship was destroyed, though, when they misunderstood each other’s arguments about credits and theoretical issues (the auteur theory and so forth), and suddenly they found it impossible to work together at all. This resulted in Brass’s ultimatum that Vidal never be allowed on set. Despite that newfound hostility, though, the fourth draft of the script (dated 14 April 1976) was going to be filmed exactly as Vidal wanted it filmed, and that’s really all that mattered to them. Unfortunately, Brass was under contract exclusively to Guccione, not to Rossellini, and certainly not to Vidal.

Vidal continued to promote the film, unaware of what was occurring at the studio. Guccione hired Academy Award-winning artist Danilo Donati (best known for Fellini’s Satyricon and Casanova) to create a Felliniesque fantasy, and Donati, ignoring the script, began building nonsense — beautiful, breathtaking nonsense, true, but nonsense all the same — and started designing skimpy transparent costumes for nearly everyone in the cast. The result consisted of the most preposterous sets and costumes imaginable, filled with four-foot-long rubber strap-on phalluses. Any hope of realism was dashed. Visually the movie would look like a porno comic book, with nearly every character wearing see-through costumes, and with almost every niche of almost every set designed to showcase Pompeii-like sexual tableaux performed publicly. Never mind that most of the ancient Roman cultures, especially the peculiar culture of Capitol Hill, were about as openly sexual as the Amish. (Forget the idiotic movie myths: The Roman aristocracy had slaves for sexual release; they didn’t need orgies. Yes, emperors such as Nero and the rest of those maniacs did have a tendency to dump/murder wives and replace them at the drop of a hat, and they did enjoy their one-nighters, but they were above the law. They did not use the Palatine Palace as a Plato’s Retreat, nor was their behavior shared by the rest of society.) With these visuals and costumes, it was impossible to play many of Vidal’s scenes, because the designs contradicted the script. But a tiny little problem like that wasn’t about to stop Tinto Brass; he would film those scenes exactly as written anyway.


Gore Vidal being given a tour of the sets under construction. I have not been able to identify his tour guide.

Executive producer Jack Silverman, producer Franco Rossellini, and author Gore Vidal examine a plaster statue.
(The Chicago Tribune “Arts and Fun,” Sunday, 26 December 1976, sec 6 p 7)

Franco Rossellini and Gore Vidal.
Note that Vidal seems to be smiling.
(The Washington Post, Monday, 29 November 1976, p B3)

Franco Rossellini and Gore Vidal.
(Photoplay Film Monthly [UK], March 1977, p 25)

Gore Vidal posing with a chalice on Tiberius’s oversized bed.
Note that Vidal no longer seems to be smiling.
(Time, 3 January 1977, p 64)

In early June Vidal got a tour of the sets under construction. He remained calm and allowed himself to be photographed on them. But he objected, and strongly. He insisted that they be almost entirely changed. Production ignored him. He understood that probably meant bad news, and so he insisted that his name be removed from the title. Production ignored him. But Guccione understood that with Vidal distancing himself from the project, he now had an opportunity to refashion the script, and so he instructed cast and crew that he wanted the script, essentially, performed in the nude. Malcolm McDowell had contractual script approval, and so he hired his own writer (playwright Ted Whitehead) to rework his part, eliminating nearly everything in Vidal’s script that would show Caligula as cruel or homosexual. Further, McDowell insisted that the only realistic interpretation of Caligula was that of anarchistic provocateur who feigned lunacy only to destroy the bureaucracy. Then Guccione told Brass that a revised script was in the works, by an anonymous Italian man. He did not receive a copy of that script until a day or two before shooting commenced.

As filming started, Vidal received the new shooting script. He was shocked. He and Brass had agreed upon a final script several months earlier, and if any changes were needed, he was the one who was supposed to make those changes. Of course, no changes had been made to the script until after Vidal had made it clear that he no longer wanted his name in the title and after he insisted that he not be given sole writing credit, which was after he insisted that the movie was no longer representative of his ideas. Vidal had effectively resigned prior to the script changes, which left the producers and lead actor free to do as they pleased. Vidal read this new script and was horrified that his ideas were gone, replaced by new ideas that were unhistorical. Much of this new writing was terribly unprofessional, clearly the work of a hack. Vidal was incensed that silly jokes and sight gags had been added, that scenes of cruelty had been deleted, and that much dialogue had been abridged. He washed his hands of the whole affair. He saw that the movie would be a parody of his script. He told producer Franco Rossellini that he wanted nothing to do with this “joke” movie. He finally understood that Penthouse had never had any intention of respecting his script, but that it only wanted to use his name to endorse a sexploitation feature. Vidal would do nothing to stop the movie. Why should he have? The producers and financiers who were funding it were free to do as they wished; after all, it was their money and so it was their movie, and further, the producers were under no contractual obligation to shoot Vidal’s script. Since the movie no longer represented his ideas and since it would be the reverse of his intentions, all Vidal asked was that he not be credited and that his name not be used in connection with the movie in any way. This is a standard request that screenwriters make when their scripts are changed; such a request is generally honored, and the parting of the ways is generally cordial. In this case, though, the producers vociferously denied his request and soon launched a smear campaign against him.

Unfortunately, in trying to disassociate himself from the movie, Vidal was put into the uncomfortable position of having to discuss it at length with the press, over a period of years, to explain why it was not his. If he had kept his mouth shut, everyone would have assumed he had made the movie. If he opened his mouth, he gave publicity to a movie he despised, that he found personally defamatory, and that was being produced by people who had adopted a new hobby of continually insulting him in the press. And it didn’t help that, almost from the inception, the press and the rumor mills went wild with outrageous stories of for-real orgies and underage sex and women orally servicing horses and so forth, all of which was total nonsense, but all of which was widely believed, and all of which is still widely believed — even by Gore Vidal, who felt, rightly, that his name and reputation were being dragged through the sewer. He filed suit against the production for fraudulent use of his name to promote a movie he felt was injurious to his reputation. He was correct to do so. Unfortunately, in that lawsuit, he singled out Tinto Brass as the person most responsible for altering the conception of the movie. Vidal believed this to be true. He did not realize that Brass was the least-guilty of the parties, and should not have been named at all.

Of course, by the time shooting had commenced, production had placed Brass in charge of the filming, and by contract Vidal’s work was finished. Probably every published report about the making of this movie has posited that Brass wrested control from Vidal. That was not the situation at all. Vidal resigned, thereby ceding control to Brass. Once Vidal resigned, Brass was answerable only to Guccione. Thus he was not expecting Vidal to attack him so personally and so publicly, repeatedly making untrue accusations to the press in which he denounced the director as a sex maniac who was filming an unreleasable hardcore porno movie filled with illegal acts for which the authorities could shut down the set and sentence everyone to prison. Vidal was honestly summarizing reports from supposedly reliable sources. Brass assumed Vidal was lying through his teeth in order to sabotage the production. By making such an accusation in court, Vidal ironically and unknowingly made a self-fulfilling prophecy. Brass, having been so accused, lost any interest in following Vidal’s ideas for the movie. After months of diplomatic silence, Brass grew exasperated and lost all patience when Vidal sued him. He publicly called Vidal a traitor, sued him for defamation of character, and concluded, understandably but wrongly, that Vidal was simply suffering a massive “ego trip.” (I now know where the filming-of-illegal-hardcore-sex-scenes stories originated. You’ll be able to read about this in the forthcoming book. And you’ll be surprised!)

Vidal did not want an auteur director in part because he didn’t want someone else claiming authorship of his script and then changing it over his objections. Ironically, when Vidal sued to have his name removed from the title and credits, and the producers refused, Brass found himself in the awkward position of being legally liable for someone else’s contractual terms over which he had had no participation or interest. Vidal was clear that he would drop his charges if his name were removed from the film and if a different script were to be used. Brass saw a way out of the morass. Since the script had been rewritten and since he was contractually the one in charge of the set, he thought he could defuse the situation by claiming that he was not using Vidal’s screenplay. He repeatedly stated to the press that he and Malcolm McDowell had rejected Vidal’s script and written their own. Of course, that wasn’t true at all. Brass had done almost nothing to the script; the changes had been the work of others. Further, the remaining dialogue was still mostly Vidal’s, as were the bulk of the story and stage directions. We should point out that this was not in keeping with Brass’s normal work ethic; he has never before or since claimed credit for anyone else’s creation or contribution. But Brass’s strategy backfired, for his claim of authorship for a script that was not entirely new but still contained much of Vidal’s writing was the final straw, and Vidal concluded that Brass, in addition to being a liar and entirely untrustworthy, was also a plagiarist.

Vidal and Brass are both remarkably reasonable and even-tempered, and so this lengthy and nasty fight is entirely out of character. Why did no one bother to make peace between the two feuding artists? It would have been easy for an arbitrator to settle all the matters amicably at a simple luncheon engagement. But that never happened, and the fury and indignation on both sides increased exponentially, and even now, more than three decades later, the two are not on speaking terms. Apparently it was in a third party’s interest to maintain the quarrelling, the lawsuits, and the discord. It was actually a third party that manœuvered to put the two at loggerheads.

It may have been in part to appease Vidal that Guccione insisted at the last minute that two scenes of cruelty be reinstated; namely, the torture and execution of a drunken sentry, and the torture and execution of Proculus. And they were reinstated, but were so altered that they were the exact reverse of Vidal’s original intentions. It may have been in part to restore some homosexual undercurrent that the scene with the guards and the scene with Ennia’s slaves were invented, but again, where Vidal had imbued scenes with haunting power, this substitutes were mere sensationalism.

What were Brass’s goals for the movie? That is difficult to determine — but not impossible. Simply by watching and studying the movie as it now exists, you will never be able to figure it out. But with the extra materials that are beginning to surface, his ideas begin to become clear. Theoretically this is what he wished to express: “...the ruling classes..., in order to continue to maintain and control the institutions, needed a figurehead to solidify their power by delivering ‘spectacles,’ a noticeable figurehead who easily and efficiently symbolized Power: the Emperor himself. (In other epochs there would be a dictator to fulfill this function.) It was the intention of the dominant classes that such a figurehead would be only an instrument in their hands, a puppet to move about as they pleased, a puppet who had above all the task of delivering spectacles and making a spectacle of himself, so that all eyes would be on him, leaving the puppeteers free to go about the business of real Power, in the shadows” (Tinto Brass, Statement to the Court at Forlì, 29 February 1980; reprinted in Mario Gagliardotto, Obiettivo Brass, Modena: Edizioni il Fiorino, January 2005, p 109). But specifically what was the movie supposed to be like? What was supposed to happen in it? And how? And why? A guess, which is nothing more than an educated guess, is that, given the outlandish sets and rubber phalluses and see-through costumes and whatnot, Brass decided that all he could do would be to create a different sort of Rome, not a realistic Rome, not a Hollywood-on-the-Tiber sort of movie Rome, but a Rome as it might have existed in an alternative universe, something so strange and inexplicable, so filled with ridiculously stupid fantasies, that audiences would accept it as an authentic reconstruction. If that’s what he was after, he succeeded — perhaps he succeeded too well:

Glen W Bowersock, professor of ancient history, Harvard University (quoted in The Montréal Gazette, 25 July 1980): “...essentially exact. It would represent a reasonable synthesis of what we know.”

Stephanie Rewell-Darling (viewer in London, quoted in John Burns, “Wowing ’em in Soho, Snow White,” Daily Express, 31 October 1980): “I would have thought it was pretty accurate historically.”

D Bartholomew, Film Bulletin 49 no 3, May/June 1980: “...historically, an impressive visualization of Rome in the decadent period....”

Jerry Pezzola, The Winnipeg Free Press, 6 January 1981, p 27: “One discovers the producers have relied entirely on the historical record; in fact, they have left out some material the public is not quite ready to absorb.”

Father Antonio Lisandrini, Franciscan, screenwriter, and professor of history (quoted in The Globe & Mail, 20 April 1981): “...an uncompromising photograph of a special historical period.”

Mary-Louise McCausland, British Columbia’s director of film classifications (quoted in Michael Walsh, “Guccione’s Uncut Epic to End ‘Test,’ ” The [Vancouver] Province, 2 July 1981): “...from what I’ve read, it appears to be historically accurate.”

Bob Hunter, “Strictly Personal,” Sunday Northshore News (reprinted in The [Vancouver] Sun, 25 September 1981): “It has to be understood that Caligula is the first truly great historical film to be made. That is, there are no air-brush strokes. Historical accuracy is not sacrificed on the altar of suburban North American morality. I believe that the portrait of Rome under Caligula that comes through in this movie is as close to the barbaric reality as you can possibly get.”

ADMITTEDLY, THOUGH, THE OPPOSITE OPINION WAS ALSO OCCASIONALLY EXPRESSED:

Scott Eyman, “Caligula,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer: “As erotica, Caligula bas all the potency of industrial-strength saltpeter; as drama it is leadenly lugubrious; as historical reconstruction it lacks veracity; as a film it is an unqualified disaster — traits that the American public has managed to overlook in its vigilant quest for fresh thrills, as they have paid approximately $20 million to see it in the comparatively few cities in which it has played.”

Brass also had his political ideas. In discussing this movie, Guccione and others frequently liked to quote Lord Acton’s silly dictum that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are always bad men.” That’s not so deep. McDowell, acolyte of anarchist Lindsay Anderson, had a different conception, which might be summarized: Power IS corruption. If we were to ask Tinto Brass his opinion of Acton’s aphorism, I think there’s a fair chance he would prefer to reword it: “Corruption alone empowers, and absolute corruption empowers absolutely. Those in power are compelled to be evil.” As a side note, classicist Michael Grant, in The Twelve Caesars (1975), also took issue with Acton’s famous saying, and offered a more reasonable variant: “Overwork combined with fear tends to corrupt, and continual overwork and fear corrupt absolutely — with all the greater rapidity when combined with old age or ill-health.” It is unfortunate that, excepting Vidal, no one on production was at all familiar with such scholarly works. It is unfortunate that Franco Rossellini, Bob Guccione, Malcolm McDowell, Tinto Brass, Helen Mirren, Ted Whitehead, and Danilo Donati collectively knew absolutely nothing about Roman history. The same can almost surely be said for everyone else in the cast and on the crew, with probably the sole exception of Peter O’Toole, and even his knowledge was quite shaky.

Brass, of course, is no fool. He doesn’t (or at least didn’t) know about ancient Rome, but he does know the Renaissance, he does know current events, and he does know politics. Once Vidal was gone and the movie had changed course, he saw an opportunity to make a statement that had nothing at all to do with history, but that reflected his own ideas. He frequently referred to the movie as “porno-ideologico-Kolossal.” That was a most cryptic description which led to many misunderstandings. “Kolossal” because of the sets and costumes, I guess. “Ideologico” because of its anti-authoritarian polemics. “Porno” for a reason different from what you’re thinking. Let’s let him put it in his own words: “Porn in the etymological sense: pornography is the description of prostitution. This film describes how the man who submits himself to his ideology of power, or who embraces this ideology, or who creates this ideology, prostitutes his human dignity. Caligula understood this perfectly, so much so that he embarked upon a program. His madness had a well-defined logic. He was an anarchist who had been put into power. What does an anarchist who has obtained power do? He destroys it. He’s like a baby who enjoys smashing his expensive toy to pieces. That’s what Caligula did. He disassembled power” (Isabel Pisano, Appuntamento con il cinema italiano: alla ricerca di un sogno [Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, November 1980], p 168).

As Brass worked on the movie, it became ever-more clear that he saw Caligula, Drusilla, and Cæsonia as the only sane characters, surrounded by certifiably insane bureaucrats. Vidal had divided the script into three acts: Act I : a young boy is terrified that he is about to be murdered; Act II : a young ruler, intellectually incapable of understanding his responsibilities, takes advantage of his new position to carry out his cruellest juvenile fantasies; Act III : a matured ruler, broken in spirit by the death of his only loved one, transforms into a heartless killer, unaware of what a monster he has become. Once Vidal had alienated Brass, the director grew excited by the alternative ideas that Malcolm McDowell was offering. This resulted in a change. Caligula in Act II is already a killer, but after Drusilla’s death he softens. In Act III he decides to see for himself what the empire is like for the commoner, adopts a Teutonic peasant as his mascot, and sets about deliberately provoking all the bureaucrats to make a change, committing ever-more-comical outrages, in the full knowledge that this will lead to his assassination.

Of course, the movie as we see it today bears little resemblance to the movie that Brass actually made. Guccione stated numerous times that he was compelled to refashion the movie since Brass had disobeyed orders and shot a film not to the producers’ liking. Balderdash. Tinto Brass, like Gore Vidal before him, followed the contract to the letter. Further, he submitted to production’s request to view all the rushes for approval from headquarters. Everything he did was approved in full, unanimously, every step of the way. But suddenly Guccione had him locked out of the editing room (and not for the reasons that have been published!). Brass’s rival, Russell Lloyd, struggled terribly to make a movie out of the countless little rolls of film, which had been shot in an entirely nontraditional manner, with hardly any “main shots” at all. He began to realize that the story as it was unfolding before his eyes showed Caligula as sane and his assassins a lunatics. That contradicted what we all learned in grammar school, and so he shifted scenes and dialogue around to correct that defect and tell a different story. Lloyd was of the old-fashioned school, which is not a bad thing to be, but that method did not work here. Brass tells his stories and explains his characters and settings by quick impressionistic inserts. Lloyd tells his stories by single shots that should explain everything, with as few cuts as possible. He often decided to use the fewest possible shots to piece a scene together, but in so doing he lost the nuances and build-up and context. Lloyd was eventually dismissed (for the most unexpected reason) and replaced by Nino Baragli and then other editors, under the direction of Giancarlo Lui, to polish his edit. They looked at the work that had already been done, and they saw a tedious string of scenes of a madman acting like a madman. Surely they thought that was what the movie was about, and so they performed the polishes accordingly. All through this I can hear (in my mind’s fantasy) Guccione wondering aloud what on earth was the big deal about who was assigned to the editing. He probably reasoned thus: “You put scene 2 after scene 1. That’s it. What else is there to editing? Who cares who the editor is? It doesn’t make any difference. The result will be the same.”

Brass sued the producers for improper dismissal and breach of contract — and he won. But the subsequent legal complications and countermaneuverings were so protracted and tiring that he finally gave up and surrendered, letting the producers release whatever they wanted, on condition that he could remove his “DIRECTED BY” credit if he didn’t like the result. He saw the producers’ cut of the movie in court, and he loathed it. He said he couldn’t even recognize it as the movie he had made. Nearly everything was altered: Scenes were trimmed, shots within them were re-arranged, whole sequences were out of order, incorrect sound effects (wailing, ominous sounds, echoes, and so forth) were laid over the soundtrack, the (stunningly beautiful) music that was eventually stitched to the movie had NOTHING to do with the story and served only to distract, the dialogue was changed in the revoicing sessions, the story was changed, the pacing was changed, and pretty much all the jokes and visual gags, of which there were plenty, were deleted or so altered as not to register as humorous. Most notoriously, Guccione himself reshot much of one scene with hardcore sex footage (to replace Brass’s softcore simulations) and added a hardcore lesbian scene that was never in the script, and he instructed the editors to work these materials into the final film, though they didn’t fit in any way and were completely ruinous of what little was left of the movie. Also, the countless characters who were wearing four-foot-long strap-on phalluses were all deleted. I wish I could reproduce the unpublished stills, but I don’t have the rights, and even if I did, all those BarcaLounger-sized strap-ons would probably get my site closed down. Those stills are so mind-bogglingly dumb that I wonder what was really going on. Yet, on the other hand, I’m certain that the raw footage from Brass’s earlier Nerosubianco and L’urlo looked perfectly wretched as well, but the final results on screen looked splendid and dazzling and simply wonderful. I am also reminded of Brass’s Heart in His Mouth, which mixed radically different styles and working methods, and which periodically interrupted an elaborate story with nonsensical nonsequiturs, but which worked anyway. Perhaps Brass would have worked the same alchemy with Caligula? I think he would have. The multiple editors who worked on this movie, without any opportunity to consult with the director, were all convinced otherwise. They saw it as a piece of junk, and they did the sincerest best they knew how to clean it up. But in so doing, they made a mess. And now, irony of ironies, this is the movie that Tinto Brass is best known for. Let’s hear him once again: “Once this ideological aspect went missing from the movie, all that was left was the porn, in a non-etymological sense. [The producer turned it into porn] because it is less offensive, more comforting, because it doesn’t offend deep convictions. It serves only as a scandal...” (Pisano, Appuntamento, p 168).

No, I cannot reconstruct this movie. Even if all the raw materials (negatives, master tapes, and so forth) were to be located, I would not be able to reconstruct this movie. And I’m sure that not even Tinto Brass would be able to reconstruct this movie, because I’m certain he no longer remembers most of it. He doesn’t care to remember it. He doesn’t even like to think about it. And he’s right. Caligula is more frustrating for us viewers than for the filmmaker. We’re paying to see the movie that the filmmaker(s) made; we don’t want to pay to see how some other people, who were hostile to the filmmaker, vandalized his work. But, you know, maybe it’s not that important. Caligula was not and could not have been Brass’s major work, or even one of his major works. Even if he had completed it to his satisfaction, the result would have been little more than an oddity in his filmography. He did L’urlo and Dropout and La vacanza and Action and The Key, which were his own movies from start to finish, with his own scripts, and they’re five movies that are difficult to top. As fine as Caligula might have been, it was not the vision of a single artist, nor was it a collaboration. It was, instead, borne of conflict and compromise and then conflict again. Again, let us listen to Brass’s own words, when asked if he still felt bad about what had happened to this movie: “Not now. It’s all in the past. Canceled. I’m not an individual who’s capable of hatred. Now and then love prevails. There’s the hatred for the sleazy types who abound in the movie business, and there’s love for the movies themselves. Between that love and that hatred, it’s the love that prevails. I was unfortunate. I suffered injustices. But what I suffered was nothing in comparison to what others before me have had to endure. Poor Stroheim, for example. They burned his film. The producers won the footage, they didn’t like it, and, because it was inflammable, they burned it. Nothing is left. I, on the other hand, won my legal case with Caligula, but I lost the film. Justice was on my side” (Pisano, Appuntamento, pp 168–169).

As for poor Gore Vidal, well, though his movie was never made, his script still exists. He probably doesn’t realize it, but because of some legal complications, he still owns the full rights to that script. Theoretically it could still be made, and it could be made his way, if someone were up to it. If no one is up to that task, well, maybe someday we could arrange to have his script published. It’s a really beautiful script. The first draft was published as a DVD supplement, but don’t judge his final script on his first draft, please.... Any thoughtful person who reads his final script will, I think, be overawed.

So what do we do? We try to see some of what’s wrong with the movie as it currently stands. A few bits of this movie still flow visually (but not aurally) the way Brass wanted them, sort of. Most of the movie still survives pretty much the way Italian editor Nino Baragli reconfigured it. And after all the chief editors left, changes were still being made, and now, more than 30 years on, changes are STILL being made. The movie as it is currently shown in revival cinemas is not the movie that Brass witnessed in the court room; it’s even worse now.

Worst Editing of the Century?

When British journalist Iain McAsh mentioned that Caligula was Tinto Brass’s best-known work, the director snorted:

My most popular film? I do not consider Caligula as mine. I directed but did not edit it; the film was taken out of my hands. Editing must form part of the director’s work. Why? Very simple. My shooting and directing of the film is like the first draft of a novel when the writer gives the book to a typist. He cannot recognise his own work. In consequence, I shoot with three cameras at the same time and when I look at it on the Movieola then I decide which scene to use which makes the emotion flow (Iain F McAsh, “Take 1 — People on Camera: Bold as Brass,” Films on Screen and Video 5 no 2, February 1985, p 23).

In the final version(s) of the film, the emotions certainly do not flow — and neither does the continuity. Despite the technical assistance of the brilliant Nino Baragli, the result was perhaps the worst travesty of editing in cinema history. People who complain that Caligula is terribly scripted and terribly photographed are actually complaining about the editing, which simply makes the film look as though it had been terribly scripted and photographed. The complaint of poor photography stems largely from the overuse of zooms. More often than not, these zooms were simply the result of three camera crews adjusting to set up for the next close up, the next long shot and so forth. Usually, when a camera zooms the editor should delete the zoom and cut in the footage from one of the other cameras. But for Caligula the zooms were retained, and that was a terrible mistake. (For the record, may I state that I completely absolve Baragli of all blame. He was working under trying and confusing circumstances, and did the best job he could to transform a comedy into a melodrama. He was successful in his endeavor — an endeavor that was probably unique, for I know of no other movie in all cinema history for which such a transformation has been attempted so methodically. While the result is ghastly, Baragli’s skill as an editor is proved beyond question.)

Below is approximately how the movie should have opened, in Tinto Brass’s version:


The opening credits should be superimposed over the above image.

SCENE 1. The nearly silent beginning of the movie.

Caligula wakes up in a fright from his recurring nightmare.

His sister Drusilla attempts to calm him.

She attempts to reason with him.

Drusilla mentions Caligula’s arranged marriage to Ennia.
Caligula climbs out of bed.

Dozing servants are on hand to protect their masters —
and to inform on them.

A bird flies in — an omen of impending death...

...and, worse, gets entangled in the curtain.

Still in a semi-dream state from his nightmare, Caligula is now of a mind to be even more frightened by this prophecy of doom.

Caligula is both mortified and fascinated.

The servants understand their duty to calm the prince by ridding him of the bearer of bad news.

Sister Drusilla laughs off her brother’s fears: “It’s only a bird,” she giggles.

With her words of reason and encouragement, his fears dissolve in a moment.

He somersaults back into bed.

If you have not seen the movie, the above reconstruction will seem to make perfect sense to you. If you have seen the movie, you’ll be terribly confused, because the above reconstruction is not at all what you remember. Here’s what happened, in several steps:

1. Inferior takes were used for most of the above.
2. Several important shots of the bird and of the servants were deleted.
3. The blurry shot of Caligula in bed doesn’t occur until twenty-six and a half minutes into the movie.
4. We hear Caligula’s nightmare, which consists of snippets of Tiberius’s monologue.

For the moment, though, let’s just compare the takes and the shots.


SCENE 1. The opening credits should be superimposed over the above image.

SCENE 14a. More than 26 minutes into the story. Caligula has been taken away from Drusilla and shipped to Tiberius’s villa on Capri. Tiberius’s servant girl has just died from drinking poison. Dissolve to this blurry shot.

The nearly silent beginning of the movie.

Caligula has a nightmare about what he has just heard Tiberius say to him on Capri. The soundtrack is filled with reverb and wailing and echoes and music.

Caligula wakes up in a fright from his recurring nightmare.

Caligula wakes up in a fright from his singular nightmare.

His sister Drusilla attempts to calm him.

His sister Drusilla attempts to calm him.

She attempts to reason with him.

She attempts to reason with him.

Drusilla mentions Caligula’s arranged marriage to Ennia.
Caligula climbs out of bed.

Drusilla mentions Caligula’s arranged marriage to Ennia.
Caligula climbs out of bed.

Dozing servants are on hand to protect their masters —
and to inform on them.

A bird-of-ill-omen flies in over the heads of the frightened servants.

A bird flies in — an omen of impending death...
NOT INCLUDED IN THE US AND INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS.

...and, worse, gets entangled in the curtain.
NOT INCLUDED IN THE US AND INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS.

Still in a semi-dream state from his nightmare, Caligula is now of a mind to be even more frightened by this prophecy of doom.

Caligula is instantly terrified.

Caligula is both mortified and fascinated.

Caligula is both mortified and fascinated.

The servants understand their duty to calm the prince by ridding him of the bearer of bad news.

The bird momentarily gets stuck in the curtain hooks.

Sister Drusilla laughs off her brother’s fears: “It’s only a bird,” she giggles.

Sister Drusilla laughs off her brother’s fears: “It’s only a bird,” she giggles.

With her words of reason and encouragement, his fears dissolve in a moment.

The bird is still stuck in the curtain hooks. Dissolve to Caligula’s ritual first shave, already in progress.

He somersaults back into bed.

IN MOST EDITIONS, THIS IS WHERE THE MOVIE BEGINS.

Are you wondering why? Good. Russell Lloyd’s reasoning: “This scene is about Caligula and Drusilla talking.” And if that’s what the scene is about, then the stuff about the dozing servants waking up to chase away a bird is mere distraction. Get rid of it and keep to the point. Right? Russell Lloyd noticed that Ennia doesn’t appear until about 25 minutes after this dialogue. Who on earth would remember the name 25 minutes later? So he chopped the scene in two, and moved the beginning 25 minutes into the movie to introduce Ennia. That creates a problem, though. Drusilla’s bedroom is in Rome, and Drusilla remains behind in Rome. We are not introduced to Ennia until after Caligula arrives at Capri. Well, who cares? Who in the audience is possibly going to notice that this is Drusilla’s bedroom? And who in the audience is possibly going to notice that Drusilla never sails to Capri? Well, maybe a few folks will. How to fix the problem? Easy. At the end of the scene, before Caligula sails for Capri, delete the line about sailing to Capri. That way the audience won’t realize that the next scene occurs far, far, far away. And further, write a new line to be dubbed over Drusilla: “I’ll follow you as soon as I can.” There. Problem solved neatly. Yes? Well, uhhhhhhh, no.

• SCRAMBLING AND DUBBING: SCENE 7 (continuous with SCENE 1). When Macro interrupts the bedroom play between Caligula and Drusilla, he is sometimes seen from the back as he speaks. The editors chose footage showing his back rather than his face so that they could change his dialogue without being noticed.
AT LAST, THE ACTUAL DIALOGUE:
MACRO: Forgive me, Prince. I'm not interrupting... am I?
CALIGULA: Only my dreams.
MACRO: Happy dreams?
CALIGULA: Is there news from Capri?
MACRO: The Emperor commands you to wait upon him. We sail at first light.
CALIGULA: What does he want?
MACRO: A last look at you, perhaps... He is seventy-seven.
CALIGULA: May he live forever. How is Ennia?
MACRO: In love...
CALIGULA: In hell then, as the poet says.
MACRO: My wife won't be happy till she sees you in Capri.
CALIGULA: Wait outside.


When Macro exits, Caligula begs Drusilla to “Pray to Isis for me,” and they embrace. Drusilla’s final line was added in the dubbing: “I’ll follow you as soon as I can.” No such line was ever spoken on camera. It was added to make the scrambling seem to make more sense. But it doesn’t work. At all.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 9. Among the entourage escorting Caligula to Tiberius’s palace at Capri is a slender young fellow with long curly blond hair. He is present throughout much of the remainder of the film, but we never know why. Would we have gotten to know him in Brass’s proposed cut of the film? No, probably not, but there would have been some sort of visual link to make him belong. (He is not in Vidal’s script.)

• SCRAMBLING AND TRIMMING: SCENE 10. Nerva and Caligula walk down the corridor toward Tiberius’s lair. Behind the curtains are the sounds of beatings and wailings. Caligula takes a brief peek, but we don’t see what he sees. Then, several scenes later, we are presented with fragments of the tortures that Caligula peeked at several scenes previously. Later we see servants cleaning and clearing the hall early one morning before their masters have gotten out of bed. But in actuality it seems that some of that footage belongs here in Scene 10, as at least a few of these slaves are clearing the path for Nerva and Caligula several scenes ago. (Much of this material was not in Vidal’s script. AND MUCH OF THIS FOOTAGE IS MISSING FROM THE VAULTS. IF YOU KNOW WHERE IT WENT, PLEASE WRITE TO ME IMMEDIATELY. IF WE CAN FIND IT, I’LL MAKE CERTAIN IT IS PRESERVED AND MADE AVAILABLE. THANKS!)



Almost unnoticeable in long shot: Caligula pounces upon Claudius.
At the right of the image is the slave with perfumed ribbons under his nose,
always armed with his pooper-scooper.
He follows Tiberius around to clean up the droppings.
He is almost entirely deleted from the film.

Another shot of the Pooper-Scooper slave.
At the left enters the Wine Slave, carrying a jug.
As shot, he is always hovering about the ever-more-intoxicated Tiberius,
continually re-filling his goblet.
He is almost unnoticeable in the final version(s) of the film.

The wine slave with his back to the camera.

AT LAST, THE ACTUAL DIALOGUE:
TIBERIUS: Nerva, my dear friend, watch out for Macro when I am dead.
NERVA: I know; he hates me.
TIBERIUS: Oh yes, because you are good... because you are wise. So when I am gone, watch out for Macro.
NERVA: I have taken precautions, Caesar...
THAT’S IT. TIBERIUS DOES NOT SAY “AND WHAT MIGHT THEY BE?” INSTEAD, HE SIMPLY CHANGES THE SUBJECT BY SAYING:
TIBERIUS: Heaven help Rome, when I am gone. I am old. [To Wine Slave:] Wine!

Wine Slave out of shot

Wine Slave almost out of shot

At last we can see the Wine Slave’s face, in medium long shot.
He’s in purple on the right of the screen.

Momentary glimpse of the Pooper-Scooper Slave.

Another momentary glimpse.
This time we can almost see the instruments of his trade.

• SCRAMBLING: SCENE 12. Tiberius’s Machiavellian monologue is interspersed with fragments of an orgy shot partly through distorting mirrors. This orgy certainly took place in Tiberius’s hideout, but in a cushioned room, not on the three-tiered structure that Caligula and Tiberius are exploring, but there’s no other remaining hint of its meaning or context. (This particular orgy is not in Vidal’s script.)


As soon as we see the Wine Slave appear behind Tiberius,
we cut to the shot below.

And before we can really realize that Tiberius is again drinking from his favorite goblet, we skip ahead and cut away to the shot below.

The Wine Slave has already started to walk toward his next station.

Marcello Di Falco as the orgy master. He also played the lead rôle in Roberto Rossellini’s three-part TV series, L’età di Cosimo de’ Medici, as well as bit parts in Fellini’s Satyricon (as the Proconsul), in Fellini’s I clowns (in the billiard hall), in Fellini’s Amarcord (as the prince) and in Fellini’s La città delle donne (as the prison guard). Later in life he visited a surgeon and transposed two letters of his name to become Marcella Di Folco.

• INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 14. In one atypical instance, a bit of action was not de-emphasized, but over-emphasized: Apparently to make sure we understand that the slave girl has been killed by poisoned wine, her collapse onto the floor interrupts a line of Tiberius’s dialogue, as well as his walk up a slope, which then awkwardly picks up on the exact frame where it left off several seconds earlier.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 15. The beginning of Caligula’s shave is deleted, depriving the scene of its context. The shave is not in Vidal’s script, but it was in Suetonius (and it had also appeared Jean Gruault’s treatment for Roberto Rossellini’s proposed movie): Caligula’s ritual first shave and the sacrificial offering of his beard is ordered by Tiberius so that he will be symbolically a man, ready to take the throne — but Caligula feels humiliated when the ritual is performed without the traditional ceremony or celebrants. What Brass and McDowell did with these ideas remains, for now, a mystery.

• INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 16. When Nerva is discovered in the warm bath with his wrists slashed, in most copies of the movie we can barely see at the bottom of the screen the foreheads of number of people running by, but we don’t know that they are guards who are filing into the room in response to Tiberius’s distress. (These guards are not in Vidal’s script.) Though we don’t see the guards, we do see the two weeping slaves (who are in Vidal’s script), and thus Tiberius’s command, “Leave us! All of you!” was revised in the revoicing sessions to “Leave us! Both of you!”

Also missing from most copies of the movie is this portion of the scene,
showing that Macro and Ennia have also heeded Tiberius’s call of alarm.
(The above publicity still was taken during a rehearsal, for there is no water in the Pyrex bathtub.)
AT LAST, THE ACTUAL DIALOGUE, SURELY PENNED BY TED WHITEHEAD, NOT GORE VIDAL:
SLAVE 1: Nerva’s death was terrible for Tiberius.
SLAVE 2: The old bastard was left half-paralyzed.
SLAVE 3: What's going to happen if he dies?
SLAVE 2: We’ll get drunk as lords!
SLAVE 3: Tiberius has been good to us.
SLAVE 2: He’s been a bastard.
SLAVE 3: The bigger the bastard, the better for us.
SLAVE 2: You slave!
SLAVE 3: Take that back!
(Some of the footage is now missing, and it seems that someone walked off with most of the scene and hid it in a Tibetan mountaintop or in an abandoned coal-mine shaft in Siberia where the Penthouse people would never find it. IF YOU KNOW WHERE THIS FOOTAGE WENT, PLEASE WRITE TO ME IMMEDIATELY. IF WE CAN FIND IT, I’LL MAKE CERTAIN IT IS PRESERVED AND MADE AVAILABLE. THANKS!)

They all freeze when they see that
someone has unexpectedly gotten out of bed early:

He has heard, but does nothing, for he is immediately approached by...

...Macro, who cautiously makes his appearance...

...in the hall below the Mount Rushmore staircase
(realistic, this depiction of Rome, yes?),
to introduce Caligula to...

...Charicles, the Court Physician.

The Phenomenal Marcello Di Falco again, in green.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 19. Giuseppe Maffioli portrays a priest who prays over Tiberius’s masked corpse and names Caligula new emperor. Something is missing here, and an action is repeated in an effort to be overly dramatic and get a closer shot of Tiberius’ death mask. Why do I say that something is missing? Simply because in other scenes Maffioli, in the same get-up, plays Proculus’s butler and Caligula’s butler. How did that happen?


Giuseppe Maffioli as the priest officiating at Tiberius’ funeral

Giuseppe Maffioli as Proculus’ maître d’

Giuseppe Maffioli as Caligula’s maître d’

A number of the extras in this movie appear in several different contexts, and I guess we weren’t supposed to notice. But in the case of this character, I think we were supposed to notice after all. Maybe? Maybe the implication is that the priest, having been appointed by Tiberius, was defrocked by Caligula and had to accept a humiliating reduction in pay and status? And after the horrific wedding ceremony, maybe Caligula took not only Proculus’ and Livia’s pride and dignity away, but their butler as well? Could be. Maybe. Maybe not. Unless more of the movie turns up, we’ll never know. (As a point of interest, Giuseppe Maffioli, or “Bepo” as he was called, was a playwright and chef. He also worked behind the scenes on Gore Vidal’s Caligula as a “food consultant,” though what precisely that entailed I do not know. He does not appear on any crew list that I have seen, and so perhaps he “consulted” unofficially. Click here to read a little tribute to him.)

Among the entourage on Caligula’s dais is the High Priest Bergarius, with a band across his forehead and a tall cap with a golden emblem. Played by well-known Argentine artist Eduardo Bergara Leumann, this was once an important though minor character in the story, but now he appears only in the background of this and numerous subsequent scenes. He is almost unnoticeable on a casual first viewing of the film. But once he is noticed, he fascinates us with his all-knowing stillness. (Bergarius is not in Vidal’s script.)


Bergarius at the inauguration

Bergarius is shocked

Bergarius enjoys the executions


FRIDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2008 — I was shocked to learn that Eduardo Gustavo Bergara Leumann had passed away after a long illness. Some years ago I had sent him an email message, in English, my only language, asking for an interview relating to Caligula. He responded in Spanish, his only language. Though I cannot speak a word of Spanish, I had no trouble understanding his brief message. He said that he would happy to talk with me of his experiences, but that I would have to conduct the interview in Spanish. For several years I begged my Spanish-speaking acquaintances and coworkers to interpret for me, to no avail (speaking a language conversationally and translating it are two entirely different enterprises). When I could finally afford to pay for a professional interpreter, I learned that Eduardo had died. I offer to his family and friends my most sorrowful condolences. May his memory live on.



Bergara Leumann was a comic performer, a scenic designer, an artist, a playwright, and the star of a television variety show. In Buenos Aires he ran the famed La Botica del Ángel, and his presence in Caligula, for me, is the most exciting thing about the movie.
So it is especially annoying that the editors did all in their power to minimize his already-small part.
Please click here to see what little remains of his footage.



Who has the rights to these photos? I would like to license them. Please write to me if you can help. Thank you. And did you record any of his television shows? I would love to see them. If you can loan me the videos, please let me know. I would be forever in your debt.



• TRIMMING: SCENE 21. Another scene that was chopped in two originally opened with Drusilla feeding her leopard cub. She and Caligula hear a noise from behind the moon mask on the wall, indicating that they are not alone. But the sound is now entirely removed from the audio track. Caligula discovers two homosexual guards in the heat of passion in the secret listening room and chases them away. The scene is cut impossibly short, and seems to include a few frames from a different take. (A single spy, who actually is spying through the listening hole, occurs in a different place in Vidal’s script.) The conversation through the moon mask’s mouth is also cut short, and then the scene cuts away altogether. The second part of this scene wrongly appears later in the film. After Caligula and Drusilla discuss, through the Moon mask, the dangers that Macro poses, Chærea and the quarreling senators enter. Caligula “judges” their dispute, and once they are sent away, he and Drusilla laugh delightedly. (The transposed portion of this scene was not in Vidal’s script, but was apparently retained in the final cut of the film as it serves to introduce the disputatious senators. The transposition was a poor decision. In its proper sequence, this incident would reveal why Caligula would shortly thereafter choose the docile Chærea to succeed the domineering Macro.) Here’s how the scene is supposed to play:

CALIGULA: Did you see their faces when I told them that they had to swear not only to me but to you?
DRUSILLA: They must have been appalled.
CALIGULA: I do hope so.
DRUSILLA: But is it wise?
CALIGULA (kissing her repeatedly): I can do... anything... I like... to anyone.
DRUSILLA: Well don’t start with me.
CALIGULA: Who would you suggest?
(Hears noise. Approaches listening room. Sees that two guards have been ordered to spy on them.)

But the Prætorian Guards are not spying, like they should be;
they are fooling around with one another.
Nonetheless, Caligula chases them away.

CALIGULA: Who?
DRUSILLA: Do you trust Macro?
CALIGULA: Macro? After all, he did kill Tiberius. I must appoint a new commander of my own choice.
(Chærea enters, with company) [The remainder of this scene was penned by Ted Whitehead. Note that this was not the way Roman government was conducted — ever.]
CALIGULA: Ah... Chærea.
Chærea introduces two senators who have a dispute over real-estate development.
Caligula is delighted to make himself useful to his Republic.
Despite being overfed, Senator Acesius (in the foreground) takes the side of the lower- and middle-class residents, favoring mixed-use and racially integrated neighborhoods. The reason he favors such things is that his parents are the landlords and he has a part interest.
The impartial scales of justice.
The worried senator who is being paid handsomely to demolish the historical mom-and-pop shops despite preservation orders, and to evict the tenants and peasant farmers to make way for a Wal-Mart and Eckerd Drug Store with 57 acres of asphalt parking lots over wetlands.
For the curtain call, a brief encore performed in front of a giant painting of a Roman cityscape because the budget wouldn’t allow for the real thing, or even for a scale model. Caligula and Drusilla hop back into bed, where they were at the beginning of the scene.
DRUSILLA: That is your man.
CALIGULA: Chærea? No. He’s boring... boring... boring...
DRUSILLA: He’s perfect.
CALIGULA: I’ll do it for Rome. I’ll do anything for Rome.
DRUSILLA: You’ll make a memorable emperor.
CALIGULA: I know. Isn’t Rome lucky?
They start playing as two children.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 22. When Chærea orders the arrest of Macro, High Priest Bergarius taps him on the back, but this is almost unnoticeable in the extreme long shot, and there is no follow-up. (This scene is obviously shorn of its beginning and end, as this material was presented quite differently in Vidal’s script.)

• TRIMMING: SCENE 24. (There is a gap in the shooting script, as Scene 23 was deleted prior to filming.) After Caligula orders Ennia’s exile, there is a cut to a seemingly later scene in which he happily announces to Drusilla, “At least now she doesn’t have to get a divorce!” But that was not a new scene. After he orders Ennia’s exile, he actually just walks out onto the veranda because he sees Drusilla approaching, and exclaims: “At least now she doesn’t have to get a divorce!” The tiniest little snip can turn one scene into two. Amazing, isn’t it?

Buzby Berkeley to the rescue, with a rotating overhead camera.
[Frame capture stolen from Maarten Van Druten]

• TRIMMING: SCENE 25. When we first see Caligula and Drusilla enter the sanctuary of the Isis pool, they momentarily suppress a giggle. Something has just happened, and it was more than merely amusement at the emperor’s feminine disguise. What did we miss? (The giggle and its motivation were not in Vidal’s script.) Nearly every shot in this scene is out of sequence, and some are rejects that should never have been included. In original intention, there is no lesbian orgy until Caligula spots Cæsonia, and it doesn’t go into full gear until he leaves the room. Note that a close shot of the high priestess fails to match her medium shot. Two takes of the same action are also included. Caligula walks up behind a burning brazier as Cæsonia, with her back to the camera, is ritually pouring incense into a censer. Just as he notices her, there is a cut to a different shot. Brass had clearly rejected that take. Half a minute later is a superior retake, with Caligula already behind the brazier as Cæsonia approaches the censer and catches his eye. Frustratingly, we never get a good look at the important sculpture in the pool; it is a giant reclining image of Isis. Another problem with this scene is the editors’ insistence on highlighting the three Penthouse models — Anneka di Lorenzo, Lori Wagner, and Jane Hargrave — to the detriment of all the other extras.

Nothing to liven up a party like a mass execution, yes?

• TRIMMING: SCENE 27. When Caligula first sees Proculus at the stadium, he whispers something to Longinus, who bursts out laughing. Then the scene ends abruptly. In actuality, this is out of sequence and the scene went on. In proper sequence, as the head-mower approaches Macro, Caligula whispers to Longinus to order Proculus tossed in front of the oncoming machine. The crowd enthusiastically pelt both Macro and Proculus with eggs and rotten fruit. Macro is beheaded, and the beleaguered Proculus overpowers a guard to seek salvation by leaping onto the oncoming killing-machine rather than get ground to bits underneath it. Caligula crowns him a Roman hero. And then the scene ends with a brief visual joke. Tinto Brass had actually begun to edit this scene himself, but he was fired before he could incorporate all the inserts and before he could perform any sort of polish. The pre-release version basically follows this unfinished and unrefined preliminary assembly, but puts the shots into a different sequence, by which Caligula does not think to have Proculus tossed into the stadium until after Macro is beheaded. The result is pathetically dull. (This can still be seen in Io Caligola, of which more below.) Rather than trying to polish and improve the scene, the editors simply amputated it.

As the head-mower is approaching Macro, Caligula has fun by ordering Proculus tossed in front it as well. Proculus defeats the machine, and Caligula crowns him a Roman hero. There then follows a comical coda, which is now missing. If you know the whereabouts, please write to me. Thanks!

• SCRAMBLING AND TRIMMING: SCENE 34. The scene in which Caligula reports for duty is severely trimmed — and misplaced. It belongs earlier in the film, immediately after the Livia-Proculus wedding scene. The filming of a take is included in A Documentary on the Making of “Gore Vidal’s Caligula” and in this we can get a good idea of what we’re missing. (This dialogue is Vidal’s; so the cut is puzzling.) The final line, “Let’s see if Proculus can liven things up for us” was obviously invented in the dubbing studio, to cover missing scenes and to mask the scrambling.

SCENE 34. INT. CLERKS’ OFFICE.

After squandering his valuable time raping some newlyweds, Caligula reports back for duty, which consists of mindlessly placing his seal on each sheet of a huge ream of documents. He throws a tantrum, refuses to continue, and tells instead of his plans for an artificial famine, a conquest of Persia, a public library that would not include such boring old sods as Homer or Virgil, a bridge across the Bay of Naples, a ship with a garden, a flood in the amphitheatre so that the Greeks and Persians can conduct a sea battle, an edict that Romans no longer be so ugly. Longinus’s response to every idea: “Yes, Lord.” “Can’t you ever say anything except ‘Yes, Lord’? No wonder life’s dull.” He leaves the room making monkey sounds. (Romans of the time did not have a word for “sods.” And who’s the dude with the hair?)

The next scene is the storm at night when Caligula becomes convinced that Gemellus is trying to kill him.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 35. The threesome with Cæsonia, Caligula and Drusilla is an awkward mess because the important bits are missing. The editors (under Guccione’s instructions) almost entirely deleted the ladies-in-waiting (rumored to have been a lesbian act). The ominous shots of the moon mask on the wall surely led to the revelation that a spy is lurking in the dark cubbyhole behind, watching and witnessing. But the editors deleted this court intrigue and impossibly replaced the spy’s small cubbyhole with another bedroom inhabited by Agrippina and Messalina (two Penthouse models) who cavort impossibly on Caligula’s bed which magically replicated itself. (Caligula, Drusilla and Cæsonia are not spied upon in this scene in Vidal’s script.)

• TRIMMING: SCENE 36. Some establishing material is missing from the opening of the banquet which the emperor enters on horseback. Gemellus and Charicles are already scared out of their wits and the two priests direct glares of hatred toward the emperor when they are out of his field of vision. But since their motivation is largely missing, we probably won’t notice on a first viewing. Most likely all would have been clear to us if only we could have seen the spy from the night before. A frame-by-frame examination reveals numerous details that Brass surely went to some pains to establish, but that are now elided over. What is the purpose of the banquet, who are these people, and why is that mysterious leopard cub in their midst again? (These details were not in Vidal’s script.) Though affectionate colleagues, Cæsonia and Drusilla also feel jealous of each other, but Cæsonia’s silent gloating over the quarrel between Caligula and Drusilla is here hinted at. Was it once more explicit? The unnamed Agrippina, who as we never learn is another of Caligula’s sisters, starts petting Caligula. Messalina, who is never named, is, as we never learn, married to Claudius, joins in the fun. Finally Claudius also joins in by petting Agrippina. So little emphasis is placed upon this last action that it will likely pass the viewer by. This scene seems to end too abruptly, probably because the transition to Scene 36A was deleted.

 

 

• SCRAMBLING: SCENE 36A. This is the most confusing thing in the movie; it makes no sense at all. Gore Vidal had Caligula go on a rampage against pretty much anyone and everyone after Drusilla’s death, and that’s when he topped all his previous cruelties with the sadistic torture and dismemberment of Proculus. Originally McDowell cut the torture/execution/castration of Proculus, but apparently the producers ordered Brass to reinstate it, and Brass in turn asked McDowell to reinistate it. But why did it end up here? There was a reason, a strong reason, and it left me dumbfounded once I figured it out. Vidal wrote Proculus as a charismatic super-athlete who beamed self-confidence, thus inciting the insecure Caligula’s raging jealousy. By the time Penthouse ordered this torture/execution scene to be reinstated, it was too late in the game. McDowell had already changed Proculus into a hapless nonentity. So to reinstate the torture/execution scene, it had to be rewritten completely. It could not be put in the third act, because McDowell’s interpretation of Caligula was the reverse of Vidal’s. Vidal had Caligula harden and become remorseless in response to the death of his beloved Drusilla. McDowell had Caligula soften and rediscover some of his tenderness in response to the death of his beloved Drusilla. With that change of interpretation, this scene could no longer fit into the third act. So he force-fitted it into the second act, which created a psychological impossibility. In an attempt to make the scene work, Caligula’s motivation was entirely changed. He was no longer jealous of Proculus’s confidence and competence; instead, he was simply getting his thrills from turning a nobody into a nothing. And though Vidal ended the scene with Caligula ordering the castration of the corpse, the filmmakers decided actually to show it (with a deliberately unbelievable prop). When Vidal complained that the filmmakers had made Caligula a monster from the beginning, this is what he was talking about. The scene now discards Vidal’s terrifying realism, replacing it with a distancing surrealism. Caligula orders and oversees the torture and execution of Proculus, from which he takes great comical enjoyment. All the onlookers are delighted by the proceedings, and then Agrippina and Messalina (obviously added to the scene at the last moment, on Guccione’s orders) laughingly humiliate Proculus’s corpse. Significantly, Caligula’s trusted colleague Cæsonia is not witness to this atrocity. One can understand why the editors would want to move this scene; but why they moved it from just before the “fever” to just after it, is puzzling, to say the least.

Caligula is ill, and his horse is confused.
Or is it the other way around?

• INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 38. When Caligula is ill in bed, suffering from a plague, he asks for Longinus. Cæsonia looks out onto the veranda, and in a long shot we see what she sees: actors standing in place waiting for Tinto Brass to call out “Action!”

• TRIMMING: SCENE 39 (continuous with above). We briefly see a shot of a crowd holding vigil outside Caligula’s palace. There was obviously more to this. In Vidal’s (and Brass’s) conception, Caligula had made himself immensely popular among the masses, not only by his amnesty but by restoring laws and public institutions that Tiberius had dismantled. But now we are left only with this momentary shot and we can’t know what to make of it. (Oddly enough, this sequence actually is in Vidal’s script. So the cut is made even more inexplicable. Curiously, this was shot on the same location as SCENES 45 and 48.)

• SCRAMBLING: Toward the end of the film we see Chærea, Longinus, High Priest Bergarius, and several other politicians who are plotting the emperor’s assassination. But no such scene was ever filmed! This was created entirely by Lui’s postproduction crew, who utilized discarded fragments of SCENE 39 and pasted deleted dialogue over them, and, beyond that, pasted newly invented dialogue on top of them. While Caligula was semi-delirious in bed, Chærea, Longinus, and several other government officials gathered outside on the veranda to discuss the implications of their emperor’s possible death. We already saw an abridgment of this sequence earlier on, in its proper place. But Lui and his crew had chopped out so many important scenes toward the end of the film that they had to cover the cuts by fabricating a new scene from deleted footage. Only two brief half-lines (“...he’s a tyrant!” and “...if Caligula were to die”) really belong here. All the rest of the dialogue is spurious. For instance, lip reading reveals that Bergarius’s unscripted line, “It could happen,” is actually “Never do that!” (his close up doesn’t match the main shot either). To help ensure that the audience won’t catch on, the editors largely chose footage showing people’s backs to the camera, which allowed for more convincing voice-overs. The editors were careful, also, never to reveal the assassinated Senator Acesius who partakes in this discussion. (This portion of the illness scene is not in Vidal’s script.)

At long last, what you’ve all been wondering about — the actual dialogue, penned once again by Ted Whitehead, not Gore Vidal:

ACESIUS: Just listen to the crowds....
LONGINUS: How the people love him!
SENATOR: Yet nobody is safe with him.
CHÆREA: The Empire is safe.
SENATOR: The Empire? But he’s a tyrant!
CHÆREA: Better tyranny than anarchy. I know your feelings... but personal feelings must not affect us. A few families in Rome may suffer, but the Empire is stable. There could be far worse horrors — revolution, war, civil chaos — if Caligula were to die.
ACESIUS: It looks as if he’s going to die anyway.

Scene 40A was the sylvan idyll, fragments of which now wrongly open the movie. Marco Fornier perceptively pointed out that Tinto Brass later used this very location for the sylvan idyll in Capriccio.

• SCRAMBLING AND TRIMMING: SCENE 40A. The prologue of Caligula and Drusilla playing in the woods was to have occurred after Caligula’s recovery from his “fever.” It is their (only?) bucolic fling, replete with a retinue of guards and three topless priestesses of Isis dancing in the woods who, nymphlike, start to explore a shepherd boy who is asleep under a tree as a flock of sheep are driven by. Since this scene was never scripted, it could conceivably have been plopped elsewhere in the movie. I had long thought this was supposed to come at the beginning of Caligula’s reign. Nope. It was definitely Scene 40A. Anyway, this sylvan scene is now missing its beginning and ending and is thus rendered a meaningless fragment, with the priestesses barely noticeable. Production audio was recorded but has since been lost, this scene was never properly dubbed, and the opening seems to be missing, which is why it no longer synchronizes to the music that was originally written for it. (This scene was added almost surely because the scheduled sets and/or costumes and/or actors were not ready yet, and the crew were required to get film in the can.)

• SCRAMBLING AND TRIMMING: SCENE 42. For only a moment, we catch a glimpse of Caligula playing with an adorable little pet rat who is harnessed to a rather beautiful little toy chariot. This was nowhere in the script, and so we can safely conclude that the rat and the toy chariot were last-minute improvisations. Later on, the editors and sound recordists and mixers added the sound of the rat howling in distress, giving us quite a wrong impression of what Caligula is actually doing. Next time you watch this scene, shut off the sound so that you can pay more attention to the visuals. You will see that the rat had no objections at all. After a few moments of play, Caligula looks up with apprehension at a bird of ill omen which has just flown in. But we don’t have any idea why on earth we’re seeing this. In the movie as currently assembled, this precedes the birth of Caligula’s daughter.

Fortunately, this publicity still is taken from a little further back, and we can see some of the context. Thus can we see that there is simply no way this scene could possibly have preceded the birth of Caligula’s daughter.

The shooting script offers some clues. In SCENE 41, Drusilla collapsed from a plague immediately after Caligula’s baby Julia is born. Then SCENE 42 takes place apparently some months later:

Caligula paces restlessly as Cæsonia nurses the baby Julia. The bird flies in and beats around the walls and ceiling. Caligula stares at it in superstitious dread. It flies out. Caligula stands for a second transfixed.

CÆSONIA: Caligula...

CALIGULA: What does it mean?

Cæsonia looks at him, confused. Suddenly he runs out.

Then in SCENE 43 we see where he ran: Drusilla’s bedroom, where he witnesses her death. So it appears that Drusilla’s illness lingered for at least half a year, for that infant is certainly no longer a new-born.

Having heeded the warning of the bird of ill omen, Caligula rushes in a panic to the bedside of his sister, who has been suffering for months with the plague.

• TRIMMING AND INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 43. In Drusilla’s death scene the cameras linger on close shots of the main characters, with every attempt made in the editing to remove as much as possible of the peripheral characters. One shot pointlessly holds on Drusilla’s corpse as Caligula makes much commotion chasing away the off-screen extras. (These extras were not in Vidal’s script.) This is one of the most unmistakably mutilated sequences in the film. Anyone in the audience who has not fallen asleep by now will see that something is terribly wrong, but might assume only that the cinematographer himself fell asleep before he could turn his camera around to film the action.


Caligula’s grief is private, and yet he finds he has an audience.
Among the crowd we can just barely see Longinus and his scribes observing through the doorway.
(The way this scene is edited, they are almost unnoticeable.)
Caligula chases away all onlookers so that he can be alone with Drusilla one last time.
Note how the editors ignored the cameras that followed Caligula as he chased away the guests,
and instead chose the camera that showed pretty much nothing at all.

Caligula attempts to walk Drusilla away from her death bed, but her lifeless body slumps to the ground.

Caligula finally carries her away.

Longinus did not take heed to the emperor’s orders to make himself scarce,
but instead hid himself away, with his scribes, just around the corner, quietly.
This important detail is deleted from every edition of the movie.

Drusilla’s house is apparently connected via underground passage to the Palatine Palace’s veranda.
Caligula carries her up, back to his home.
If you see the movie with this fragment, you won’t see the following fragment.

Note the anachronistic Roman ruins painted on the wall of the set and some gigantic studio lights blazing overhead.
Much of this Eastmancolor movie was actually lit for black and white, as this production still illustrates.

Back in the Palatine, Caligula again loses his hold of Drusilla’s corpse, and he falls to the floor with her.
This is missing from every version of the movie.

His tormented scream of grief and rage.
But the scene could not possibly have ended like this.
There was probably more originally — or perhaps less.
Perhaps this was supposed to cut off during Caligula’s scream.
But I think there was probably more, which is now missing.
If you see the movie with this fragment, you won’t see the previous fragment on the veranda.

In its original form, the scene would have depicted most effectively the emperor’s bereavement and anguish. In the current edition(s) of the movie, which delete the peripheral characters, the court intrigue, the walk back home, and the evolution of Caligula’s emotions at the loss of the only person he cared for, the story is choppy, and we witness only histrionic shock and rage, not despair and grief. Incidentally, this was one of the two scenes to which the Italian court took such exception. The court claimed the movie’s depiction of necrophilia was in violation of the laws on obscenity in entertainment. This is necrophilia? Huh? If they thought this was necrophilia, can you imagine how they would have reacted to “Villikins and His Dinah”? Clearly the court was just looking for any pretext, because technically the 150-minute Italian version of this movie did not violate any Italian obscenity laws.

• INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 49. In the underground jail cell, a prisoner who is manacled to the wall bursts out laughing at Caligula’s magic trick. But he is confined to the background of the main shot, deprived of the close-ups that would give the scene the comic touch it deserves. (This prisoner is not in Vidal’s script.)

• TRIMMING AND INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 50. This shot is from Camera 1, and quite obviously either Camera 2 or Camera 3 would have concentrated on the little interaction on the left of the screen, consisting of a silent squabble between High Priest Bergarius and the “Little Giant,” which we can barely notice in the movie as it stands. (This action does not appear in Vidal’s script.)

After having returned from his flight to the Suburra, Caligula enters the Senate House to declare he is now a god. He announces, “The period of mourning is over.” He pulls down the black drapes. “One month of free games and free food for every citizen of Rome.” The senators hail Caligula the god. CUT TO a scene that Gore Vidal clearly did not write:

• DELETION: SCENE 51. INT. CALIGULA’S ROOM — DAY
Cæsonia massages the badly bruised Caligula.

Cæsonia chides Caligula for having the senators declare him a god. Caligula asks her, “Yes, I’m a god in human form. You believe that, don’t you?” Cæsonia answers Yes, to which Caligula retorts, “Then you are as stupid as the rest of them. I’m surrounded by hypocrites! Monkeys! Forever chattering about love and service and loyalty! Monkeys!”

Cæsonia cries that she doesn’t want Caligula to die. Caligula replies, “You must be unique.”... “We have our daughter... we could have a son. We could be happy....” Caligula is cynical: “A happy family on the imperial throne? That would be a novelty!” Cæsonia is worried: “But... do you have to make your contempt for the institutions... for everyone... so obvious?” “Yes.”

Caligula turns over on his back, points to his midsection, and instructs Cæsonia to conclude with a sexual massage. (The takes used to assemble the sequence in the “North American Bonus Footage” — available on the Imperial Edition DVD/BD set everywhere except North America — are quite different from the shooting record. Which takes Tinto Brass would have used is anyone’s guess.)

• DELETION: SCENE 52. JUPITER’S TEMPLE — DAY
Caligula replaces the marble heads of statues of the gods with plaster replicas of his own head (which from some angles resemble Gore Vidal’s face far more than Malcolm McDowell’s). He wanders among the images of himself, as Longinus worries about the deficit. Caligula cuts him short, preferring to talk about starting a war. He demonstrates his new march.

• DELETION: SCENE 53 (continuous with above). In speeded motion, Caligula raises funds for his war by accepting tithes from his Roman citizens. The “Little Giant” helps to collect the offerings in baskets, which Caligula pours down a chute to a room beneath Jupiter’s base.
(As you can see, the above shot was filmed with a 1:1.85 aperture in the camera. So much for the IMDb claim that this move was shot at the Academy 1:1.375 format.)

In slow motion, he jumps in and revels in his new-found riches. This scene is deleted in its entirety (even though its close equivalent is in Vidal’s script).



• DELETION: SCENE 54 (continuous with above). Caligula continues his rewriting of the rules by illustrating a political parable, sacrificing a priest rather than a bull to the gods, much to the priest’s surprise. Caligula proclaims that he is now king of the gods, outranking Jupiter. The emperor’s lackeys then toss out the animal sacrifices to a hungry crowd. (A few moments of the filming of a take are included in the documentary.) MUCH OF THIS FOOTAGE OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER WENT MISSING YEARS AGO AND IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE FILM POSSIBLY FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT SOMEONE WALKED OFF WITH SO MUCH OF IT!!!!! BITS AND PIECES OF THE WORKPRINT ARE STILL AROUND, THOUGH THE SCRATCH TRACK HAS BEEN HORRENDOUSLY DEGRADED. BUT PARTS OF THE NEGATIVES ARE GONE. THE NEGATIVES THAT SURVIVE WERE NEVER EDITED, PROVING THAT CLAIMS ABOUT THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER BEING INCLUDED IN SOME PRINTS ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. IF YOU KNOW THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE MISSING FOOTAGE, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY!!!!! I SHALL MAKE CERTAIN THAT IT IS PRESERVED AND MADE AVAILABLE.



After Caligula has his guards toss out the sacrifices to the hungry crowd, he poses as Jupiter with his thunderbolt, making childish buzzing noises as though his lightning were striking people in the crowd.
(The above shot is cropped in the printer at 1:1.85, though as you can see from the fuzziness of the top and bottom of the image, this was not shot at 1:1.85. It was shot with a slightly taller aperture, perhaps 1:1.75 or a manually filed aperture just a smidgin taller than 1:1.85. Here it is correctly cropped by the lab at 1:1.85 probably as a precautionary measure to check for misframes in shooting so that they could be corrected in the final print.)

The “Little Giant” suffers from an unseen blow.

• TRIMMING: SCENES 55 & 56 (continuous). Enough with gruesome murders. Time to go back to light comedy. Another instance of deletion is the scene in which Caligula reveals his plans for a brothel to Longinus. The beginning of this scene is missing. Caligula is making himself up in the mirror, and the “Little Giant” accidentally jabs him with a pin. Caligula gleefully punches him in the jaw. All that is gone now. Now we open with the “Little Giant” inexplicably rubbing his jaw as if in pain. Then a distinctively Brassian joke was lost. It appears that this scene ends as Caligula walks off, and that the next scene in the Imperial Brothel takes place some time later. A careful examination of the film reveals that this was not originally the case at all. After telling Longinus of his plan for a brothel, Caligula and his retinue walk into the next room where the brothel is already in full operation! Obviously, the editors found this absurdist humor too bizarre for their taste, deleted the transition shot from one room to the next, and added the sound of a gong to the first remaining shot in the brothel room to create the illusion of the passage of time.

Caligula orders the senators’ wives to prostitute themselves for his new
boat-shaped Imperial Bordello.

Typical behavior at a typical Roman victory banquet. (Lots of sex in Roman pop art, therefore lots of sex in Roman life, right? Right. When future historians, thousands of years from now, try to reconstruct social life in the USA, will they base it primarily upon Cotton Mather’s and Jonathan Edwards’s sermons, as we do, or will they base it primarily upon Internet porn, and conclude that Americans did nothing but party at orgies all the day long?) The orgies of simulated sex in this movie were supposed to be a preposterous and humorous running gag. But now with the movie so entirely altered, the humor is all gone.

• TRIMMING: SCENE 62. The scene of the celebration of the conquest of Britain concludes with Caligula commenting on the secret plot against his life: “A plot is always a secret. If it’s not a secret then it’s not a plot but a plan, is it not Claudius? Even a half-wit can see that and you’re a half-wit.” To which Claudius eloquently replies, “Half of me is, Cæsar.” But actually the scene went on a little further, as Caligula asks Longinus when the next Consular election will be held. (The ending of this scene, predictably, is missing from the vaults. If you know the whereabouts, PLEASE WRITE TO ME RIGHT AWAY! Thanks!)

• DELETION: SCENE 63. Caligula names his horse a consul. This scene is deleted in its entirety (even though it’s in Vidal’s script). (In case you didn’t guess already, the negative of this scene is missing from the vaults. If you know the whereabouts, PLEASE WRITE TO ME RIGHT AWAY! Thanks!) A brief moment is included in the documentary.

If the unlikely legend of Caligula making his horse a consul is truthful, it could be counted as one of his few known sane acts. Gore Vidal and Anthony Barrett, separately, have argued that a horse would make a far finer politician, leader, and rôle model than any of its human rivals. I am in full agreement, and am deeply suspicious of anyone who would attempt to make the contrary case.


This still was probably never published prior to the latest DVD release (see below).
It reveals the ceremonial beards.

Since this is impossible to see in the scan to the far left, here is an enlarged detail. Note that the “Little Giant” is also wearing a ceremonial beard — on top of his real beard.

Dialogue from the never filmed Scene 57 was cannibalized and put to use here, as Caligula names his horse Consul in the name of the People of Rome, rather than the People and Senate of Rome. Chærea and Longinus grumble: “The Senate count for nothing” and “He has mocked the gods and humiliated the Senate.”

• INCORRECT FOOTAGE: SCENE 70. During a break from the rehearsal of the religious drama, the “Little Giant” amuses Caligula’s little daughter by clacking his finger coverings together. But since they are in long shot and obscured by another character, this charming little interaction is nearly unnoticeable.

The assassination that Caligula has been looking forward to.
(There. I did it. I ended a sentence with a preposition.)

• TRIMMING: One of Brass’s assistant editors, Stuart Urban, recalls numerous scenes of extreme (though simulated) debauchery that Brass included but that ultimately never made it to movie screens. Three examples: lengthier group-sex scenes as John Gielgud and other actors stand amidst throngs of orgiasts, an automatic spanking machine, a line-up of a hundred or so prostitutes who bend over and caress themselves one by one as the camera dollies past. (So much for Guccione’s famed opposition to the censorship of sexual material.) Also, Brass once spoke of the bit in which Caligula briefly loses his signet ring in Proculus’s anus after raping him (interviewed on 3 April 2004 by RJB). This particular version of the scene seems to have vanished long ago. IF YOU KNOW WHERE THIS FOOTAGE IS, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY!!!! I SHALL MAKE CERTAIN THAT IT IS PRESERVED AND MADE AVAILABLE. THANKS!) (None of these details is in Vidal’s script.)

And throughout the film important dialogue was deleted. Granted, this amounts usually only to a few lines here and there, but they are essential lines, without which the entire film is rendered senseless. Only the vaguest hints of the original ideas remain, but they are unnoticeable on a first or even a second viewing. The most interesting bit of dialogue that remains in the film is the only clear indication of Brass’s intentions:

Cæsonia: “But they are senators and consuls. They are important men!”
Caligula: “So important that they approve all I do? They must be mad. I don’t know what else to do to provoke them.”

(Contrast this with Vidal’s original dialogue (p 160): Cæsonia: “They are consuls...important men.” Caligula (scornfully): “Consuls! Consuls are nothing. Claudius is a consul, and he’s a half-wit. Aren’t you, uncle?”) But now, with the film so sliced and diced, these ideas are hidden, undeveloped, lost in the tedious jumble. Even the enormously complicated plot gets lost, as scenes and shots are badly trimmed in favor of close-ups of genitalia. With the balance of the film thus compromised, the illusion is that the narrative is almost nonexistent.

Further, the film includes embarrassing footage that Brass would obviously have considered outtakes and tossed into the rubbish bin; for instance, the shot of the killing machine not moving ahead toward Macro but just having its blade make a circular imprint on the ground, the three-eyed monster asleep with its fake eye open, Drusilla still breathing (though almost imperceptibly) moments after she has died, an uncomfortable Cæsonia repositioning her leg after being murdered.

Brass is a master at making his extras come to life for us with strategically placed close-ups of peripheral characters and small, throwaway, naturalistic actions. These are the atmospheric elements that cannot possibly be scripted but that must nonetheless be included in any narrative film. They can only be invented once the sets and props are in place and the full cast costumed and assembled. It is only in rehearsals that actors can come to feel their rôles and the director and technicians can finally see an established environment and work out how best to put it to use. It is these little, everyday impromptu actions that give a film believability and naturalness and rhythm, that bring a relief to the narrative. But these close-ups and small actions are now almost all deleted, deliberately, with odd editing choices designed to downplay or eliminate as many as possible of the details and minor characters that Vidal had not scripted. Without this relief, the film becomes painfully tedious. Further, nearly every scene is missing its beginning and ending, and the film jarringly jumps from situation to situation. The only scene that seems to run through to its proper end is Cæsonia’s first sexual encounter with Caligula, which trails off with one of Brass’s trademark pans away from the action.

There was another change as well, but it’s difficult to determine exactly where the Brass/McDowell changes end and the editors’ changes begin. The dynamic between Chærea and Caligula was de-emphasized. Chærea was a Roman war hero who first sprang to fame in 9 CE when he managed to cut his way out of the calamitous massacre of the Teutoberg Wald, where Varus and his three Roman legions were trapped in the forest by the Germans. Chærea escaped with 120 cavalrymen; they were practically the only survivors. Later in 14 CE, Chærea distinguished himself again in helping to put down the Rhine mutiny. (Caligula, a small child at the time, was there at the camp.) Upon the execution of Macro, Chærea became commander of the Prætorians. For all his macho prowess, it is recorded that Chærea had a rather high-pitched voice which was something of an embarrassment to him. Caligula teased him relentlessly, giving him demeaning passwords such as “Venus” and “Priapus,” etc. It was apparently this sense of personal insult, rather than outrage at Caligula’s crimes, that drove Chærea to assassinate him. Though Vidal never described Chærea’s voice in the script, he did manage to capture this relationship forcefully. Vidal had Chærea take a keen interest in Proculus’s career — which Caligula mischievously interpreted to mean that Chærea fancied Proculus; later he even ordered that Proculus’s castrated genitals be sent to Chærea as a “token of their love.” Brass/McDowell downplayed this point, eliminating Chærea’s professional interest in Proculus; in the movie Caligula orders that Proculus’s genitals be sent to his widow Livia. Yet it is clear that Brass and McDowell left some of this personal conflict intact, as there are two surviving references to Caligula’s taunts in the final film: the “big boys” exchange during the bordello scene and Caligula’s choice of “scrotum” as password, moments before Chærea kills him. These now-meaningless remnants lead us to suspect that there was more going on. Chærea was portrayed by the well-known Paolo Bonacelli, whose voice we never hear on the soundtrack. Les Hodgson and the postproduction crew hired deep-baritone Joss Ackland to revoice his part. This dilution of Chærea’s motivation was arguably a bad move.

The inclusion of scrap footage and wrong camera angles, the cuts, the trims, the scramblings, the altered dialogue, the distortion of motivation, and the jarring mistimed edits were all attempts to simplify the film. The unintended effect, though, is to ruin the pace, sense and feel of the story, making the film seem much longer than it actually is. And these were not the extent of the changes. Fiorenzo Carpi had the original music-score contract. He had previously done the music for L’urlo, La vacanza, and Salon Kitty, all directed by Tinto Brass. For Gore Vidal’s Caligula he wrote a few rough sketches for playback on set, so that the choreographers would have something to work with and so that the actors pretending to be musicians would be able to synchronize their movements. You can hear a few moments of one of these bare-bones sketches in Giancarlo Lui’s promo movie, A Documentary on the Making of “Gore Vidal’s Caligula”. It is a mysterious-sounding oriental-style composition, which fits rather well with the time, locale, and mood of the film. But once Brass was dismissed, Carpi lost the commission for reasons unknown, and so he never wrote a score for the movie. Guccione (possibly through his daughter, Toni Biggs, a music major) wanted something more accessible, and he wanted to use ballet music by Prokofiev as well as a piece he had heard only by chance on a British TV series called The Onedin Line. That music, of course, was by Khachaturian. For original music, Franco Rossellini hired his friend Franco Mannino to work within an impossibly short deadline. Mannino miraculously composed a full score almost overnight, and rehearsed, conducted, and recorded it probably within a matter of maybe three weeks. He’ll probably go down in history as the fastest composer who ever lived. But his score has never seen the light of day, and probably never will, simply because it had nothing to do with Caligula. (Some of his cues are included in the “Imperial Edition” box set, accompanying some of the extras. His cue for the pastoral idyll was also used half-way into the “pre-release” version on that same box set.) Penthouse immediately rejected Mannino’s score, but nonetheless had to send out press releases. Since there was no music score, the publicists invented a fake name for a composer: “Paul Clemente.” Whoever would eventually be hired to compose the music score would have to agree to this pseudonym. The person hired was Bruno Nicolai, who ironically had conducted Carpi’s scores for Brass’s L’urlo and Salon Kitty. Nicolai wrote nine brief pieces, with some variations. They were all powerful, cutting, memorable, brilliant, but they simply didn’t belong in this movie. Additionally, Biggs even composed a pop song of her own, “We Are One,” based on the adagio of Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus, as a Christmas present for her father in December 1977. To his daughter’s delight, Guccione pronounced that the song would be the perfect title tune for Caligula and that he would ask Barbra Streisand to sing it. Mercifully, this never came to fruition (Valerie Rae Clark: personal communication with James Ellis Chaffin, 17 February 2005).

Though it was a travesty of Vidal’s intentions, Caligula may have nonetheless been a good film in its own right — had Brass been allowed to edit it. As it currently stands, Caligula is certainly quite bad. Even if all the important scenes had been retained, the production’s strange editing style would still have rendered a poor film. And even with many important scenes deleted, the film could nonetheless have looked slick and engaging had the editing created an easy and pleasing visual flow. Many regard the end result as unwatchable trash. The opening scenes are butchered to focus more on genitalia than on characterization, and so from the start the film begins to alienate people. Then about fifteen minutes into the film we see the perpetual surreal freakshow in Tiberius’s hideaway, and it’s too painfully bad even to be laughable. Brass/Donati had changed Vidal’s frightening gallery of sex slaves into a jokingly surreal vision (copied from the “erotic” art found in Pompeii and elsewhere), but the editors then turned it into a pathetic absurdity. Before the end of the first reel, the film loses all its credibility with the audience. And that’s what would happen if you took a comical work, chopped out all the humor, and then attempted to refashion the remaining fragments into a serious drama. The result would simply be unendurable, as this film proves. (Here’s a comparison that maybe a few readers will be able to relate to: The best movie ever made is The General, a stirring silent adventure/drama by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton. When a good-looking, uncut print is properly presented with sensitive live musical accompaniment, and when the film is projected at a speed that is just a little above reality, it’s a showstopper, and it’s guaranteed to bring down the house and generate gales of uncontrollable screaming laughter. When slowed down to camera speed and presented with serious music, it is almost lethal; it becomes humorless, tedious, pretentious, and stupefyingly dull — even though no image has been altered. When modern-day editors attempt to “improve” the film by reordering scenes, performing trims, and replacing the intertitles with subtitles, almost no one can sit through the result. The editors of Caligula took that experiment to the next level, by altering probably one-third or more of the images, and altering the sound track, the dialogue, and the story as well.)

Though editing cannot convert a fantasy into a history, it can easily convert a provocative Grand Guignol into an offensive sensationalism. Brass is comfortable and serene about sex, and he understands grotesque art as a political statement about power and its perennial abuse. Guccione, as demonstrated by his Penthouse magazine, is obsessed with sensationalism and has sometimes used his publications specifically to offend. Brass attempted a disturbing work of political art, which Guccione and his team found they could edit into a salacious exploitation film.

On the positive side, though, there are some wonderfully moody touches that give us an idea of what the film may have been had Brass been allowed to finish it: Nerva’s suicide, Caligula’s romp through the slums and a few other little bits and pieces are strikingly beautiful and atmospheric. Also, the acting is first-rate and the lighting and the plush sets are second to none. Yet the mutilations visited upon the film make the positive qualities seem absolutely senseless. Vidal’s reputation survived unscathed, as no one believed he wrote the final shooting script, and thus gave him no credit or blame for the result. But the saddest irony was reserved for Brass, who should be known for such brilliant works as In capo al mondo, L’urlo, Dropout, and La vacanza, but is instead known in the US only as “the director of Caligula,” with the general assumption being that he has only made porn.

Do you enjoy solving mysteries? Hope so. It’s my favorite hobby. Here we have a mystery. Pay attention to the clues: The divan on the left is distinctively 1970s imitation leather, a common office item. The lighting is not designed, but is simply office lighting with sunlight streaming in through Venetian blinds. So this is probably a test shot. But if so, what is it a test of? These extras are too well-costumed and made-up to be mere auditionees. They have already been cast. But who are they? Are they in the final cut of the film? I don’t recognize any of them. And why was this shot taken? Whom did it help, and how and why? Was it just a souvenir?

A reader recently pointed something out to me. Compare person # 2 on the left with the gal above. Same make-up, same “earrings,” same wig, same costume, same tiara, and same face. But was she in any release version of the movie?

NOTE ADDED 3 NOVEMBER 2011: Another researcher just pointed out to me that The Lady in Red actually is in the movie, and he told me where to find her:





Though Caligula earned handsome profits in most of the few cinemas that played it, its release was limited. So for reasons that remain somewhat mysterious, Guccione flew Baragli to Manhattan to edit a new and much shorter version of the film that could be shown in mainstream cinemas in the US, even in the Bible Belt. It seems that 500 prints were made. With 53 minutes removed and more alternative footage substituted, this new “R”-rated version played for a while in about 170 cinemas in the US beginning in October 1981. Over the course of the next few months, it opened in different regions of the country. After its initial one- or two-week runs, it was farmed out to other cinemas and then pretty much vanished four months later, though occasional repertory bookings continued until about October 1982, when it finally ran out of steam. The “R”-rated version currently available on DVD is NOT — I repeat, NOT — the same as the version released to cinemas in October 1981. It does not contain the alternative materials, but covers the omissions with irritatingly choppy video edits and repeated footage. The reason for this we shall reveal in our book.

As of October 1999, with video sales, Guccione reported that the film had grossed $30 million worldwide. Factoring in time and inflation, that is hardly a success story. How true that figure is, I’m still trying to work out.

Some years later, Franco Rossellini was finally able to release a modified version of the movie in Italy. He hired editor Enzo Micarelli to recut Baragli’s edition of the movie and to restore some missing footage. For instance, he included the lamely assembled sequence of Proculus being tossed to the killing machine. He also deleted probably all of Guccione’s inserts as well as some incomprehensible fragments, and made hundreds of trims to pick up the pace. The result, seemingly about 124 minutes long, was an Italian-dubbed film called Io Caligola, which translates as I, Caligula, an obvious play on the title of Robert Graves’s popular novel I, Claudius, which had by then been turned into a popular British television series. (The comma between the two words of the title, by the way, does not appear on the film’s opening credits.) Numerous derivations of this verion have been floating around ever since, rumored to be as short as 84 minutes and (with clips of the sequestered 1979 version of Caligola somehow cut back in) as long as 130 minutes. The entertainment value and technical quality of these different editions vary wildly. The best of them, though still unsatisfying and often confusing, is largely superior to the version(s) seen elsewhere. But beware: Some of these Io Caligola editions are even less interesting than the standard 156-minute American version.


Can Somebody Help?

Back in September 1981 the following mysterious little book was published by a mysterious little company called Eyecontact Publishing:

I purchased this book the instant I learned about it, and I read it numerous times. But the more I learn about Caligula, and the more I re-read the book, the more confused I get. I would like to speak with the mysterious people who worked for the mysterious Eyecontact, who address was 465 Lexington Avenue, New York NY 10017 — which was an apartment building with six office spaces on the first and second stories. The only two people known to be associated with Eyecontact were Brenda K Goodman, who was in charge of publicity, and Ruth Ross, who did the layout and design of the dust jacket. There are countless Brenda K Goodmans and Ruth Rosses in the world, and how to find those two particular ones, I don’t know. My guess is that they were both freelancers. Eyecontact seems to have been set up to publish only this one book and then vanish without a trace. And that’s exactly what happened. If you know anything, anything, anything at all about Eyecontact, please write to me. Infinite thanks!

One more hint: Eyecontact had a logo. Here it is:

That looks like a photograph, not a drawing. If so, then someone posed for it. Who? Does anybody recognize that eye?


Comparisons: Take a look at “Comparison Review: CALIGULA vs IO CALIGOLA,” by Maarten Van Druten.


The original rejected artwork. Terry Savoy’s name needed to be added to the roster at the top, and a licensing problem forced the four discs to become three.
At last, a version worth purchasing, watching, and studying! Will it be perfect? No. Will it contain all the known footage? No. (Legal restrictions.) Will it be what Tinto wanted? No. Will it be in sequence? No. Will it make sense? Not really. Will it give you a vague impression of what the movie was supposed to have been like? Yes! This is an important first step toward an eventual restoration. Let us hope that this release begins to shake loose the missing materials that are scattered about and hidden away in various mysterious locales. Let us hope, also, that it finally convinces various parties to amend previous legal settlements.
Release date: Tuesday, 2 October 2007.
To quote from the press release:

HOURS OF SPECTACULAR ALL-NEW SPECIAL FEATURES!
• Two revealing new full-length audio commentaries with stars Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren
• Comprehensive new video interviews with director Tinto Brass and actors John Steiner and Lori Wagner
• New high-definition transfer of the unrated, uncensored feature film
• Alternative pre-release version of the film with never-before-seen footage
• Startling audio commentary with on-set writer Ernest Volkman
• “The Making of Caligula” documentary (two versions) featuring interviews with Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Gore Vidal and many more
• Hundreds of astonishing, never-before-seen photographs from the set
• Theatrical trailers
• Bonus CD containing the full released soundtrack (first time on CD) plus 40 minutes of film score never before available (no, sorry, at the last minute there was some sort of lawyerly problem and this had to be dropped from the release — DRAT!!!)
• DVD-ROM extras including Gore Vidal’s original screenplay [but only his first draft, not his final draft], three Penthouse magazine features, an interview with Bob Guccione, press kit notes, cast and crew bios and filmographies and more!
• Eye-catching embossed collectible packaging with new liner-notes booklet
• AND MORE!
[Among the “MORE” will be over two hours of behind-the-scenes and outtakes.]
[And AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH a bunch of my mistakes — MY mistakes, my very own personal special mistakes — made their way to this DVD set. Just goes to show you: Try never to pollute the information stream, because it’s nearly impossible to clean it up again.]

NEWS STORIES Frightfest, 16 April 2007
DVD Beaver, ca 26 September 2007
DVD Drive-In, ca 29 September 2007

The Japanese edition, which has more scenes from a workprint, scenes missing from all release editions in part because they were never re-recorded and because the negatives vanished. It also has another few minutes of recently discovered raw footage from another missing sequence. This footage, totaling 30 minutes altogether, was not included in the above US DVD box set simply because it was not discovered until the masters had been finalized. This Japanese set deletes the interviews with Lori Wagner and John Steiner as well as Ernest Volkman’s commentary. The PDF supplements were also deleted, presumably because the distributor didn’t think that many Japanese-speaking customers would be able to read them. Genitalia were all digitally fogged, which necessitated a generational loss. The booklet from the US release is included, translated into Japanese, and with some more illustrations. If you are fluent in both Japanese and English and if you’re in the mood to check the translation for me, please write to me. Thanks! (In case you’re curious, the above box art was just a pre-release draft; the final version is rather different.)
(Region 2 NTSC, which will not play on most US/Canadian equipment.)

The British edition, which has the extra 30 minutes found on the Japanese set. For no discernible reason this 4-disc set also includes the video abridgment that first made its appearance in November 1999. Here it is wrongly announced as the “THEATRICAL VERSION.” (Apart from the standard 156-minute US version, the true “Theatrical Versions” are the 14 August 1979 Italian version, the 30 October 1980 UK ‘Modified Version,’ and the 16 October 1981 “R-rated” US re-release, any one of which we would have joyously welcomed, as they differed from all other versions: The original Italian edition was edited slightly differently, and the ‘Modified Version’ and the R-rated version contained footage not seen anywhere else. The R version made an appearance in a terrible-looking DVD in the UK, product number PENT 2136, but it ran a few minutes short of the original version as shown in the US. Alas, the November 1999 atrocity provides nothing new apart from an even choppier look.) This set does not include the brochure, without which the “ALTERNATIVE VERSION” is deprived of explanation.
(Region 2 PAL, which will not play on most US/Canadian equipment.)

This was posted in late October 2006, or maybe even earlier than that. The advertisement for this box set really got my hopes up, as it clearly announced the November 1979 Italian edition of Caligola, unseen since November 1979, when the Italian court banned it. Oh how I wanted to see this. But, alas, after this announcement went out, the plans changed, as Raro’s main distributor refused to have anything to do with it. (When the above link changes, as it must, click here for an archived copy of the original page.) Raro does, though, still hope to release the November 1979 version of Caligola some time later. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.


Well, it was too good to be true. Raro updated their web site on Wednesday, 22 November 2006, and showed us that this is what we’re going to get: The same old revised Io Caligola, with nothing new, and derived from a previous video of poor quality, which in turn was derived from a poor print. If the opening explanatory caption is to be believed, the original film elements have gone missing. Whatever. (Region-2 PAL DVDs, which will not play on most US/Canadian equipment. And, once again, the above link will almost surely change, which is why I archived it here.)


Above is probably the first advertisement ever, spread over three pages in the Wednesday, 24 March 1976 weekly Variety.
Apparently this same three-page spread was repeated in the following day’s issue of The Hollywood Reporter and on Friday, 26 March 1976 in Daily Variety.

This $1,222.98 ad was created in color but was inexplicably printed in half-tone black-and-white in Variety. My photocopy was quite defective — streaky, uneven, and distorted — and it took some doing to make this semi-restoration. The untitled Fellini film was never made, as Guccione found it insufficiently sexual. So Fellini offered another, older, script, La città delle donne (The City of Women), which Guccione accepted, but only if Fellini would agree to shoot it in English as a hardcore sex film, with graphic close-ups, preferably with Dustin Hoffman as the lead and other Americans in the principal rôles. Fellini refused those conditions, Guccione called him a prude, and so Fellini resigned. Eventually Guccione came through and agreed to let Fellini have his way, but then he withdrew funding just as cameras were ready to roll. (The reason will be revealed in the forthcoming book, 200 Degrees of Failure: The Unmaking of Caligula.) Franco Rossellini’s cousin Renzo, head of Opera Film Produzione and Gaumont Italia distribution, came to the rescue and produced the film. Guccione was credited in the original release prints, but his credit was soon thereafter deleted. The two other movies mentioned in this ad I don’t think were ever made. Dotson Rader’s The Dream’s on Me was apparently adapted from his 1976 novel of the same name, but I’m pretty vague about the Robert Klane thing. What little I know comes from John Mahoney, “Book and Movie Tie-Ins — Scenes from a Marriage of Convenience,” The New York Times Book Review, Sunday, 13 March 1977, pp 1, 11, esp 12:

Twentieth Century-Fox is less happy about its deal with Robert Klane for Fire Sale. Klane, who wrote the novel and screen adaptation of Where’s Poppa? won’t surrender publication rights to the new comedy. He is so confident about the success of the film that he is holding out for a higher bid on paperback rights. Klane says he will continue to do his own screenplays and novels, which he views as two entirely different arts, and claims that he sold the rights to a project titled That’s It, to Bob Guccione of Penthouse Productions principally because Guccione understood the writer’s desire to develop it as a novel first. “Who are these people who take screenplays and turn them into books? What sort of talent do they have? What involvement and passion can they invest in another person’s work?” asks Klane.

If you know anything more about these three movie projects, please contact me. Thanks a bunch!


THE OTHER PENTHOUSE MOVIES

When Penthouse first announced its involvement with Gore Vidal’s Caligula, its statements to the press were a bit surprising. No mention was made of the pre-Penthouse gestation of the film, which has led nearly everyone ever since to assume that Penthouse initiated the project. Wrong! Minimal mention was made of the producer, Franco Rossellini, or of the studio, Felix Cinematografica S.r.l., which has led nearly everyone ever since to assume that Bob Guccione was the driving force behind the movie and that Penthouse provided all the funding. Wrong! But plenty of mention was made of this being Penthouse’s first motion picture, following three recent and respected movies in which Penthouse had merely invested:


Chinatown,
released 20 June 1974

The Longest Yard,
released 30 August 1974

The Day of the Locust,
released 7 May 1975

All three were produced by Long Road Productions for Paramount release, and the first of the three, Chinatown, even had a small Penthouse credit:

Despite that admission, though, the spokespeople insisted that Penthouse had not been involved in any other movies, and that Gore Vidal’s Caligula would be its first production. Yet when we test that claim (all claims should be tested) we discover that Penthouse had in fact been involved in other movies, which had not been successful. It was thought best to pretend that they had never happened, But they had happened, and here they are. What follows is a list of the Penthouse movies that I know about.

A NAME FOR EVIL (1970/1973)

 

The above two frame grabs are from A Name for Evil (working titles: The Grove and In the Beginning) copyrighted 1973 by Penthouse Pictures Inc. But it was not filmed in 1973; it was filmed earlier, mid-July through mid-September 1970, in and around Vancouver, BC, even though the story took place somewhere down South. Shall we do some research? Good! Let’s do some research!


1947, 1st ed, 2nd printing

1969, mass-market paperback
Beautifully written book about a delusional husband convinced of a ghost’s malevolence. Not a horror story by any means, though it is certainly tragic, as the husband’s paranoid fantasies ruin the lives of those around him. As with any good book, it is completely unfilmable. That, I suppose, is why the movie that followed really had nothing to do with it. And I suppose, also, that the author, Andrew Lytle, like most writers, needed the money and reluctantly licensed all rights to a production company that he knew would make mincemeat of his original work.

First let’s go to some clippings.

Hollywood Reporter 22 August 1969:

Centennial Prods.
   Formed by Girard,
   Sherman, Green

   Formation of Centennial Production Co. Inc. to acquire screenplays and film properties for future production, is announced by producer-director Bernard Girard. Reed Sherman is president; Girard, exec v-p, and attorney Harland Green, secretary-treasurer.

   CPC’s first project will be Andrew Lytle’s “Name for Evil” which has been retitled “There Is a Name for Evil” and is now in final script form.

Hollywood Reporter, 24 October 1969:

Girard Final’s ‘Evil’

   Producer-director Bernard Girard has completed the final draft of “There Is a Name for Evil,” first feature slated by Centennial Productions.

A.H. Weiler, “On the Rack,” The New York Times, 17 May 1970:

   ...But before putting himself on “The Rack,” [Patrick] O’Neal will head for Canada, where he will co-star with Samantha Eggar in M-G-M’s “A Name for Evil,” which he says deals with “a modern man’s attempt to get away from his contemporary hang-ups by returning to his ancestral home.”...

Daily Variety, 11 June 1970:

M-G Takes ‘Grove’
For U.S., Canada

   Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar will star in first film of new indie, Centennial Prods. formed by Bernard Girard and Reed Sherman. Titled “The Grove,” film will be shot for under $1,000,000 on a nine-week sked starting July 6 in Vancouver, lately an active locale for indie pix.

   MGM has agreed to a negative pickup for U.S.-Canada market under sales veepee Douglas Netter’s acquisition program.

   Girard will coproduce and direct pic, which he adapted from an Andrew Lytle novella, “A Name for Evil,” coproducer Sherman playing a featured role. Sidney Kaufman is exec producer. Culp and Miss Eggar have been working at Columbia, former in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” latter in “Lady in a Car.” Centennial Prods. also is prepping “Door Into Summer,” from Robert Heinlein novel.

Hollywood Reporter, 12 June 1970:

Centennial ‘Grove’
  Stars Culp Eggar

   “The Grove,” a contemporary drama to star Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar, has been set as the initial feature to be produced by Bernard Girard and Reed Sherman under their Centennial Productions banner, with filming to begin July 6 in Canada.

   Girard will direct from his own screenplay as well as co-produce with Sherman, and MGM will release. Sidney Kaufman is executive producer.

   Story is from a novella, “A Name for Evil” by Andrew Lytle and pic is budgeted at “under $1 million,” Girard said. Filming will be done in Canada, primarily on locations near Vancouver, B.C., on a nine-week shooting schedule.

Betty Martin, “Movie Call Sheet,” The Los Angeles Times, Monday, 15 June 1970, p F19:

• Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar will star in “The Grove,” which will be coproduced by Bernard Girard and Reed Sherman for their Centennial Productions. Filming will begin in July in Canada. MGM will release. Girard wrote the screenplay and also will direct. Sidney Kaufman is executive producer. The story is based on “A Name for Evil,” a novella by Andrew Lytle. Future plans include “Door into Summer,” based on a novel by Robert Heinlein.

Hollywood Reporter, 7 July 1970:

Miller Plays ‘Grove’

   Producer-director Bernard Girard has signed Clarence “Big” Miller to “The Grove,” drama starring Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar which rolls July 13 in Vancouver for MGM.

Hollywood Reporter, 4 August 1970:

Lane in ‘Grove’

   Mike Lane has been signed by producers Bernard Girard and Reed Sherman for “The Grove,” currently locationing in Vancouver under Girard’s direction.

Variety (weekly), 5 August 1970:

‘Action!’ In Vancouver

   ...“The Grove,” a centenniel [sic] Production (Hollywood), is into its third week of filming, with Robert Culp, Semantha [sic] Eggar, Reed Sherman, Clarence Millar [sic], Sheila Sullivan and Sue Hathaway. Local actors with speaking roles number seven....

Hollywood Reporter, 25 August 1970:

Girard Signs Robinson

   Vancouver.—David Robinson has been signed by producer Bernard Girard as production manager of Centennial Productions’ “The Grove.”

Notice the production names: Girard, Sherman, Centennial, MGM. Not a peep about Guccione or Penthouse. That’s because there was nothing to peep about. In a syndicated article by Earl Wilson, which I found printed as “Culp Takes a Cold Swim,” in The Bucks County [Levittown PA] Courier Times, Monday, 3 November 1970, p 23, we read:

Robert Culp sprang gallantly to his feet, bowed, and kissed the fingertips of his blonde actress girl friend Sheila Sullivan....
“This girl is out of this world!” he’d said saying before she arrived to have coffee with us at the Ground Floor. “It’s like seeing Carole Lombard come back to life. She’s sensational and it’s her first movie. How old is she? I don’t know... she’s 30 on up... she’s no kid.”
Culp, getting divorced from France Nuyen, was exclaiming about a picture he did with Sheila and Samantha Eggar in Canada called “In The Beginning.” Sheila, whom he’d been dating before the picture started, had some memorable scenes with him — once they had to get “parboiled” for a nude swim.
“We did the scene the hard way,” Culp dourly confessed.
“It was so cold — well, Don Franks, one of the cast members, built us a little Indian sweat lodge with hides and little reeds — and hot rocks in the ground like a sauna — and we stayed in there and parboiled ourselves so we wouldn’t feel the cold when we went in the water.”
Sheila spoke up. “You don’t feel the cold for about 5 minutes. We had to do the scene five or six times. By the end of it, I couldn’t feel my teeth. I felt like I was novocained all over.”
“It was supposed to be summer and supposed to be an idyllic swim — boy, could we act!” Culp said.
“I wouldn’t do that for George Stevens or John Ford — I wouldn’t do it for anybody... this,” he said, “is the kind of picture you wait for all your life.”
They shot it around a famous old inn in Vancouver. “It was built around 1910, allegedly as a summer place for Kaiser Wilhelm after he won the first World War — but there was a hitch in those plans,” Culp smiled.
“There are only 3 things I ever did professionally that I liked — everything else you do just for the money, you get in and get out...
“One was ‘I Spy,’ way back in ’64. Nobody had ever seen a white person and black person in a continuing basis on TV before... then ‘Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice’ — and then this...”
“How about Sheila?”
“She’ll have billing... I don’t think ‘Introducing Sheila Sullivan’... that’s too corny...
“We spent 4 months living in a trailer in the woods in Canada. Will we get married? Well, we haven’t run it down that far. I really don’t know yet.”
The picture, he said, is about an architect who builds buildings he hates. His wife loves the Portofino set and all the false values he hates; he tries to break away and goes a little mad.
“The story is that I decided to do it because I couldn’t understand it,” Culp said. “It’s true, I didn’t understand it. But that was because there were 3 pages of the climax missing!”

Then nothing happened. Why? Well, take a look at the Hollywood Reporter, Friday, 6 August 1971:

Stone Prods. sues
‘Grove’ producers
for $1.2 million

   Stone Productions Inc. and Samantha Inc. filed suit Tuesday in Superior Court against Centennial Production Co. Inc. Mercantile Financial Corp., Filmhouse Ltd., and Consolidated Film Industry for $1,218,750 damages for deferred compensation in connection with an agreement to furnish the services of Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar in the film, “The Grove.”

   Stone, which claims it furnished the services of the players, is asking for an injunction to prevent the defendants from using the film negative and for a declaration of rights under an agreement made in May, 1970.

   Stone claims it was guaranteed payments aggregating $175,000 plus profit shares. The suit alleges breach of contract.

That sounds to me like what business folks call “undercapitalization.” C Robert Jennings, in “‘Slug-Like Vancouver’ — Filmland on the Fraser?,” Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, 24 November 1971, p 22, interviewed the screenwriter/director:

Barney Girard, who made the still-unseen picture, The Grove (now sadly in bankruptcy), with Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar, says his crew costs were half what they would have been in Hollywood, that “even if we had worked Saturdays and Sundays and were a week slower, I could save a hundred grand.”

Now that is fascinating. The movie was “still-unseen” and Centennial Productions had filed for bankruptcy. With that background, there is no doubt about what happened next. Stone et al won the suit and acquired the film, which it would sell off at cost just to get rid of it. So in 1972 Guccione launched a separate corporation, Penthouse Pictures Inc, to isolate/insulate his other organizations, and had the new corporation purchase all rights from Stone et al. With copyright ownership, he was free to have his employees make the film more commercial. There is no telling what condition the movie was in when Penthouse Pictures acquired it. It may or may not have still been the authentic version. It may well have been tampered with by Stone et al or some emissary thereof. But it is unquestionable that Penthouse commissioned a firm to film something new, and it was actually quite beautiful to look at: a psychedelic multiple exposure of a topless dancer, as well as a dancer in a skeleton outfit, all accompanied by an acoustic guitar. That footage was intercut into a domestic scene, as though it were a flashback of some sort. But by the time the movie finishes, we realize that it was not a flashback after all; it was merely meddling by Penthouse. Penthouse further enhanced the film with a country singer surrounded by three nude women. Thanks to a newspaper article, we have an approximate date for when this happened (and we learn about yet another tentative title). Mary Murphy, “Movie Call Sheet,” The Los Angeles Times, 2 December 1972, p A6:

•Billy Joe Royal has been signed to sing the title theme for “A Time for Evil,” a Cinerama feature starring Robert Culp and Samantha Eggar. The song is “Mountain Woman.”

Billy Joe Royal’s performance was force-fitted into the scene of the hoedown, but the footage simply did not match, and the intercutting is rather jarring. I wish I could see how the scene originally played. Penthouse then hired an editor to simplify the movie, cutting it down to 74 minutes. In this short version, characters and relationships were never developed or explored, leaving so many loose ends that it’s no wonder people had trouble following the narrative. I would guess that the original was far more ambiguous and a bit challenging, and that the haunted-house story was a suggestion, planted into disordered minds, that flowered under duress. It was surely not only the Robert Culp character who was affected, but the Eggar character too, as well as many others. But I can’t be sure of details, for the evidence is too sparse. Of this much am I certain, though: The horror was only a small element in what was originally a more complex story. By the time Penthouse got through chopping away, the minimal horror was emphasized to the detriment of everything else. Also, I am CONVINCED that the opening and closing credits were all redone at Penthouse’s orders. Any mention of Centennial Productions was deleted. The clever, skillful, depressing artwork under the opening credits simply COULD NOT have been part of the original movie. Does anyone know who did those little paintings? On the off-chance that you’re interested in these technical details, in an open-matte projection, such as on the DVD, we can sometimes see the table that the paintings are resting on. The table, actually, seems to be an old-fashioned animation stand, with peg holes at the top to help with registration:

 
 

Does anyone know what the original opening credits looked like? The soundtrack seems to have been enhanced as well. Most of the film was shot in direct sound and was obviously — obviously — never looped (revoiced). And yet every now and then there actually is a bit of revoicing, and it’s painfully apparent, especially regarding the character of The Major. Am I right to suspect that Penthouse hired a firm to re-record certain segments?

By early 1973, with one further title change, the movie was finally ready for release:


and you might also want to click here

At the very top, hard to read in this low-resolution reproduction, is a little box that says:

...which was not true. Yes, it was featured in the March 1973 Playboy, but it was never featured in Penthouse. You figure it out. I give up. Underneath it says “Presented by PENTHOUSE PICTURES.” The poster also says that this is from Cinerama Releasing. (I never understood how Cinerama degenerated from being a beautiful 4-strip widescreen 8-track process to becoming a mere distributor of Grade-Z movies.) In my quick searches, I find that the movie opened on Wednesday, 28 February 1973, as part of a double bill with Asylum on screen 2 of the Union City Drive-In in Union City, California, and at the Island Drive-In in Alameda, California (it may have opened earlier elsewhere), and that it was advertised in the Oakland Tribune and in The Hayward Daily Review though it was never reviewed.

The Oakland Tribune, Sunday, 25 February 1973, p 6EN:

“Selected theatres thruout the Bay Area” is what it says.
The Hayward Daily Review, Wednesday, 28 February 1973, p 21:

The reality was a bit different. When it premièred as part of a double feature at two drive-ins, its chances for recognition were crushed. It was forever typecast as a drive-in cheapie unworthy of review or any sort of attention.

Other than that, all I can find are the occasional playdates here and there in smaller markets, beginning in the spring of 1973 and meandering around the country through to the end of 1974. According to the application submitted by Penthouse Productions to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences making the movie eligible for the 46th Academy Awards, the movie opened in Los Ángeles on Wednesday, 4 April 1973, at the Baldwin Theatre, with a running time of 85 minutes and without an MPAA rating. The application was wrong. It took a bit of searching to check that claim. The running time was almost certainly 74 minutes, and the MPAA rating was R, but it did indeed play at the Baldwin, which I would not otherwise have understood. Here’s the eye-catching advertisement:

Penthouse, as owner, and Cinerama, as distributor, should have done a little better than that, surely!

It would be most helpful if we could find the original version of the movie so that we could compare it with the release version. Does the original still exist somewhere? Or even the script would help. Does anyone know where the script is? Oh well, maybe it’s not that important, for while this movie does unquestionably have its virtues and some genuinely lovely moments, it was probably never really any good, and I’m pretty sure that even in an authentic version it would be nothing to get excited about. Robert Culp was ecstatic about the movie as it was in production, but I imagine he would have been disappointed had he ever seen the original cut. And if he ever saw the release version, he probably wanted to commit hara kiri.

If I may be permitted to read between the lines, it seems that Penthouse/Cinerama had the idea that this movie could be released to individual cinemas and generate word-of-mouth, after which it would get bids and play the larger cities. But apart from the magazine pictorial, the movie was not really advertised at all, and so the strategy ended in abject failure. A Name for Evil was usually mentioned only in the 6-point daily list of other-movies-now-playing. So obviously it never picked up any bids, it never played in New York City, as far as I can tell, and it was just dumped off onto cinemas that couldn’t find anything else to play. And what should one expect from such a treatment? How could such a lackadaisical promotion possibly generate any excitement at all? People don’t see movies because they’re good, and they don’t avoid movies that are bad. People see the movies that the mainstream media tell them to see, and they like the movies that the mainstream media tell them to like. Yes, this is a social-economic experiment, it is behavioral control, and it is mind control — and it works!!! Penthouse tried — and tried, and tried, and tried — to buck the system, and to get a movie to sell on its own merits. A few movies are truly “discovered” by the public and develop a small coterie of fans solely on merit, but I know of no movie that ever became a major success by virtue of its quality alone. Maybe it can be done, but I don’t see how. It certainly couldn’t be done with this movie, because there’s nothing especially likeable about it. And when poor or nonexistent advertising makes a movie invisible, the perception is that it must be a cheap and incompetent indie to be avoided. Surely that’s what happened here.

I don’t know how much Penthouse paid to acquire the movie, though I imagine it was somewhere in the area of the $1.2 million that Stone et al were seeking in damages and compensations. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that was the price. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that Penthouse got all its studio work and advertising materials and office and clerical help and 35mm prints and shipping/postage for free and had no taxes to pay. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that the average admission price was $1.50. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that the film usually played on a 35-65 policy. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that Penthouse and Cinerama split that 35% profit equally. That would mean that Penthouse earned about 25 ¼ cents per ticket. To earn back its $1.2 million investment, it would need to sell 4,571,429 tickets. I don’t think that happened, do you?

According to word on the Internet, there was also a TV version of this movie, with alternative footage to replace the nudity. Was it Penthouse who prepared that? Or Cinerama? Or someone else? Does Penthouse still even have the rights? (Incidentally, the IMDb also supplies yet one more alternative title: The Face of Evil, but when or if or under what circumstances that title was actually used, I don’t know.)

After its one and only movie, Penthouse Pictures Inc closed up shop forever, to be replaced by Penthouse Productions Ltd.

Did anyone see A Name for Evil in 1973 or 1974? If you did see it back then, or better yet, if you worked on the movie, please contact me. Thanks so much!

WATCHED! (1973/1974)

Had it not been for this movie, I would never have learned about Michael H Metzger. It’s more than worth reading the profile of him penned by Nicholas Pileggi and published in The New York Times on 16 May 1971, pp SM34+. I never thought I would have any sympathy for any law-enforcement agent, but this case is a little bit different, for a merciless sadistic psycho finally saw the light and mended his ways, only to be persecuted for it by his former colleagues. He quit law enforcement and switched sides to become an attorney for the accused. In defending one case, he obtained drug samples for testing at a lab superior to the one that the prosecution had used. And for that he was busted on a possession charge. He knew the methodology of the prosecution well enough that he was able to extricate himself from that morass, and Pileggi commented:

What Metzger’s arrest and pretrial hearing did was to bring into public focus one of the murkiest areas of law enforcement today. His case was unusual only in the fact that the defendant had the technical knowledge to put up a defense and the money (it cost him $25,000 in fees and expenses) to afford it. The overwhelming number of men and women arrested every year on narcotics charges, however, are not so fortunate. They are the real victims of abusive police practices and of what the legal profession has come to call the victimless crime.

Unfortunately, as we read in “Drug Prosecution of Coast Lawyer Will Be Resumed,” The New York Times, 2 January 1972, p 45, his “not-guilty” verdict was appealed. (Weren’t we all taught in school that this can’t happen?) Pileggi’s story was compelling, and it is not surprising that a movie would be forthcoming. Barbara Bladen, in her column “The Marquee” in The San Mateo Times, Monday, 7 August 1972, p 14, published a profile of Stacy Keach, the 31-year-old rising star. Among other things, she noted:

...He’ll be moving to San Francisco next month to write and film the Michael Metzger story about a New York prosecuting attorney who while handling narcotics and draft dodge cases, became disillusioned by the corruption within the police department. He moved to San Francisco and turned defender.
John Parsons, a New York documentary filmmaker, is cowriting for the 90-minute project that has NET support....

That calls for further study. John Parsons was an investigative reporter for WCBS-TV 2 in New York City, but lost his job and found himself working in the same capacity at the public-television outlet WNET-TV 13 in the same city. In his new job he had made a documentary program on NY DA Frank Hogan, which, judging from an article by John J O’Connor, “District Attorney Hogan Viewed by WNET,” in The New York Times, 1 December 1971, p 95, was none too complimentary. Among those he interviewed on camera was Michael H Metzger.

So Keach, Parsons, and even Metzger himself set out to make a dramatic TV movie for WNET, but it didn’t turn out the way one would have expected. There was more than the usual amount of “artistic license,” and at the end the Metzger character, called Mike Mandell and played by Keach, turned out to be the looniest and most dangerous character in the whole story. (Actually, considering the obituary in the link above, where we learn that Metzger shot his wife with a bird rifle and then killed himself, perhaps Keach and Parsons knew exactly what they were doing. Bear in mind that it’s not well-adjusted, emotionally balanced, fair-minded, serene people who choose to go into law enforcement.)

After that, the story of the movie gets murky. The final shooting script (no, I have not seen it) was a work, basically, of pure fiction, and as such would certainly not have been approved by the documentary department of WNET. So it is not surprising to read about a different producer taking on the project. Take a look at this announcement from the 4 September 1972 issue of Boxoffice:

Then a second company, Praxis, was added, and the title was changed to Goodnight, Mike, as we can see from A H Weiler’s column in The New York Times, 12 November 1972, p D11:

The movie was completed in 1973 and bore a 1973 copyright, but by the spring of 1974 it still had not been released. Penthouse, as you can see from the above, was not mentioned in any way. So my guess — only a guess — is that the Penthouse managers saw an opportunity when they learned about this movie. The entertainment value was rather low, but it was nonetheless an intriguing little movie, with top-notch direction and startlingly naturalistic acting, and it featured in the lead a magnificent performer. Despite its promise, it had unaccountably been collecting dust on a shelf somewhere in Hollywood. Take a look at this excerpt from an article by Robert F Hawkins, “Penthouse Mag Goes ‘Conglomerate’,” which appeared in the weekly edition of Variety on 22 May 1974:

The above sentence seems, on the surface, to be about two stories: (1) the Keach movie and (2) the Alice Cooper movie. Actually, it is about a third story as well: (3) the misleading statements made by Penthouse to Hawkins. The implication of Hawkins’s sentence is that the movies were in “active production” by Penthouse, whereas in fact they had already been completed, and not by Penthouse.

After the Stacy Keach starrer had collected dust for over a year, Penthouse licensed or purchased the distribution rights for what I presume was a rather small amount of money, in full expectation of being able to rent it to exhibitors. Unsatisfied with either of the proposed titles, the Penthouse executives had probably three or four hundred board meetings and ultimately settled on the simpler and more ominous Watched!, emphasizing the surveillance aspect of the story.

Watched! premièred at the Atlanta International Film Festival in August 1974. I had been unaware of any Atlanta Film Festival held in 1974. The current Atlanta Film Festival dates back only to 1976. So what’s all this about an Atlanta Film Festival in 1974? Well, there was one. The Seventh Annual Atlanta International Film Festival, 9–18 August 1974, presented at the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center in three auditoriums: the 1750-seat Symphony Hall, the 750-seat Alliance Theatre, and the 450-seat Walter Hill Auditorium. The founder and director of that Festival was J Hunter Todd, and the president was Leroy B Sherman III. Todd’s assistant was Holly Conover. Board members were Jay Lovins (Threshold Films), Elmer Bernstein, Sheldon Leonard, Louis de Rochemont, David Wolper, and Marvin Chomsky. On the Buyers Committee were Jerry Rappaport (International Film Exchange), Peter Schillaci (Contemporary Films/McGraw-Hill), Leo Dratfield (Phoenix), Myron Bresnick (Macmillan Audio), Samuel Berns (Berns & Berns), Robert Shaye (New Line Cinema), and Christine Kieffer (Les Films Christine Kieffer). On-site judges included Leon Uris, LeRoy Neiman, and Kathleen Carroll.

Daily Variety, Friday, 22 July 1974, p 6:


Daily Variety, Thursday, 1 August 1974, p 8:


Variety, Wednesday, 9 August 1974, p 6:


Daily Variety, Tuesday, 1 October 1974, p 5:


Watched! did not win any prizes. (Well, neither did the “Salute to Buster Keaton,” so hey.)

According to IMDb Watched! was released in September 1974, but I can’t find any evidence of a release anywhere. Actually, it was presented at the Carnegie Hall Cinema in Manhattan on Wednesday, 11 September 1974, apparently as part of a film festival or trade festival. To quote from the review by “Robe” in Daily Variety, Tuesday, 17 September 1974 (and republished in the weekly edition the following day):

Penthouse Prods. release of a Palmyra Films production.... Part of a package of films shown at the Atlanta Film Festival and brought into New York by the Carnegie Hall Cinema, this theatrical debut for television writer-director John Parsons is an often erratic effort to make a worthwile statement about surveillance but falls short of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” for the time being the definitive work on the subject....

“Robe” continued with some criticisms I don’t really understand, unless the gripe is about supposed surveillance footage looking too elaborate to have been shot with hidden cameras, or maybe the imposibility of 8mm silent footage being shown on a 16mm projector with dialogue track. I don’t know:

Technically, the film is a mixture of misused professional talent and unrestrained amateurism. The camera work (four cameramen are credited) is choppy and lacks control. This is surprising considering the fact that Parsons’ experience has been in tv, where tight control is the first thing learned. There is apparently little interest for the commercial market unless the “surveillance” angle is exploited.

We can see from the next snippets that Watched! was also shown on the last day of the San Sebastian Film Festival, 14–25 September 1974.

Variety, Wednesday, 18 September 1974, p 4:


Variety, Wednesday, 2 October 1974, p 76:


Want some more?

Variety, Wednesday, 9 October 1974, p 26:


There was no mention of Penthouse anywhere in the on-screen credits, and neither was there any mention of Praxis. So “Praxis” was either a misprint or it had bailed out of the project. Or maybe it was a silent partner. I don’t know. This is the production credit that we see on screen:

 

We need to find out what exactly Alive Enterprises and Palmyra Films were. Palmyra was either a DBA or it was a one-shot production company, as it seems not to have done anything else. If you know something about it, please contact me. Thanks! Alive Enterprises, though, is a bit easier to trace. It is an indie that handles, among other things, the Alice Cooper band. That ties in perfectly with the article excerpted above.

Apparently, Penthouse was unable to interest any exhibitors in booking the film. My guess — again, only a guess — is that Penthouse Productions Ltd, as the brand-new kid on the block, was simply not recognized as a valid distributor and was ignored. The workings of the movie business are not significantly different from the workings of the mob. Newbies are not welcome.

Further to confuse/elucidate the issue is the IMDb, which claims that the VHS of Watched! was released by Penthouse Video in 1984. It was not; it was released by Vestron Video in 1984.

So whoever compiled the info for IMDb apparently crossed some wires. The Vestron VHS of Caligula sported a ‘PENTHOUSE VIDEO’ attribution on the spine, and for an IMDb informer to report that the Vestron VHS of Watched! was also released by ‘Penthouse Video’ is pretty good evidence that the informer got the two tapes at the same time and confused them. And indeed, Vestron released both on VHS in 1984, together with a series of other ‘Penthouse Videos’. Caligula was released in early April and Watched! was, I suppose, released on that very same day. So what does that tell us? After having been stuck for a decade with an unsellable film, Penthouse at last was able to reduce its losses slightly with the onset of the home-video age in the mid-1980s. Now at last Penthouse could give the movie some sort of release courtesy of VHS and possibly Beta. Penthouse probably licensed Caligula and its ‘Penthouse’ video series to Vestron Video only on condition that Vestron take Watched! as well.

The VHS cover above supplies us with another maddening clue, quoting, without attribution, one or two reviews from unnamed critics at the Seventh Annual Atlanta International Film Festival, 1974. Where can we find those reviews? There’s something else curious about the VHS cover as well. Do you see what I’m talking about? There is no rating. Normally videos at the time carried a G or PG or R or X somewhere on the front and/or back cover. But not this one. Yet the Variety review by “Robe” explicitly supplied the film’s rating: R.

This movie was offered to video shops, as far as I can tell, with no fanfare. As a straight-to-video title, it garnered no reviews and died the quietest of deaths. (Why did the video shops take this unknown and hence unrentable movie? Well, back in those days, a videocassette retailing for $59.95 or $69.95 or $79.95 or $89.95 would wholesale for two dollars, or maybe three or four dollars, or five at the most. So in a bulk order of several hundred titles, what was the harm in risking an extra two dollars if there was a small chance of a payoff if a Stacy Keach fan spotted it on the shelf and was happy to fork out the $89.95 or whatever on it? I don’t know how video shops work now, but that’s about how they worked back then.) Penthouse did not wish to be named, surely because it did not want to be associated with a failed movie.

The irony is that this movie is actually pretty good. It was certainly better than most movies of the time, and better than anything being made in Hollywood now. If some museums and archives and the occasional revival house were to promote this as Stacy Keach’s great lost movie, it would probably be received quite well and audiences would be surprised that this movie had slipped them by. It would be nice if someone were at last to give this movie the public recognition that it deserves.

The Vestron VHS edition of Watched! is a full-screen transfer and I assume it was cropped from a masked-in-the-camera 1:1.85 original, though I can’t be certain. It was certainly not shot in a taller format designed for cropping at the cinema. If you know where a 35mm print is located, do let me know, as I would certainly like to examine it. Thanks!

GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, ALICE COOPER (1973/1974)

As for Hard Hearted Alice (compound modifier wrongly unhyphenated), Penthouse had a little more luck — very little. The movie was previewed in July 1974 under a new title, Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper, and then it was gradually released beginning in August 1974. (When I got the DVD, I was thrilled beyond words to see that my friend James Randi performs in it! He plays the Dentist and the Executioner, and he created the magic tricks of the beheading and whatnot.)

As far as I know, this advertising campaign was the first public announcement of Penthouse Productions Ltd, and it was unquestionably a last-minute decision to use that wording in the ads. On the commentary track to the DVD, lead singer Vincent Furnier says that Penthouse distributed the movie, and he significantly makes no mention of Penthouse having been in any way involved with the actual production of the movie. He’s surely right. And when we look at the credits, this is what we see:

General Media International Inc was the name of Bob Guccione’s umbrella corporation, and it was a name he seldom printed anywhere, preferring to list only his smaller Limited Companies. So this credit is a bit surprising. There was no mention anywhere in the opening or closing credits of the name Penthouse. Now, a “PRESENTED BY” credit is not the same as a “PRODUCED BY” credit. As the presenter, General Media Inc/Penthouse Productions Ltd simply purchased or licensed the distribution rights to a pre-existing movie, just as Furnier implied. It is easy to see why Penthouse thought this movie would be a good bet to earn an easy income. Anyone even vaguely aware of popular culture in 1973/1974 would have recognized that the Alice Cooper band needed no promotion; the band was so wildly popular that its name alone sold the product. Since the title by itself was expected to attract sell-out crowds, there was no need to spend the usual six million on saturation advertising. Instead, Penthouse would start it off in small towns and small cities on single screens and let it build up a reputation, after which it would be picked up by major cinema chains. So it seemed like a good deal, a natural, a plan that couldn’t go wrong. And yet this movie sank with barely a trace and never played in the major markets. After poor audience reactions, the comedy routines (which are unfunny unless you’re in an exceptionally giddy mood) were deleted and clips from old Hollywood movies were substituted in their place. I guess that happened after the July 1974 previews, though I can’t be sure. The recent DVD release is of the original version. Why did the movie fail? I really don’t know. Maybe fans were happy only with something new, and had already had their fill of the “Billion Dollar Babies” tour, the songs of which were readily available on LP? Or maybe the movie was so poorly promoted that it simply passed under the radar? Maybe. Heaven knows. A little over a year later Penthouse got fed up and sold the movie:

Boxoffice, 3 November 1975:

Crescendo Will Distribute
‘Alice Cooper’ and ‘Julia’

FORT WORTH — Crescendo Cinema III, Inc. and Cinema III Marketing recently acquired four new pictures for distribution: “Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper,” “Lucky Johnny,” “Julia” and “When the Line Goes Through.”

Perry Tong of Crescendo and Herb Margolis of Penthouse Productions in Los Ángeles concluded agreements on the rock cabaret “Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper,” starring Alice Cooper. The film includes several film clips of such all-time favorites as W.C. Fields, Betty Boop, Our Gang and even clips from the Watergate hearings “starring” Sen. Sam Irvin....

Cinema III’s John Parker said all calls should be directed to the company’s new metro line, (817) 29-3762. On the west coast call Jock Gaynor, Wargay Corp., Los Angeles, at (213) 276-3945. It also was announced that Ben Taylor has joined Cinema III as assistant to Parker and Crescendo now has its own art department for advertising. Hilton Snowdon and Gary Myrick are full time staff members of that department.

Boxoffice, 27 October 1975:

Crescendo Cinema III, The Forth Worth-based film company, has branched out into distributing as well as producing movies. Producer-director Perry Tong is dampening his feet with “Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper.” The film is being distributed in the Forth Worth and Oklahoma City areas.

LA CITTÀ DELLE DONNE (1979) maybe doesn’t really count. It was a Franco Rossellini Production for Felix Cinematografica S.r.l. which Guccione had contracted to fund, though under the Viva imprimatur, not under the Penthouse name. He seems to have raised money for at least some of the preproduction, but then withdrew just as the cameras were ready to roll. Franco Rossellini’s cousin, Renzo, came to the rescue and had his company Opera Film coproduce it and his company Gaumont Italia release it. Nonetheless, Guccione got a credit in the original release prints, which was almost immediately thereafter deleted.

As you check around the reference sources, you will notice a number of other movies and TV programs that were presented by Penthouse Productions or Penthouse Presentations or Penthouse One Presentations, but they had nothing to do with Guccione. That was a different Penthouse, which predated Guccione’s use of the Penthouse trademark, and it has caused much confusion. The non-Guccione Penthouse productions that I know about are The Secret Night Caller (1975), The Shari Show (1975/1976), Secrets of Three Hungry Wives (1978), The Great Cash Giveaway Getaway (aka The Magnificent Hustle) (1978–1980), The Secret War of Jackie’s Girls (1980), and Dial 911 (aka The Two Lives of Carol Letner, 1981). I spent several days of my life trying to track down information on these productions, and so I hate to delete my research, especially since someone might find it useful. So if you want to know about this other Penthouse, click here.

After these attempts to break into the market, the Penthouse managers temporarily halted activities and they retired Penthouse Films International Ltd altogether. A few years later the sands shifted. The executives decided to start up again with a recycled name, Penthouse Productions, and they further established Penthouse Home Video, and together those two entities unleashed a number of videos for the home market. The titles published at IMDb — Penthouse, IMDb — Penthouse Productions [us], IMDb — Penthouse Home Video, IMDb — Penthouse Video, and IMDb — Bob Guccione don’t look too promising: Penthouse Love Stories (1986), Penthouse: Fast Cars Fantasy Women (1991), Desire (1991), Penthouse: Ready to Ride (1992), Virtual Photo Shoot: Volume One (1993), Tonya and Jeff's Wedding Night (1994), Secret Lives (1994), Penthouse: 25th Anniversary Swimsuit Video (1994), Penthouse: 25th Anniversary Pet of the Year Spectacular (1994), Kama Sutra: The Art of Making Love (1994), Kama Sutra II: The Art of Making Love (1995), Penthouse: Pet Rocks (1995), Penthouse: The Wild Weekend with the Pets (1996), Penthouse: The Art of Massage (1996), Penthouse: Showgirls of Penthouse (1996), Penthouse Pet of the Year Play-Off 1996, Miami Hot Talk (1996), Sex Off the Runway (1996), Lipstick Girls (1997), Penthouse: Confessions (1997), Venus Descending (1997), Love Games (1998), ESP: Extra Sexual Perception (1998), Penthouse Girls of the Zodiac (1999), Penthouse Pet of the Year Play-Off 2001 (2000), Call Girl (2000), Fashion (2000), Penthouse: Harlots of Hell (2000), Dangerous Things (2000), Dangerous Things 2 (2000), Sex Opera (2000), Amy and Julie (2000), and Penthouse: Pets in Paradise (2001). I have not seen, and shall not see, any of these videos. The titles tell me more than I need to know. Nonetheless I am curious about the business side. What studios were used? What were the costs? Who provided the funding? What was the advertising/release strategy? How well did these videos do? So if you worked on any of these videos, I would be more than happy to hear from you!

After Penthouse’s bankruptcy, purchase, and reorganization in 2003–2004, the new regime decided to continue and accelerate the Penthouse Productions activities. You can see the result in the lists published at IMDb — Penthouse and at IMDb — Penthouse Home Video [us]. I have not seen any of these later movies, and, judging from their freakish titles, I would not like to.

So now you know a very small part of Penthouse’s secret history, the history that the old regime at Penthouse never wanted you to know about. Now that I’ve told you about those secrets, why don’t some of you tell me about the hotel/convention-center/residential project planned for Atlanta, Georgia; or the Penthouse Atlantic Hotel and Penthouse Casino planned for Atlantic City, New Jersey? Who wants to tell me about all the magazines: Lords, Leisure, Longevity, Photo World, Forum, Viva, Omni, Variations, and any others? Who wants to tell me about Minotaur Press and Odyssey Press? Who wants to tell me about Newsconcorp? Who wants to tell me about the proposal for off-shore powerboat racing in the UK? Who wants to tell me about the proposal to re-open Manhattan’s Copacabana Club? Who wants to tell me about the proposed London weekly and about the proposed Bravo? You can tell me. I won’t bite. Click here to reach me. Thanks!


ANICA — Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Multimediali

ANICA — Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Multimediali


Bob Guccione and Penthouse Films International present
[Felix Cinematografica S.r.l. e Bob Guccione per la Penthouse Films International presentano]

Caligula

A Penthouse Films International and Felix Cinematografica S.r.l. Production
Una produzione di Franco Rossellini
Copyright © 1979 Penthouse Films International, Ltd. (as advertised; later disputed)
Principal Photography: 2 August 1976 – 31 December 1976



NOTE: The dates in the braces are the dates given in a government application as the first day of work. Many of these dates are obviously spurious. And maddeningly we don’t have a list of the last day of work. It appears that most of the crew members below were temps and floaters who worked only a few days or weeks and left long before the end of filming. Names in
large bold letters
are the names that appear on screen.
•Presented by Bob Guccione
•Produttori
•Produced by
Franco Rossellini and Bob Guccione
•Executive Producer Jack H Silverman [uncredited]
•Intereprete per Jack H Silverman
•Translator for Jack H Silverman
Susan French [uncredited]
•Senior Vice President, Penthouse Films International Ltd Alfred W Crown [uncredited]
•Original Screenplay Gore Vidal
[credited in the English version as
“Adapted from an original screenplay by GORE VIDAL”
and in the Italian version as
“Tratto dal soggetto originale di GORE VIDAL
Sceneggiatura di GORE VIDAL e MASOLINO D’AMICO”
]
•Additional Dialogue Malcolm McDowell [uncredited]
Ted Whitehead [uncredited]
and at least one other writer [uncredited]
(ideas for these extra lines were inspired in part by concepts from Jean Gruault’s treatment for Roberto Rossellini’s unmade Caligola [1965–1972]) [uncredited]
•Italian Dialogue (for the 1979 Italian Release) Adapted by Masolino d’Amico
•Regista
•Director
Tinto Brass [credited only with “Principal Photography”]
•Brief Inserts (“Additional Scenes”) Directed and Photographed by Bob Guccione and Giancarlo Lui
[In the Italian edition, this credit read: “Inserti filmati di ROBERTO TATTI”]
•Art Director Danilo Donati {1976-06-15}
•Aiuti Scenegrafo
•Assistant Art Directors
Raffaele Lubrano [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Omero Bartolini [uncredited] {1976-08-13}
Mauro Tiberi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Carlo Rissone [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Antonio Ciminello [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Otello Bartolini [uncredited] {1976-10-14}
Luigi Silvio Marchione [uncredited] {1976-10-20}
Anna De Angelis [uncredited] {1976-10-21}
Filippo Bugo [uncredited] {1976-11-09}
Vito Consoli [uncredited] {1976-11-09}
Fernando Fortunari [uncredited] {1976-12-02}
Giancarlo Di Crosta [uncredited] {1976-12-02}
Vittorio Catolli [uncredited] {1976-12-14}
•Direttore della Fotografia
•Director of Photography
Silvano Ippoliti {1976-08-15 WRONG!!!!!}
•Operatori Macchina
•Camera Operators
Giuseppe “Pino” Di Biase [uncredited] {1976-08-09 ?????}
Federico Del Zoppo [uncredited] {1976-08-18 ?????}
Enrico Sasso [uncredited] {1976-08-18 WRONG!!!!!}
•Assistenti Operatori Macchina
•Focus Pullers
Kalì (a/k/a Calì) Said [uncredited]
Ettore Corso [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Alessio Gelsini [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Ivo Spila [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Giovanni Antonio Xaiz [uncredited] {1976-08-27}
Silvano Tessicini [uncredited] {1976-09-17}
Enrico Maggi [uncredited] {1976-11-03}
Enrico Priori [uncredited] {1976-11-30}
Carlo Milani [uncredited] {1976-12-21}
Antonio Tonti [uncredited] {1976-12-29}
[There seems to have been some flexibility here, as Calì Said was definitely a cameraman rather than a mere focus puller. And as for cameramen Pino Di Biase and Federico Del Zoppo, I’m not sure how long they were involved. So people in this department definitely swapped positions, and Tinto Brass himself frequently operated one of the cameras, without credit, as he does on all his films.]
•Film Editors Russell Lloyd [uncredited; his version was largely reworked for the release version]
Tinto Brass [uncredited, not completed, largely unused]
Nino Baragli [Consulente al montaggio]
•Montatrice
•Coding of Dailies (Rome)
Elsa Armani [uncredited]
•Assistenti Montatori
•Assistants for Coding of Dailies (Rome)
Claudio Maimone [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Alfredo Menchini [uncredited] {1976-10-19}
•Aiuti Assistenti Montatrici
•Second Assistants for Coding of Dailies (Rome)
Maria L Letti [uncredited] {1976-08-09}
John Randolph Pepper [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
•Assistant Editors [to Tinto Brass at Twickenham] Fulvia Armanni [uncredited]
Claudio Maimone [uncredited]
Massimo Spano [uncredited]
•Assistant/Interpreter for Tinto Brass’ Editing Team at Twickenham Stuart Urban [uncredited]
•Organizzatore
•Production Manager
Mario Di Biase {1976-06-15}
•Music [unused] Fiorenzo Carpi [uncredited]
Franco Mannino [uncredited]
•Musica originale
•Music
Bruno Nicolai [under the pseudonym of Paul Clemente, recorded by the Royal Italian Symphonia at the Emmequattro Studios, Rome]
•Brani Musicali
•Musical Excerpts
Spartacus by
Aram Khachaturian
[conducted by Bruno Nicolai]
Romeo and Juliet by
Sergeĭ Prokofiev
[conducted by Bruno Nicolai]
Cinderella by
Sergeĭ Prokofiev
[conducted by Bruno Nicolai]
Spartan War by John Leach (a/k/a Janos Lehar — you can learn nearly nothing about him at DeWolfe Music and before it closed down The Sound Library at http://www.thesoundlibrary.com/artist.php had this to say: “John Leach: Britain’s leading cymbalom player, worked with John Barry, Jeff Wayne and George Fenton, wrote the theme tune for ‘Ask The Family’. AKA Janos Lehar.” And take a look at this: Tales of Mystery and Imagination!)
Les damnes by Pierre Arvay [uncredited]
The Millpond by David Snell [uncredited]
(Is that this piece? If you know one way or the other, or if you know how I can obtain an official recording of this piece, please let me know. Thanks!)
Ben-Hur by William Axt and David Mendoza [uncredited] (I’m increasingly doubtful about this claim. If you know which pieces of music in Caligula derived from this silent-movie score, please write to me right away! Thanks!)"
•Director of Postproduction (Twickenham) Giancarlo Lui
•Direttore di Produzione
•Unit Manager
Sergio Galiano {1976-06-15}
•Collaboratore alla Produzione
•Adjunct Production Manager
Mario Basili [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Ispettatori di Produzione
•Production Inspectors
Alessandro Mattei [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
Augusto Marabelli [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
Marisa Nannicini [uncredited]
Silvano Spoletini [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Vittorio Fornasiero [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
Giuseppe Serpe [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
•Segretaria Produzione
•Production Secretary
Ivo Palazzi [uncredited] {1976-08-15}
Mario Borgognoni [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Giulio Mastri [uncredited] {1976-11-09}
•Aiuti Segretaria Produzione
•Assistant Production Secretaries
Francesca Iacca [uncredited] {1976-09-06}
Sandro Marcelli [uncredited] {1976-10-23}
Sandro Mazzanti [uncredited] {1976-11-18}
Gianni Onofri [uncredited] {1976-12-13}
•Segretaria Aggiunta
•Adjunct Secretary
Clara Mutschaewski [uncredited]
•Aiuti Segretari
•Clerical Secretaries
Antonello Lauro [uncredited]
Ranieri Ferrara Santamaria [uncredited] {1976-08-09}
Patrizio Pirri [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Fonico
•Sound Engineer
Claudio Maielli {1976-07-30}
Antonio Forrest [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
Franco Scarano [uncredited] {1976-11-23}
•Microfoniste
•Boom Operators
Antonio Sisto [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Giuliano Maielli [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Assistente Microfonista
•Assistant Boom Operator
Marco Di Biase [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Dialogue Coach Louise Vincent
•Segretaria Edizione
•Script Continuity
Carla Cipriani {1976-08-18}
•Capo trucco
•Chief Make-Up
Giuseppe Banchelli {1976-07-12}
•Truccatori
•Make-Up Crew
Fabrizio Sforza [uncredited] {1976-07-20}
Maurizio Trani [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Giovanni Morosi [uncredited] {1976-08-09}
Giovanni Amedei [uncredited] {1976-08-12}
Gino Tamagnini [uncredited] {1976-08-12}
Efrado Titi [uncredited] {1976-08-12}
Maurizio Bevilacqua [uncredited] {1976-08-13}
Massimo Camilietti [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Claudia Giustini [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Alvaro Rossi [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Alfredo Tiberi [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Alberto Travaglini [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Fernanda De Rossi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Liliana Dulac [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Cinzia Landi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Mario Michisanti [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Emilio Trani [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Rosario Prestopino [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Roberto Centanni [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Renato Francola [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
Adonella De Rossi [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Rossana Musitelli [uncredited] {1976-10-06}
Massimo De Rossi [uncredited] {1976-10-07}
Corrado Blengini [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Lamberto Biseo [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Alfio Meniconi [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Andreina Ambrosini [uncredited] {1976-10-14}
Amedeo Alessi [uncredited] {1976-10-27}
Thea Boggiatto [uncredited] {1976-10-27}
Vittorio Biseo [uncredited] {1976-11-11}
Bruno Gironi [uncredited] {1976-11-16}
Lucia La Porta [uncredited] {1976-11-17}
Antonio Maltempo [uncredited] {1976-12-07}
Gabriella Trani [uncredited] {1976-12-07}
•Capo Parrucahiara
•Chief Hair Stylist
Jole Cecchini {1976-07-12}
•Parrucchiere
•Hair Stylists
Carla Indoni [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Paolo Borzelli [uncredited] {1976-08-09}
Alessandro Jacoponi [uncredited] {1976-08-13}
Clementina Battello [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Antonietta Caputo [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Marisa Centanni [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Marcella Favella [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Luisa Garbini [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Emilia Iaschini [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Silvana Senzacqua [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Adriana Sforza [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Guerrino Tedero [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Maria Favella [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Anna Graziosi [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Carlo Aprile [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Galileo Mandini [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Ettore Tarquini [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Liliana Cecchini [uncredited] {1976-09-28}
M Pia De Biase [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Agnese Panaretto [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Placida Crapanzano [uncredited] {1976-10-07}
Wanda Antonelli [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Ennio Cascioli [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Luciana Fastelli [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Armenio Marroni [uncredited] {1976-11-17}
Marisa (Luisa) Fraticelli [uncredited] {1976-12-07}
Dina Iacobucci [uncredited] {1976-12-09}
Mario Centofanto [uncredited] {1976-12-15}
Fiorella Petitti [uncredited] {1976-12-15}
Simonetta Pirino [uncredited] {1976-12-15}
•Aiuto Regista
•Assistant Director
Piernico Solinas {1976-06-22}
•Aiuti Assistenti Regia
•Second Assistant Directors
Fabrizio Pisaneschi [uncredited]
Giovanni Soldati [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Giovanni “Gianni” Michelagnoli [uncredited] {1976-08-18 WRONG!!!}
Gianluca Ronchi [uncredited] {1976-12-07 WRONG!!!}
Gabriele Polverosi [uncredited] {1976-11-09}
Agostino Pisaneschi [uncredited] {1976-11-17}
Luigi Attardi [uncredited] {1976-12-06}
•Casting Director Paolo Heusch {1976-06-15}
•Assistant Casting Director Roberto Tatti {1976-06-07}
•Capo Gruppo
•Crowd Marshal
Filippo “Pippo” Spoletini [uncredited]
•Coreografo
•Choreographer
Tito Leduc [also appears on screen as a veiled dancer aboard the Imperial Brothel]
•Assistente Coreografo
•Assistant Choreographer
Pino Pennesi (real name: Giuseppe Pennese) {1976-11-09}
•Maestro d’Armi
•Stunt Coördinator
Giorgio Ubaldi [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
•Assistente Maestro d’Armi
•Assistant Stunt Coördinator
Osiride Pevarello [uncredited; also portrays the “Little Giant”]
•Capi Effetti
•Special Effects Designers
Franco Celli {1976-07-19}
Marcello Coccia {1976-07-26}
•Effetti
•Special Effects Crew
Giuliano Paravano [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Renato Ricci [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Giuseppe Olivetti [uncredited] {1976-08-06}
Roberto Roncetti [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Andrea Bucci [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Paolo Campagnoli [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
•Architetti
•Architects
Giovanni Natalucci
Franco Velchi (Fellucchia) {1976-06-15}
Giantito Burchiellaro [uncredited] {1976-06-22}
•Capo Costruzioni — Grotto di Tiberio e Stadio
•Head of Construction — Tiberius’ Pleasure Grotto and Stadium
Carlo Agate [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Disegnatori
•Draftsmen
Carmelo Agate [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Bruno Amalfitano [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
Giuseppe Ranieri [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Capo Falegname
•Chief Carpenter
Luigi Sergianno [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Falegnami
•Carpenters
Cesare De Paolis [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Aldo Fanari [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Silvano Miele [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Raimondo Spasiano [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Giovanni Angler [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
Antonio Petruzziello [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
Enrico Zangarelli [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Giuliano Macale [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Arnaldo Sparapassi [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Renato Cupito [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Bruno Ferreri [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Fulvio Gabrielli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Iorio Luzzi (Luzi???) [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
•Capo Scultore — Statue e Rocce
•Chief Sculptor — Statues and Rocks
Sante Barelli [uncredited] {1976-06-22}
•Scultori — Statue e Rocce
•Sculptors — Statues and Rocks
Filomeno Crisarà [uncredited] {1976-06-22}
Alvaro Passeri [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Disegnatore — Statue e Rocce
•Designer — Statues and Rocks
Francesco Dragonetti [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
•Scenotecnici — Statue e Rocce
•Crew — Statues and Rocks
Salvatore Calascibetta [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Lanfranco Melia [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Carlo Guercio [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Enrico Parentini [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Oscar Carli [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Tito Cesare Serini [uncredited] {1976-08-11 or 23??????}
Claudio Battistelli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Duilio Ferrante [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Barnaba Pagliarini [uncredited] {1976-08-31}
Ivano Gatti [uncredited] {1976-09-06}
Giuseppe Cammareri [uncredited] {1976-09-09}
Galiano Donati [uncredited] {1976-09-28}
•Capo Stuccatori
•Chief Plasterer
Carlo Maggi [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Stuccatori
•Plaster Crew
Giacomo Cedoloni [uncredited]
Salvatore Placenti [uncredited]
Giancarlo Cedoloni [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Pietro Olivi [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Giancarlo Perfetti [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Luciano Ramagnano [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Romolo Felici [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Peppino Luciani [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Alfredo Pallavera [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Gaetano Rocchetti [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Giuseppe La Rocca [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
•Capo Stuccatore — Grotto di Tiberio e Stadio
•Chief Plasterer — Tiberius’ Pleasure Grotto and Stadium
Luciano Antonetti [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
•Stuccatori — Grotto di Tiberio e Stadio
•Plaster Crew — Tiberius’ Pleasure Grotto and Stadium
Emilio Aversali [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Luciano Bispuri [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Ugo Antonetti [uncredited] {1976-07-14}
Angelo Marta [uncredited] {1976-07-14}
Antonio Marta [uncredited] {1976-07-14}
Italo Mazzulli [uncredited] {1976-07-14}
Mauro Ricci [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Alberto Ruiu [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Mario Tolu [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Sergio Ruiu [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Adolfo Cocozza [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Lorenzo Dominici [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Tonino Dominici [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Guido Pecci [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
•Arredatore
•Set Dresser
Luigi Urbani {1976-08-18}
•Capo Pittore
•Chief Scene Painter
Agostino Bivi [uncredited] {1976-06-22}
•Pittori
•Scene Painters
Angelino Marzano [uncredited]
Riccardo Maniscaldo [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
•Pittore — Statue e Rocce
•Painter — Statues and Rocks
Nello Falcone [uncredited] {1976-06-22}
•Capi Pittore — Fondali
•Chief Backdrop Painters
Emanuela Altrieri [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
Michele Franculli [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Pittori — Fondali
•Backdrop Painters
Ivano Conte [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
Enrico Sali [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
Amedeo Brogli [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Claudio Tedesco [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Luigi Crocicchia [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Paola Mugnai [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Leonardo Conte [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Roberto Cosi [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Guerrino Palomba [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Otello Tiberi [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Mario Torresi [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Nunzio Di Giacomo [uncredited] {1976-08-15}
Luciano Zoppo [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Pittori Disegnatori — Fondali
•Backdrop Designers
Antonio Fioretto [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Rosario Lo Turco [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Assistente Costumista
•Assistant Costume Designer
Gloria Picone Mussetta {1976-07-01}
•Capo Sarto
•Wardrobe Master
Gregorio Simili {1976-07-01}
•Sarte di Scena
•Wardrobe
Nefte Riccò [uncredited] {1976-07-28}
Elenuccia De Montis [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
•Pittore Costumi
•Costume Dyer
Antonio Vandilli [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
•Sarto Peter O’Toole
•Peter O’Toole’s Wardrobe
Fausto Bombelli [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
•Sarta Tagliatrice
•Seamstress
Riccarda Pierconti [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
•Assistente Costumista di Scena
•Assistant Wardrobe
Carolina M Guerrini Moraldi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
•Sarte Laboratorio
•Costume Crew
Anna Foresi [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Agnese Mattiozzi [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Giselda Domenicucci [uncredited] {1976-07-14}
Iolanda Di Pasquale [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Luciana Mancini [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Adriana Mattiozzi [uncredited] {1976-08-27}
Bruna Mariani [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Tonino Manfrini [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Romolo Mancini [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Alba Ravaioli [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Olga Rendina [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Adriana Fiorato [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Lidia Leonardi [uncredited] {1976-09-29}
Franca Paoletti [uncredited] {1976-10-12}
•Macchiniste — Grotto di Tiberio e Stadio
•Grips (Stagehands) — Tiberius’ Pleasure Grotto and Stadium
Egisto Calascibetta [uncredited] {1976-07-13 and again 1976-12-28}
Francesco Pizzonia [uncredited] {1976-07-13}
Emanuele Polidoro [uncredited] {1976-07-13}
Franco Rinaldi [uncredited] {1976-07-13}
Marco Davoli [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Antonio Mollichella [uncredited] {1976-07-20}
Franco Di Bernardino [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Francesco Paolo Alfano [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Arnaldo Ceccarelli [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Romano Di Chio [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Michele Di Lauro [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Franco Fabietti [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Patrizio Mollichella [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Pietro Palazzo [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Roberto Petani [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Aldo Venturi [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Michele Mele [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Sergio Rossi [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Fausto Cenci [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Bruno Cocco [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Dino Mezzoprete [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Silvano Pigu [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Sabino Schiavoni [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
•Capo Macchinisti
•Key Grip (Chief Stagehand)
Quirino Fantauzzi [uncredited] {1976-07-28}
•Macchiniste
•Grips (Stagehands)
Antonio Marra [uncredited] {1976-07-28}
Elio Cosi [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Mario Rondine [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
Sergio Grassi [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Teodoro Marini [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Silvio Natali [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Carlo Pallossi [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Tommaso Percibali [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Ergo Primuoci [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Bruno Renegida [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Laurino Saccucci [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Nazzareno Salino [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Luciano Argento [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Massimo Bacchiocci [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Salvatore Corzi [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Gerardo D’Amore [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Quinto Proietta [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Salvatore Palumbo [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Giulio Saltari [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Osvaldo Giansanti [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Francesco Zuccari [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Rocco Pota [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Orlando Zuccari [uncredited] {1976-09-06}
Cesare Rossiello [uncredited] {1976-09-08}
Umberto Ventura [uncredited] {1976-09-10}
Luciano D’Amico [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
Mario Cascioli [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
Mauro Coletta [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
Elio Campi [uncredited] {1976-09-15}
Domenico Caponecchi [uncredited] {1976-09-16}
Giovanni Dobboloni [uncredited] {1976-09-17}
Rodolfo Calascibetta [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Gismondo Cianti [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Pasquale Gentile [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Mario Pezzotti [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Renzo Gabotti [uncredited] {1976-09-28}
Roberto Di Pomazio [uncredited] {1976-10-01}
Ugo Cesari [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Mario Firmani [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Otello Sollani [uncredited] {1976-10-05}
Giulio Marzi [uncredited] {1976-10-12}
Gianfranco Perugini [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Nello Zotti [uncredited] {1976-10-13}
Galliano Leoni [uncredited] {1976-10-14}
Remo Bucci [uncredited] {1976-10-19}
Fausto Pedano [uncredited] {1976-10-19}
Giuseppe Lacovara [uncredited] {1976-10-28}
Armando Scarano [uncredited] {1976-11-12}
Ugo Bevilacqua [uncredited] {1976-11-15}
Giuseppe Capi [uncredited] {1976-11-15}
Romano Renzi [uncredited] {1976-11-15}
Francesco Santangelo [uncredited] {1976-11-15}
Livio Alessandrini [uncredited] {1976-11-17}
Ennio De Petri [uncredited] {1976-11-28}
Italo De Simone [uncredited] {1976-11-30}
Biagio Nastasi [uncredited] {1976-11-30}
Spartaco Blasi [uncredited] {1976-12-02}
Alessandro Blasi [uncredited] {1976-12-03}
Fiorino Persichetti [uncredited] {1976-12-07}
Vito Fiorentino [uncredited] {1976-12-13}
Willi Colombaioni [uncredited] {1976-12-15}
Gian Francesco Gentile [uncredited] {1976-12-21}
Porfirio Perrone [uncredited] {1977-01-03 hired to strike the sets?}
Adriano Pirri [uncredited] {1977-01-03 hired to strike the sets?}
Antonio Sarro [uncredited] {1977-04-05 HOW CAN THIS BE?????}
•Capo Macchinista — Statue e Rocce
•Key Grip (Chief Stagehand) — Statues and Rocks
Pietro Santarelli [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
•Macchinista — Statue e Rocce
•Grip (Stagehand) — Statues and Rocks
Franco Verticchio [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
•Capi Elettricista
•Gaffers (Chief Electricians)
Sergio Spila [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Antonio Rinaldi [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
•Elettriciste
•Best Boys (Electricians)
Marcella Cardarelli [uncredited]
Vincenzo Mura [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Lino Trivelli [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
Silvano Addamiano [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Giorgio Antili [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Giuliano Michisanti [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Arnaldo Parenti [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Antonio Piselli [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Trento Scagnoli [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Claudio Schettini [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Luciano Vinciguerra [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
Maurizio Addamiano [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Domenico Caiuli [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Giovambattista Di Cicco [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Stelio Fioretti [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Luciano Giammei [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Nazzareno Marini [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Ettore Trivelli [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Francesco Paolo Artisù [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Nazzareno Belardinelli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Franco Boccini [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Luigi Cianti [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Stefano De Luca [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Giuseppe De Paulis [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Italo De Stefano [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Nello Folatelli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Salvatore Gentile [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Aldo Laureti [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Mario Paoletti [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Alvaro Romagnoli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Pietro Santialini [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Antonio Schiavulli [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Giovanni Serroni [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Sabatino Sperandeo [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Nicola Torlinni [uncredited] {1976-08-20}
Giovanni Gambella [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Leonida La Moratta [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Marcello Puccio [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Marcello Cardareli [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Vittorio Contino [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Gianni Gentili [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Alberto Grassi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Francesco Pandolfi [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Ercole Petani [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Roberto Ridolfi [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Cristo Verrillo [uncredited] {1976-08-24}
Francesco Cinti [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Gianfranco De Cinti [uncredited] {1976-08-25}
Remo Carossino [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Giovanni Favello [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Aldo Gentili [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Alfio Lamoratta [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Amedeo Laurini [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Romano Martari [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Dino Paoletti [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Renato Puccio [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Giovanni Santoponte [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Mario Vitali [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Ettore Zampagni [uncredited] {1976-08-30}
Giulio Pilloni [uncredited] {1976-09-03}
Nicola De Luca [uncredited] {1976-09-07}
Valerio Garzia [uncredited] {1976-09-07}
Italo Trombetta [uncredited] {1976-09-07}
Francesco Di Carlo Quattrone [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
Massimo Rinaldi [uncredited] {1976-09-21}
Antonio Falcetta [uncredited] {1976-10-19}
Giuseppe Scansalegna [uncredited] {1976-10-19}
Augusto Giannelli [uncredited] {1976-11-03}
Bruno Paoletti [uncredited] {1976-11-03}
Mario Fara [uncredited] {1976-11-09}
Salvano Michisanti [uncredited] {1976-11-11}
Oreste Rispoli [uncredited] {1976-11-11}
Luciano Michisanti [uncredited] {1976-11-12}
Battistino Cianfriglia [uncredited] {1976-11-17}
Franco Gentili [uncredited] {1976-11-18}
Alfio Ambrogi [uncredited] {1976-12-01}
Maurizio Rossi [uncredited] {1976-12-14}
Alberto Nannicini [uncredited] {1976-12-16}
Guerrino Francescangeli [uncredited] {1976-12-21}
•Gruppiste
•Generator Operators
Remo Cartocci [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Pietro Monacchia [uncredited] {1976-09-02 and again 1976-10-08}
•Attrezziste — Costumi
•Properties — Costumes
Gianpiero Grassi {1976-07-12}
Giovanni D’Ottavi [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
•Armerie
•Arms
Giovanni Passanisi [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
•Scultore Corazze
•Blacksmith
Marcello Cervino [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
•Capo Attrezzista Laboratorio
•Chief Prop and Furnishings Maker
Giuseppe “Beppe” Cancellara [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Attrezziste Laboratorio
•Props and Furnishings Crew
Salvatore Manca [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Domenico Mancino [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
•Scultore — Statue
•Sculptors — Statues
Giulio Tamassy [uncredited]
Antonio Cocchioni [uncredited]
•Attrezzista — Statue e Rocce
•Props — Statues and Rocks
Luciano Rossiello [uncredited] {1976-07-19}
•Attrezzista Scena
•Scene Furnishings
Nicola Bucci [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
•Assistente Attrezzista Scena
•Assistant Scene Furnishings
Bruno Vandilli [uncredited] {1976-07-30}
•Assistente Scenografia Gioielli
•Assistant Prop Master — Jewelry
Bruno Lenzi [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Attrezzista Gioielli
•Prop Master — Jewelry
Vincenzo Cancellara [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
•Attrezzista Fiori e Piante
•Green Man
Vito Rossiello [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
•Attrezzista Laboratorio
•Prop and Furnishings Maker
Cesare Pennacchini [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
•Attrezzista
•Prop Master — Furnishings
Sergio Gatti [uncredited] {1976-07-28}
•Capo Tappezziere
•Chief Upholstery Maker
Orlando Cingolani [uncredited] {1976-07-01}
•Tappezziere
•Upholstery
Roberto Cingolani [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
•Sarte Tappezziere
•Costume Upholstery
Anita Leonardi [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
Jole Leonardi [uncredited] {1976-07-26}
•Attrezziste
•Properties
Renato Mondragone [uncredited] {1976-07-28}
Armando Tortorici [uncredited] {1976-08-06}
Angelo Maranno [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
Michelangelo Borca [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Salvatore Governale [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Alfredo Trovalusci [uncredited] {1976-08-11}
Sergio Marli [uncredited] {1976-08-15}
Gregorio Cardane [uncredited] {1976-08-21}
Giuseppe Lubrano [uncredited] {1976-08-23}
Orlando Araco [uncredited] {1976-09-14}
Antonio Grassi [uncredited] {1976-09-28}
Gianfranco Zoi [uncredited] {1976-09-29}
Piero Ignazio Barbitta [uncredited] {1976-10-07}
Americo De Angelis [uncredited] {1976-10-07}
Giulio Simonetti [uncredited] {1976-11-18}
Celeste Pranzi [uncredited] {1976-12-07}
Roberto Manfrini [uncredited] {1976-12-22}
•Sound Editors (Twickenham) Les Hodgson [uncredited]
Winston Ryder
•Assistant Sound Editor (Twickenham) Patrick Moore [uncredited]
•Dialogue Editor (Twickenham) Archie Ludsky
•Assistant Dialogue Editor (Twickenham) David Grimsdale [uncredited]
•Foley (Twickenham) Roger Van Engel
•Dubbing Mixers (Twickenham) Gerry Humphries
Robin O’Donoghue
•Assistant Film Editors (Twickenham) Peter Krook
Peter Boita [uncredited]
Claire Simpson [uncredited]
•Second Assistant Film Editor (Twickenham) Rodney Glenn [uncredited]
•Doppiaggio Eseguito
•Dubbing Studio [for the 1979 Italian version]
C.D. Cine Doppiaggi SRL
•Direttore di Doppiaggio
•Dubbing Director [for the 1979 Italian version]
Ferruccio Amendola
•Edizione
•Post-Production Manager [1979 Italian version]
Claudio Razzi
•Mixage
•Dialogue Mixer [1979 Italian version]
Fausto Ancillai
•Technical Equipment CineNoleggio
•Costume Rental Ferani Veste
•Calzolaio
•Cobbler
Otello Polci [uncredited] {1976-07-12}
•Shoes L.C.P. di Pompei
•Wigs Rocchetti-Carboni
•Attrezzeria
•Props
Rancate of Sormani
•Food Consultant Giuseppe “Bepo” Maffioli [uncredited; also appears on screen as a priest and as a butler]
•Direttore Amministrativo
•Chief Accountant
Marcello Romeo [uncredited] {1976-06-15}
•Amministratori
•Accountants
Oreste De Falco [uncredited] {1976-06-07}
Paolo De Andrei [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Segretaria Amministratore
•Secretary to the Accountant
Rossella Ferrero [uncredited] {1976-08-28}
•Assistente Segretaria Amministratore
•Assistant Secretary to the Accountant
Costantino Barbieri [uncredited]
•Cassiere Amministrativo
•Paymaster
Antonio Pala [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
Vincenzo Lucarini [uncredited] {1976-11-03}
•Assistente Cassiere Amministrativo
•Assistant Paymaster
Remo Stampiggioni [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Direttore Amministrativo
•Accounting Director
Luciano Neri [uncredited]
•Segretarie Amministrativo
•Accounting Secretaries
Dina Malisani [uncredited]
Fiorenza Gabrieli [uncredited]
•Financial Controller Gerald Kreditor of Gerald Kreditor & Co Chartered Accountants [uncredited]
•Contabilità meccaniche ATA
•Accounting
Soc. G.E.S.C.A. spa
•Insurance George R Walden of Albert G Ruben & Company [uncredited]
•Legal Counsel for Felix Cinematografica Massimo Ferrara [uncredited]
•Legal Counsel for Penthouse Films International and Felix Cinematografica A[rnold?] Weissberger of Weissberger & Harris, Esqs [uncredited]
•Legal Counsel for Penthouse Clubs International Establishment Benjamin Baker of Ronald Fletcher Baker & Co [uncredited]
•Fotografo di Scena
•Unit Photographer
Mario Tursi {1976-12-29 WRONG!!!!!}
•Special Photographers Eddie Adams
Jerry Bauer
Stan Malinowski
Claudio Patriarca
•Promotion and Marketing Jerry Pam [uncredited] of Guttman & Pam [uncredited]
•Capo Ufficio Stampa
•Unit Publicist
Walter Alford
•Segretaria
•Secretary to Unit Publicist
Maria Ruhle
•In-House Publicity Crew Gregory Bronson [uncredited]
Eugene Rizzo [uncredited]
Leslie Cuscina [uncredited]
•Territorial Sales Don Getz, London [uncredited]
•Typography Creative Typographers [uncredited]
MacNaughton Lithograph [uncredited]
The Typros [uncredited]
•Advertising Tinker Campbell Ewald [uncredited]
•Pre-Release Logo Daniel J Maffia [uncredited]
•Pre-Release Poster Design Michael Sweret [uncredited]
•Assistant to Bob Guccione Leslie Jay-Gould
•Executive Administration — Penthouse Films International Irwin Billman [uncredited]
Jan Harris [uncredited]
•Assistant to the Executives — Penthouse Films International Regina Andriolo [uncredited]
•Penthouse Films International Clerical Staff Dawn Willis [uncredited]
Adele Baranski [uncredited]
Steven Beer [uncredited]
Fyrossa Khan [uncredited]
William Hubschmitt [uncredited]
Norman Oberlander [uncredited]
John Quis [uncredited]
Maxine Berd [uncredited]
Harvey Zucker [uncredited]
Hector Marrero [uncredited]
Elizabeth Appelbaum [uncredited]
Janet Cohn [uncredited]
Cheryl Goldblatt [uncredited]
Cynthia Horden [uncredited]
Michelle Petrillo [uncredited]
Theodore C Bailey [uncredited]
Michael Jaffa [uncredited]
•Re-Recorded at Twickenham Film Studios, London, England
•Custode Camerini
•Dressing-Room Security
Vittoria Ansini [uncredited] {1976-08-10}
•Custode Teatro
•Security
Guido Rosina [uncredited] {1976-08-18}
•Filmed at Dear Studios, Rome, Italy
•Negative Format 35mm Eastmancolor 5254, 1:1.85
•Sound Format (1979) Optical Monaural
•Sound Format (1999) Monaural Synthesized to Dolby Digital 5.1
582 total listings
10 are for corporations
4 people performed more than one duty and hence are listed twice
15 worked only on the English-language post-production
4 are lawyers who did only off-site paperwork
1 is an accountant who did only off-site paperwork
1 is a contracted publicist who worked out of Beverly Hills
2 composers were hired after completion of filming
8 composers did not work on this movie, but had written pre-existing music
2 were graphic artists in the US
4 were Penthouse executives who worked out of NYC
20 were clerical staff at Penthouse who worked out of NYC
3 worked on the Italian post-production only
THAT LEAVES 508 CREW MEMBERS WHO WORKED ON SET OR WERE OTHERWISE HEAVILY INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL PRODUCTION AND/OR PREPRODUCTION.
There was also the 100-piece Royal Italian Symphonia which was recorded at the Bruno Nicolai’s Emmequattro Studios in Rome; so we should add 100 musicians and I don’t know how many crew and staff.
THE CAST
Caio Germanico Giulio Cesare “Caligola”
Gaius Germanicus Julius Cæsar “Caligula”
Malcolm McDowell
Drusilla Teresa [Thérèse] Ann Savoy
Macrone
Macro
Guido Mannari (dubbed by Patrick Allen)
Nerva John Gielgud
Tiberio
Tiberius
Peter O’Toole
Claudio
Claudius
Giancarlo Badessi
Gemello
Gemellus
Bruno Brive
Ennia Adriana Asti
Caricle
Charicles
Leopoldo Trieste
Cherea
Chærea
Paolo Bonacelli (dubbed by Joss Ackland)
Longino
Longinus
John Steiner
Livia Mirella D’Angelo
Cesonia
Cæsonia
Helen Mirren
Proculo
Proculus
Donato Placido [a.k.a. Gerardo Amato]
Mnester Richard Parets
Suburra Singer Paula Mitchell [a.k.a. Pola Muzyka]
“The Little Giant” (Caligula’s mute mascot) Osiride Pevarello
Messalina Anneka di Lorenzo (See also Entertainment Law Reporter, June 1992, pp 33–40)
Agrippina Lori Wagner
OTHERS IN THE CAST
Orgy Master at Tiberius’ Grotto of Pleasures Marcello Di Falco [uncredited; later, after a surgery, was known as Marcella Di Folco]
High Priest Bergarius Eduardo Bergara Leumann [uncredited]
High Priestess of Isis Maria Cumani Quasimodo [uncredited]
Priestesses of Isis Jane Hargrave and others [all uncredited]
Guests at Proculus and Livia’s wedding John Francis Lane and others [all uncredited]
Priest / Proculus’s Butler / Caligula’s Butler Giuseppe Maffioli [uncredited]
Homosexual Guards / Suburra Couple Who Try to Pick up Caligula “Caramella” and “Belladonna” [uncredited]
Ladies-in-Waiting Kris Petersson and others [uncredited]
Executioner Eolo Capritti [uncredited]
Also Appearing Pino Ammendola [uncredited]
Carolyn Patsis [uncredited]
Bonnie Dee Wilson [uncredited]
Claudio Aliotti [uncredited]
Giovanna Tovoli (a/k/a Lola Montez) [uncredited]
and hundreds of others [all uncredited] (Please contact me if you can identify any of them. Thanks!)
Extras Aboard the Imperial Bordello
(appeared only in Guccione’s inserts)
Valerie Rae Clark [uncredited]
Juliet Morris [uncredited]
Henrietta Kellogg [uncredited]
Susanne Saxon [uncredited]
Signe Berger [uncredited]
and others [all uncredited]
THERE WERE SEVERAL HUNDRED EXTRAS, MOST OF WHOM I CANNOT IDENTIFY AND MOST OF WHOM WERE SURELY NOT ACTORS. MANY WERE PROBABLY CREW MEMBERS WHO WERE PUT INTO COSTUME. IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY ANY OF THESE EXTRAS, PLEASE WRITE TO ME. MANY, MANY, MANY THANKS!!!
SCREENINGS AND RELEASES
(partial list)
Location Cinema(s) Date Distributor Length
London, England UNKNOWN (work-in-progress trade screenings) 13–17 Nov 1978 Felix/Penthouse Unknown, prob circa 157min
Brooklyn NY US Attorney General’s Office, Eastern Division, New York ?? Apr 1979 Penthouse 151min?
Washington DC UNKNOWN (screening for the US Dept of Justice) ?? Apr 1979 Penthouse 151min?
Cannes trade festival UNKNOWN (world première, 3 screenings) 11 May 1979
(& 1 or 2 other dates?)
Felix/Penthouse 155min52sec (not 210)
Various Cities UNKNOWN (trade screenings) (According to Malcolm McDowell, the trade print had an extra 15 min or so of porn added.) May(?) 1979–
Apr(?) 1980
Penthouse 169min51sec
Meldola, Italy Cinema Nuovo (dubbed into Italian) Censor clearance challenged by a local citizen. 14–20 Aug 1979 PAC Italian version:
150min44sec
Forlì, Italy Cinema Apollo (dubbed into Italian) Private screening for court case. Court upholds censor board’s decision to allow showings anywhere in Italy. This not-guilty verdict cannot be appealed. 31 Aug 1979 PAC Italian version:
150min44sec
Rome, Italy 6-cinema showcase: Holiday, Nuovo Star, Radio City, Ritz, Royal, Vittoria (dubbed into Italian) Seized by police on 15 Nov 1979. Court overturns previous unappealable ruling, and prosecutes not the censor board, but the Italian producer and distributor for the crime of obeying the law. This version of the film is banned in Italy to this day. 10–15 Nov 1979 PAC Italian version:
150min44sec
Italy UNKNOWN (11 other cities) (dubbed into Italian) Seized by police on 15 Nov 1979. 10–15 Nov 1979 PAC Italian version:
150min44sec
NYC (Manhattan) Magno Screening Room (private screening) 17 Nov 1979 Penthouse 155min52sec
New Haven CT York Square Cinema (exclusive screening for Yale University Law School) (see also 16 Apr 1980 below) 27 Jan 1980 Penthouse 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Trans-Lux East (renamed Penthouse East) $7.50 1 Feb 1980 –
29 Jan 1981
Penthouse 155min52sec
Chicago IL UNKNOWN (contract canceled for reasons never divulged) 15 Feb 1980
NOT SHOWN
Analysis 155min52sec
Los Ángeles CA UNKNOWN (contract canceled for reasons never divulged) 15 Feb 1980
NOT SHOWN
Analysis 155min52sec
Berlin Film Festival
(18–29 Feb 1980)
Royal Palast ?? Feb 1980 Penthouse 155min52sec
Washington DC Fine Arts (contract canceled for reasons never divulged) 7 Mar 1980
NOT SHOWN
Analysis 155min52sec
Washington DC Georgetown (aka Dunbarton) $6.00 28 Mar 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
San Francisco CA Lumiere $6.00 28 Mar 1980 –
18 Sep 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
New Haven CT York Square Cinema (see also 27 Jan 1980 above) 16 Apr 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Hollywood CA Holly $7.50 All shows canceled on Sat–Mon, 26–28 Jul 1980, when the print was stolen. A replacement print was flown in from GTC-CTM in Joinville-le-Pont by Tuesday morning. 18 Apr 1980 –
25 Jun 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Vienna, Austria Gartenbau Kino 25 Apr 1980 – Tobis Filmkunst German version:
149min36sec
Germany UNKNOWN (25 cinemas at first, soon after 50 total, then 100, then 130) 25 Apr 1980 – Tobis Filmkunst German version:
149min36sec
Wilmington DE Budco Branmar Twin 25 Apr 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Philadelphia PA Budco Midtown
(screen 1) $3.00 mat, $3.50 night (normal prices)
25 Apr 1980 –
21 May 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
(screen 2) $3.00 mat, $3.50 night (normal prices) 19 Aug 1980 –
4 Sep 1980
(screen 2) $4.00 19 Sep 1980 –
2 Oct 1980
Oakland CA Rockridge Showcase 25 Apr 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Palo Alto CA Aquarius 25 Apr 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Rego Park, Queens) Drake 9 May 1980 –
31 Jul 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Midwood, Brooklyn) Avenue U 9(or 16?) May 1980 –
17(or 31?) Jul 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Hartford CT UNDETERMINED ca 9 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Holyoke MA Holyoke Mall at Ingleside (Closed by police) 15 May 1980 –
16(?) Jun 1980
Newsconcorp(?) 155min52sec
New Bedford MA State (aka Zeiterion, 684 Purchase St) (Run canceled by management as a precautionary measure) 16 May 1980 —
17(?) Jun 1980
Newsconcorp(?) 155min52sec
Huntington NY Balcony (carved out of the Huntington Theatre) 16–22(?) May 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Providence RI UNDETERMINED 16 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
CT TWO MORE BOOKINGS, DETAILS UNDETERMINED ca 16 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NJ THREE MORE BOOKINGS, DETAILS UNDETERMINED ca 16 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Portland OR Mt Tabor $6.00 16 May 1980 –
27 Aug 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Philadelphia PA Goldman (screen 1) $3.00 mat, $3.50 night (normal prices) 23 May 1980 –
12 Jun 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Doylestown PA Barn 5 23 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Madison WI Esquire (aka Bartell Community Theatre, 113 E Mifflin St) 30 May 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Seattle WA Town $5.00 6 Jun 1980 –
30 Jul 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
12 Sep 1980 –
20 Nov 1980
Boston MA Saxon $6.00 (Seized by police on fourth day) 13–16 Jun 1980 Newsconcorp 155min52sec
Kansas City MO Fairyland Twin Drive-In (screen 1). $2.50 (normal price). (Booked for a 2- or 3-week run, but canceled after 1 week possibly in response to political pressure. Oddly, on screen 2 was a hardcore flick, The Innocence of Susan, which continued without any problems.) 20–26 Jun 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
$2.50 (normal price). 5–18 Sep 1980
France UNKNOWN (14-cinema showcase in Paris + 10 suburban + 56 cinemas elsewhere; dubbed into French) 2 Jul 1980 – AMLF-Paris 136min22sec
San Juan PR Cinema Condado (Repeatedly closed by police) 4 Jul 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Philadelphia PA Regency (screen 1) $3.50 (normal price) 4 Jul 1980 –
13 Aug 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
(screen 1) $4.00 12–18 Sep 1980
Denver CO Vogue (originally the Mission; now Vogue Lofts, 1465 S Pearl St) 11 Jul 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Pittsburgh PA Chatham $5.00 18 Jul 1980 –
11 Sep 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Canarsie, Brooklyn) Canarsie Triplex (screen 3) 8–11(or 17?) Aug 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Netherlands UNKNOWN (25 cinemas in 22 cities) 14 Aug 1980 – Tuschinski Film Distribution 155min52sec
NYC (Middle Village, Queens) Arion 15 Aug 1980 –
6 Nov 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Boston MA Cheri I-II-III (screen 3) $6.00 15–28 Aug 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
(screen 2) $6.00 29 Aug 1980 –
25 Sep 1980
(screen 2) $3.00–4.00 3–23 Dec 1982
[NUMEROUS LOCALITIES] MA UNKNOWN (saturation booking throughout entire state) 5 Sep 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Columbus OH University Flick $5.00 5(?) Sep 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) Fortway Triplex (screen 2) 19 Sep 1980 –
23 Oct 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Chicago IL Davis $7.50 19 Sep 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bronx) Circle 3–9 Oct 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Dayton OH Kon-Tiki $5.00 [UNDETERMINED] Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Albuquerque NM Don Pancho’s (2108 Central Ave SE) $5.00 3 Oct 1980 –
25 Dec 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bronx) Palace Twin (screen 1) 10–30 Oct 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
28 Nov 1980 –
18 Dec 1980
New Hartford NY Cinema 6 (1 Sangertown Sq, evenings only) $5.00 (screen 1) (Seized by police; print destroyed by court order) 24 Oct 1980 –
11 Nov 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Fairlawn OH Village (55 N Miller Rd) (Booking canceled by court order; Guccione signed consent decree; Caligula is forever banned in Summit County.) 24 Oct 1980 –
13 Nov 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
On about 27 Oct 1980 Caligula got its first video release, courtesy of film pirates. A vendor in Albuquerque offered me a VHS for the modest price of $150 but, tempted though I was, I turned it down. I asked him who who his supplier was, but that, apparently, was the wrong question to ask. If you have this original bootleg, please let me know as I would LOVE to examine it. Thanks!
London, England Prince Charles 30 Oct 1980 –
6 Jan 1982
GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
8?–28? Jul 1983
NYC (Brighton Beach, Brooklyn) Oceana Triplex (screen 3) 31 Oct 1980 –
6 Nov 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
28 Nov 1980 –
4 Dec 1980
Copenhagen DK Grand ?? Nov 1980 – Constantin Film ApS 155min52sec
Copenhagen DK Nygade 4
(“four prints worn out in as many years” — Variety [weekly], 8 Jan 1986 p241)
UNDETERMINED Constantin Film ApS 155min52sec
Minneapolis MN Cedar (416 Cedar Ave S) 7 Nov 1980 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Astoria, Queens) Strand Twin (screen 1) 14–20 Nov 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Little Neck, Queens) Little Neck 14 Nov 1980 –
25 Dec 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Tokyo, Japan UNKNOWN 21 Nov 1980 – Nippon Herald Films 155min52sec
(350 foggings)
NYC (Borough Park, Brooklyn) Walker 28 Nov 1980 –
4(?) Dec 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Sunnyside, Queens) Center Twin (screen 2, then 1) 28 Nov 1980 –
18 Dec 1980
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Tokyo, Japan UNKNOWN (4 more cinemas) 28 Nov 1980 – Nippon Herald Films 155min52sec
(350 foggings)
[VARIOUS LOCATIONS] Japan UNKNOWN (about 150 cinemas) 28(?) Nov 1980 – Nippon Herald Films 155min52sec
(350 foggings)
Amherst NY Evans Art (Evanstown Plaza, 428 Evans St) $5.00 (Booked for 4 weeks, seized by police, then canceled after 6th day to avoid legal proceedings) 5–10 Dec 1980 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Cleveland Heights OH Cedar Lee $5.00
(A petition with 1,239 signatures, spearheaded by women from the Our Lady of Peace Church, handed to City Hall by Albert K Oberst, had no effect, but a lawsuit filed by Bruce Taylor of Citizens for Decency through Law led to Guccione’s decision to withdraw the movie, over cinema-chain president Jon Forman’s objections. Caligula was thus banned from Cuyahoga County.)
19 Dec 1980
(never screened)
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Boston MA Beacon Hill (screen 1) (only 3–4 days/wk) $6.00 23 Jan 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Borough Park, Brooklyn) Beverly Twin (screen 2) 30 Jan 1981 –
5 Feb 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Quad Cinema (screen 1 thru 19 Feb, then screen 4) $6.00, then $3.50–$4.50 (normal prices) beginning on 13 Feb 30 Jan 1981 –
5 Mar 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Movieland $6.00, then $5.00 beginning on 13 Feb 30 Jan 1981 –
14 May 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Olympia (screen 3) $6.00 30 Jan 1981 –
5 Mar 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Liberty $5.00 30 Jan 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
London, England Classic 2 Haymarket and
ABC Fulham Road
ca 6 Feb 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Chicago IL [TWO UNKNOWN CINEMAS] 6 Feb 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Prospect Heights IL Palwaukee $7.50 6 Feb 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Edinburgh, Scotland ABC Film Centre 1 15 Feb 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Bristol, England ABC New Centre 1 15 Feb 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Liverpool, England ABC Futurist 15 Feb 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Cardiff, Wales ABC Film Centre
(Private showing for licencing subcommittee and councillors, who consequently banned the film in Cardiff)
18 Feb 1981 GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Montréal PQ Cinéma de Paris (English version) 20 Feb 1981 – Films Mutuels 153min (3min cut)
Sweden UNKNOWN ?? Feb 1981 – Pinguin Films International 155min52sec
Glasgow, Scotland La Scala ?? Mar 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Aberdeen, Birmingham, Dundee, Manchester, Newcastle, England UNKNOWN ?? Mar 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Leeds, England ABC Film Centre 1 2 Apr 1981 – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Louisville KY Showcase Cinemas Louisville
(Raided by police during a show; print confiscated)
24–28 Apr 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Melbourne VIC, Australia Australian Twin Cinema (272 Collins St) 19 Jun 1981 –
21 Oct 1981
Roadshow Distributors Pty ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Sydney NSW, Australia Barclay (131 Russell St) 19 Jun 1981 – Roadshow Distributors Pty ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
Vancouver BC Towne Cinema (919 Granville St; aka Studio [1949 and renamed Studio again in 1984], Eve [1972], Lyric [1978; not to be confused with the previous Lyric]; Paradise [1988], now The Tonic Bar [1999]) 3 Jul 1981 –
7 Oct 1982
Roke Distributors 155min52sec
Calgary AB Towne Cinema (617 8th Ave SW) (Seized by police after one week) 9–16 Oct 1981 Roke Distributors ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg (1 min cut)
148min
(Reopens after acquittal) 5(?) Dec(?) 1981 –
Edmonton AB Towne Cinema (118th Ave & 124th St) (Seized by police on opening night) 9 Oct 1981 Roke Distributors ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg (1 min cut)
148min
(Reopens after acquittal) 5(?) Dec(?) 1981 –
Toronto ON [UNKNOWN] 9 Oct 1981 – Citadel Films ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg (several cuts)
148(?)min
[VARIOUS LOCALITIES] ON [UNKNOWN] (7 cinemas) 9 Oct 1981 – Citadel Films ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg (several cuts)
148(?)min
Danbury CT Trans-Lux Palace 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Stamford CT Trans-Lux Ridgeway 16–22(?) Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Clifton NJ Nathan’s Clifton 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cranford NJ RKO Cranford 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
East Brunswick NJ Loew’s Route 18 Twin 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Edgewater NJ Loew’s Showboat Quad 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Edison NJ Plainfield-Edison Indoor 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Freehold NJ Music Makers’ Quad (later Freehold Cinema 6) 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hackensack NJ RKO Oritani 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Jersey City NJ Loew’s Jersey City Triplex 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Middletown NJ Middletown 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Morristown NJ Brandt’s Community 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Newark NJ RKO Branford 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Parsippany NJ Loew’s Troy Hills Twin 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Sayreville NJ Redstone’s Amboy Eightplex 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Somerville NJ Somerville Drive-In 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Toms River NJ Music Makers’ Dover Twin 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Wayne NJ RKO Wayne 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Amityville NY Almi/Century’s Amityville 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Bayshore NY Loew’s South Shore Mall Twin 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cedarhurst NY B.S. Moss Central Triplex (screen 2) 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
New Hyde Park NY Almi/Century’s Park East (2349 Jericho Turnpike) (often listed as being in Garden City) 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hauppauge NY Brandt’s Hauppauge 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hicksville NY Cinema 5’s Hicksville 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hicksville NY North & South (screen 2) 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Huntington NY Almi/Century’s Whitman 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Merrick NY Brandt’s Merrick 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
New Rochelle NY Loew’s New Rochelle Twin 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Bronx) Lightstone’s Palace 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Loew’s Paradise Quad (screen 4) 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Cinema 5’s Albemarle 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Loew’s Alpine Twin (screen 2) 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Almi/Century’s College 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Loew’s Metropolitan Quad 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Florin/Creative’s Plaza Cinema (screen 2) 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Brooklyn) Florin/Creative’s Ridgewood (often listed as Queens, but actually Brooklyn. Please help save the theatre!) 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Manhattan) Loew’s State II 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Manhattan) Loew’s Orpheum 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Eltingville, Staten Island) Ackerman’s Amboy Twin 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Astoria, Queens) Astoria 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Bayside, Queens) Bayside 16–22 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Elmhurst, Queens) Loew’s Elmwood Twin 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Flushing, Queens) Parson’s Twin (screen 1) 16–22 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Flushing, Queens) RKO Keith’s Triplex (screen 3 then 2) 16 Oct 1981 –
5(?) Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Glen Oaks, Queens) Almi/Century’s Glen Oaks 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Jamaica, Queens) RKO Alden 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Patchogue NY Patchogue Drive-In (aka Sunset) 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Pearl River NY Venturini’s Central 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Peekskill NY Lesser’s Beach Cinema 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Roslyn NY KB’s Roslyn 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Shirley NY Florin/Creative’s Shirley Twin 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Spring Valley NY Cinema 45 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Stony Brook NY Loew’s Stony Brook Triplex 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Wantagh NY Cinema 5’s Wantagh 16 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
West Milford NY Music Makers’ Abby 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
White Plains NY Maxi’s Colony 16 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Yonkers NY B.S. Moss Movieland 16–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Melbourne VIC, Australia East End Cinema (100 Bourke St) 22 Oct 1981 –
2 Dec 1981
Roadshow Distributors Pty ‘Modified Version’ w/altern ftg)
149min35sec
Bridgeport CT RKO Merritt 23 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
North Miami Beach FL 163rd Street & Patio Theatre 3-Plex (screen 1) (also at six other cinemas and three drive-ins) 23 Oct 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Albuquerque NM Lobo 23 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Bronx) Palace Twin (screen 2) 23–29 Oct 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Valley Stream NY Redstone’s Sunrise Eightplex 23 Oct 1981 –
19 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Stamford CT Trans-Lux Avon I II (screen 2) 30(?) Oct 1981 –
12(?) Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Bowling Green KY Plaza Twin (screen 2?), Parkview Plaza Shopping Plaza 30 Oct 1981 –
19 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Santa Fé NM Capital (formerly the Pickford Theatre, then the St Michael’s Village Theatre, St Michael’s Village Shopping Center, 1640 St Michael’s Dr) 30 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Oyster Bay NY The Movies aka Pine Hollow 30 Oct 1981 –
5 Nov 1981
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
East Meadow NY Flick 1 & 2 (screen 2) 6–12 Nov 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
NYC (Manhattan) 86th Street East 6 Nov 1981 –
12(?) Nov 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Norwalk CT Cinema 1 & 2 aka Garden Cinemas (screen 1) 13–19 Nov 1981 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Berea OH Loew’s Berea (screen 1) 13 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cleveland OH Loew’s Cedar Centre (screen 1) 13 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cleveland OH Loew’s Yorktown (screen 1) 13 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Richmond Heights OH Loew’s East (screen 1) 13 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Rocky River OH Loew’s West (screen 1) 13 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Elyria OH [UNKNOWN — NOT ADVERTISED] (Loew’s chain) 20 Nov 1981 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
London UK Cinecenta 1 (formerly ABC Piccadilly Circus) 8? Jan 1982 –
29? Apr 1982
GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
10? Dec 1982 –
24? Feb 1983
Winnipeg MB Towne Cinema 8 22 Jan 1982 –
18 Mar 1982
Roke Distributors ‘Modified Version’ w/altern ftg (2min cut)
147min
15–28 Jun 1984
(Double-billed with Flesh Gordon) 29 Jun 1984 –
5 Jul 1984
Charlotte NC [UNKNOWN] ?? Jan 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Gastonia NC Webb (booked according to Variety 20 Jan 1982, but need to confirm) ?? Feb 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Salina KS Sunset Cinemas Twin aka The Movies 1 & 2 5–11 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Quakertown PA Quakertown 3 (screen 3) 5 Feb 1982– Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Bell CA Liberty 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Canoga Park CA Baronet 19 Feb 1982 –
11 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cerritos CA Alondra 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Covina CA Covina Drive-In 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cypress CA Cypress Twin (aka Family Twin, 9823 Walker St) 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Fountain Valley CA Family Twin (17161 Brookhurst) 19 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Gardena CA Roadium Drive-In 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hawthorne CA Hawthorne 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Los Ángeles (Highland Park) CA Highland 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hollywood CA Clinton 19 Feb 1982 –
11 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Hollywood CA Oriental 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Los Ángeles CA Gordon (aka Regent Showcase) 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Montclair CA Montclair 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Oceanside CA Camino Cinema 4 19 Feb 1982 –
18 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Orange CA Villa Park Twin aka Village Theatre (Screen 2) 19 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Palmdale CA Palmdale Drive-In 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Panorama City CA Americana 19 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Redondo Beach CA Marina Cinema (300 S Catalina Ave) 19 Feb 1982 –
11 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Riverside (Arlington) CA Arlington 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Rosemead CA Rosemead 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Santa Fé Springs CA La Mirada Drive-In 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Tarzana CA Movies 19 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Thousand Oaks CA Melody (Parkoaks Plaza, 1792 N Moorpark Rd) 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
San Bernardino CA Studio 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
San Diego CA Sports Arena Six 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
San Diego CA Century Twin (4370 54th St) 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
San Jacinto CA Hemacinto Drive-In 19–25 Feb 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Downey CA Avenue (Neighborhood theatre/cinema built in 1922. The city government recently voted unanimously to demolish this building in 2012, much to the annoyance of the residents. Please sign the petition to save it!) 26 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Goleta CA Magic Lantern 26 Feb 1982 –
11 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
La Verne CA Mt. Baldy Drive-In (3515 White) 26 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Norco CA Crest Drive-In (nr 3rd & Hamner) 26 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Twentynine Palms CA Smith Ranch Drive-In 26 Feb 1982 –
4 Mar 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
At about this time Caligula received what appears to have been its first official video release,
on VHS and maybe on Beta, in Germany.
Los Ángeles CA Four Star 5–11 Mar 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Cedar Falls IA Cinema III aka College Square Cinema 5–11 Mar 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Logansport IN UA Theatres: The Movies at Cass Plaza (321 E Market St) (screen 2) 12–18 Mar 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Encinitas CA La Paloma 19 Mar 1982 –
1 Jun 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Oceanside CA Star 19–25 Mar 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Winnipeg MB Cineplex 7 Cinemas aka Eaton Place 7 9 Apr 1982 –
27 May 1982
Roke Distributors ‘Modified Version’ w/altern ftg (2 min cut)
147min
London UK ABC Edgware (formerly Cannon Film Centre) 30? Apr 1982 –
Jun? 1982
GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
26? Nov 1982 –
9? Dec 1982
London UK Studio Cinema, Oxford Circus 30? Apr 1982 –
Jun? 1982
GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
London UK Centa 3 11? Jun 1982 –
15? Jul 1982
GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
At about this time Caligula received what appears to have been its second official video release,
on VHS and maybe on Beta, in the Netherlands.
London UK Cinecenta 4 ??? – GTO ‘Modified Version’ w/ altern ftg
149min35sec
It was at about this time in the US that the ‘R’ version was finally petering out,
and the 156-minute version was re-released in 100 new prints.
Philadelphia PA Midtown 2; $4 3 Sep 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Chicago IL [EIGHT-CINEMA SHOWCASE] 24 Sep 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Palatine IL Willow Creek (double-billed with Three Brothers) 24–30 Sep 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Palatine IL 53 Drive-In 1, 2, 3 (screen 2) 1–3 Oct 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp ‘R’ w/altern ftg
103min
Eight capital cities in Brazil [UNKNOWN] Sep–Oct 1982
Jul–Oct 1983
Jun–Aug 1984
Embrafilme 155min52sec
Variety (weekly) 308 no 3, Wednesday, 27 October 1982, p 6:
NYC (Manhattan) Criterion Center (screen 2 then screen 5 starting 17 Dec) 5 Nov 1982 – 12 May 1983 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) 8th Street Playhouse 5 Nov 1982 –
23 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) Olympia (screen 1, then 4, then 2) 5 Nov 1982 –
30 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bronx) Palace Twin (screen 2) 5 Nov 1982 –
16 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Brighton Beach, Brooklyn) Oceana Quad (screen 3 then 1) 5 Nov 1982 –
9 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC [UNKNOWN] 5 Nov 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bensonhurst, Brooklyn) Benson Twin (screen 2) 12 Nov 1982 –
16 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Philadelphia PA Goldman (screen 2) 12 Nov 1982 –
9 Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
17–23 Dec 1982
NYC (Sunnyside, Queens) Center Twin (screen 2) 12–25 Nov 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec

Huh? “A PENTHOUSE FILM”???? It was never advertised like that before. It was never “A Penthouse Film.” And “BOB GUCCIONE’S ‘CALIGULA’ ”? Look at the advertisements and posters elsewhere on this web page and you’ll see that Caligula was a Guccione/Penthouse Presentation of A FRANCO ROSSELLINI PRODUCTION.”
This new claim of being “A PENTHOUSE FILM” was made preparatory to a series of lawsuits that went on for years and years and years and years in the USA and in Italy and in Spain and in France and in Japan and probably in lots of other places too. It is commonly claimed that Franco Rossellini died of AIDS. Actually, the immediate cause was lung cancer (he was a life-long chain smoker). But I’m convinced that it was these lawsuits, more than anything else, that wrecked his health, caused his premature aging, and drastically shortened his life span. They certainly emptied his bank account, that’s for sure.
NYC [TWO MORE CINEMAS] 19 Nov 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Flushing, Queens) Parsons Twin (screen 2) 26 Nov 1982 –
29? Dec 1982
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC [THREE MORE CINEMAS] 26 Nov 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Mariners Harbor, Staten Island) Jerry Lewis Cinema 26 Nov 1982 – 9? 16? Dec 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
At about this time, December 1982, Caligula received what appears to have been its third official video release,
on Beta and VHS, in the UK. The video was of the re-edited UK version, which later came to be known as the ‘Modified Version,’ and it was issued on the Electric Video label, the UK distributor of Electric Blue.
Pikesville MD Pikes 3 Dec 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Pikesville MD Mini Flick (screen 2) 3 Dec 1982 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) Fortway Five (screen 5) 10–16 Dec 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Philadelphia PA Olde City (screen 2) 10–16 Dec 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
NYC (Bronx) Circle Twin (screen 2) 17–31 Dec 1982 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Manlius NY Manlius 31 Dec 1982 –
3 Feb 1983
Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Norwalk CT SoNo Cinema 22–25 Jan 1983 Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
In circa February 1983 Caligula received what appears to have been its fourth official video release, on VHS and maybe on Beta, in Spain, issued by International Video Publishers (or International Video Corporation), the Spanish distributor of Electric Blue. The only information I can find about International Video is in “Around the Homevideo Track,” Variety (weekly) 307 no 6, Wednesday, 9 June 1982, p 39.
Long Beach CA Art 1 Jul 1983 – Analysis Film Releasing Corp 155min52sec
Venice CA Fox Venice 12 Aug 1983 –
1 Sep 1983
Penthouse (Analysis went out of business in Aug 1983) 155min52sec
In late August or early September 1983 Caligula, in both the 156-minute and 103-minute versions, was made available for nontheatrical distribution in 16mm. “Nontheatrical” generally means university film clubs and movie series, classroom use, as well as showings at libraries and churches and other similar venues.
Clifton Park NY Cinema North 23 Sep 1983 –
20 Oct 1983
Penthouse 155min52sec
Vestron licensed pan-American video rights to the 156-minute (overpseeded to 148min) and to the 103-minute (overspeeded to 101min) versions in autumn 1983 and presented its line-up of upcoming Penthouse videos to retailers and distributors at a January 1984 consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas NV. It seems that the Beta, VHS, CED, and LD editions of Caligula were on sale beginning on or about 6 April 1984.
Rome, Italy UNKNOWN (revised Io Caligola, newly dubbed into Italian) 31 Mar 1984 – OMNI / PAC New version w/altern ftg
118min15sec
Milan, Italy UNKNOWN (revised Io Caligola, newly dubbed into Italian) 31 Mar 1984 – OMNI / PAC New version w/altern ftg
118min15sec
VARIOUS LOCATIONS, Italy UNKNOWN (revised Io Caligola, newly dubbed into Italian) ?? Apr 1984 – OMNI / PAC New version w/altern ftg
118min15sec
Hermosa Beach CA Bijou Cinema Two 15–17 May 1984 Penthouse 155min52sec
Long Beach CA Art 29 Jun 1984 – Penthouse 155min52sec
St Louis MO Varsity (closed by County Prosecutors) 13–16 Jul 1984 Penthouse 155min52sec
Santa Fé NM City Lights Cinema (formerly the Bijou Theater, Pen Road Shopping Center [although Pen Road had been ploughed up by that time, the shopping center was still there], 1005 S St Francis Dr Ste 111 nr Cerrillos Rd) 4–9 Oct 1984 (late show) Penthouse 155min52sec
North Hollywood CA UA Movies aka UA Valley Plaza 6 12–13 Oct 1984 (midnights) Penthouse 155min52sec
Mar del Plata, Argentina UNKNOWN 1,500 pesos (as opposed to usual price of 400) ca 25 Feb 1985 – Franco Cella 155min52sec
Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina UNKNOWN 1,500 pesos (as opposed to usual price of 400) ca 25 Feb 1985 – Franco Cella 155min52sec
Hollywood CA Vista 9–10 Mar 1985 Penthouse 155min52sec
Long Beach CA Art 23 Jun 1985 –
3 Jul 1985
Penthouse 155min52sec
The Twentieth-Anniversary US Re-Release was issued 19 ½ years after the original US première. The press release promised that this would be the “uncensored director’s cut” which, of course, did not exist. The poster promised this would be “DIGITALLY REMASTERED & FULLY RESORTED.” The print was actually rather awful, with an emulsion gouge on the interpositive during one scene, and with a new 5.1 Dolby stereo track needlessly synthesized from the original mono. Guccione had promised to reinsert 12 minutes of footage deleted prior to the original release, but didn’t realize that those scenes literally could not be reinserted, as the negatives had been destroyed, the actors had never revoiced their lines, the music had never been composed, and the foley had never been assembled and mixed. Thus there was no resorting; the sorting was the same as it had always been. In some venues this did quite well, but then the distributor suddenly ceased business and the re-release was stopped dead in its tracks.

Note the line breaks, which force “AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY GORE VIDAL” to the beginning of a line, as well as “DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY GIANCARLO LUI AND BOB GUCCIONE.” See how one can mislead by telling the truth? Note that Franco Rossellini’s name is as buried as it had ever been previously. And what’s that about “CALIGULA SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON PENTHOUSE RECORDS”? It was? In 1999? Really? I don’t think so.
NYC (Manhattan) City Cinema: The Village East (screen 7) 17–30(?) Sep 1999 Independent Artists Co (new firm founded by N Lee Lacy in Feb 1999) 155min52sec
NYC (Manhattan) City Cinema: Sutton (screen 2) 17–22 Sep 1999 Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
Los Ángeles CA Nuart 24 Sep 1999 –
30 Sep 1999
Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
Pasadena CA Laemmle’s Colorado 1–7 Oct 1999 Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
Hollywood CA Laemmle’s Sunset 5 1– Oct 1999 Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
Los Ángeles CA Los Feliz 3 8– Oct 1999 Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
Buffalo NY Angelica Film Center & Café 8-Plex aka Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre (screen 4) 22 Oct 1999 –
4 Nov 1999
Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
San Diego CA, San Francisco CA, Denver CO, Chicago IL, Boston MA, Detroit MI, Minneapolis MN, St Louis MO, Houston TX, Seattle WA [I DON’T HAVE ANY SPECIFICS] ca Sep & Oct 1999 Independent Artists Co (N Lee Lacy) 155min52sec
UK Film Four (Cable-TV premium channel) 31 Oct 1999 [UNKNOWN] 142min (overspeeded to 137min)
23 November 1999 saw the ‘Twentieth-Anniversary’ LD and DVD releases of the 156-minute edition as well as of a new 102-minute ‘R’ edition, poorly edited from the 156-min version seemingly on a home computer. If you have the ‘Twentieth-Anniversary’ (ID9060GM) laserdisc available at a reasonable price, please write to me and I’ll buy it from you.
Cleveland OH Cleveland Cinémathèque (11141 East Blvd) 20 & 22 Jan 2000 [UNKNOWN] (Independent Artists was insolvent by Dec 1999) 155min52sec
USA/Canada Cinemax (Cable-TV premium channel) 27 Feb 2000, 2 Mar 2000, 13 Mar 2000, 10 Jul 2000, 13 Jul 2000, 31 Jul 2000, 1 Aug 2000 (?) ‘R’ without altern ftg (unique to video)
102min
IF YOU CAN ADD TO THIS KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE WRITE TO ME! THANKS! AND IF YOU HAVE STORIES TO TELL ABOUT SEEING THIS MOVIE WHEN IT WAS NEW, OR ABOUT WORKING IN ANY OF THE CINEMAS THAT PRESENTED IT, I’M ALL EARS!!!!

Filmed in English.


Original research and commentary copyright © 2009 by Ranjit Sandhu and James Ellis Chaffin. All rights reserved.


Click here to go to the next movie

Click here to read Stuart Urban’s reminiscences about being an assistant editor to Tinto Brass for Caligula

Click here to read about the mythical 210-minute version of Caligula

Click here to read what the performers had to say about Caligula

Click here to read excerpts from critical reviews of Caligula

Click here to read about the various video editions of Caligula

Click here to return to main Tinto Brass page

And, of course, don’t forget the joke:

We all missed our opportunity. This poster, which was NOT on display when I saw this five-minute movie, was auctioned at Christie’s for a mere €5,625. What a bargain! By the way, if you’ve seen this movie, think again. There’s a long version and a short version, and there’s a long ending and a short ending, and they can be and have been combined in all possible different ways. How many more versions there might be, I don’t know.


A Brief Summary of the Various Versions

# Person/s Primarily Responsible Comments Length
(1) Tinto Brass This included:
Scenes 1 through 4: Caligula, Drusilla, bird;
Scene 16: Nerva’s suicide;
Scene 18: Death of Tiberius;
Scene 21 (at least partially): Caligula and Drusilla after inauguration; dispute over land;
Scene 27: Macro executed; Proculus tossed into stadium.
Possibly edited other scenes as well, partially or fully. Never completed. All of Tinto Brass’s editing was reconfigured by others for the final film. Only unfinished fragments of his cut survive.
38min
(2) Russell Lloyd Included the consulship of Incitatus, the massage, and the first half of the Temple of Jupiter where Caligula replaces the statues’ heads. (Prior to submitting his definitive cut, he had once included the Temple of Jupiter in its entirety. Then he deleted the shot of the Little Giant carrying the golden phallus. Finally he deleted the second half altogether.) The pastoral idyll was used as a prologue. Ready just prior to 13 February 1978. Dismantled. Only brief excerpts survive. 151min20sec (no credits)
(3) Nino Baragli Adapted from (2) above. Included the entire Temple of Jupiter (except for the golden phallus). A temporary music track was later added, consisting of excerpts from Khachaturian and Prokofiev ballets along with anonymous library music that I would love to identify. The music was not separated, but included on the same reels of full-coat as the duplicate of the scratch track. Mysteriously, random portions of the scratch track were erased, while the music played on, unaffected. Ready by sometime in the spring of 1978. Dismantled. Only fragments survive. Approx 160min?
(4) Peter Krook Dubbing print adapted from (3) above, minus the consulship of Incitatus, minus the massage, minus the Temple of Jupiter, and minus all the Guccione/Lui hardcore footage. When screened privately for Malcolm McDowell and Masolino d’Amico prior to dubbing, it included the temporary music cues used in (3). It was probably for this version that the Sacred Dance of Isis was first abridged severely and the remaining fragments almost entirely scrambled so that the sexy stuff at the end would open the sequence. Prepared by early July 1978. Dismantled. Approx 150min
(5) Peter Krook Same as (4) above, but fully dubbed and with the Guccione/Lui hardcore put back in. A few more lines of dialogue had been written and dubbed (“Now send the rest to Livia,” etc). The sound was on full-coat reels. Franco Mannino’s incidental music was isolated on separate full-coat reels. Privately screened in September 1978 and instantly rejected. Does not survive. Approx 157min
(6) Giancarlo Lui, Peter Krook Slightly amended version of (5) above, with the pastoral idyll interrupting the bedroom/veranda scene (“she is to be banished to Gaul”/“you must have an heir”). Finished print, but with the sound on separate full-coat reels. The temporary music cues used in (3) above were probably reinstated. If not, then this print had little or no music. Trade screened in London in November 1978. Cut into several pieces for the subsequent re-edit. All the image survives, but parts of the sound have gone missing. Approx 157min
(7) Giancarlo Lui Basically the same as (6) above, but with the pastoral idyll reduced to a few scrambled fragments that were moved back to the beginning as a prologue. The incidental music was by Bruno Nicolai who worked under a pseudonym. Completed in March 1979. Shown at Cannes in May 1979. Released in the US in February 1980. Released in Vancouver BC in July 1981. 14,029'+07fr = 155min52sec (1984 home video time-compressed to 148min)
(8) ? The first print to come into the US was for delivery to US Customs; it was reviewed by the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney General’s Office (New York Eastern District) in April 1979. It was the same as (7) above, but presumably with five minutes deleted. This print has not been located. 151min(?)
(9) Giancarlo Lui, Peter Krook, Patrick Moore Caligola. Same as (7) above, but dubbed into Italian. Never released. Presumably still in a vault somewhere in Italy. 14,029'+07fr = 155min52sec plus part titles
(10) Franco Rossellini et al Caligola. Same as (9) above, but with 3 minutes deleted by order of the state censor, and a further 2 minutes deleted by Felix Cinematografica and Produzioni Atlas Cinematografica as a precaution. Were these cuts the same as in (8) above? 4151 meters = 151min19sec including part titles
(11) Franco Rossellini et al Caligola. Same as (10) above, but with a further 58 seconds deleted by order of the Italian Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment. Shown at the Cinema Nuovo in Meldola in August 1979 and released throughout Italy in November 1979. Several prints, some sequestered, seem to survive, but they are unavailable for examination. 4135 meters = 150min44sec including part titles
(12) ? Expanded from (7) above. Special print for trade shows in the US, with a further 14 minutes of hardcore additions. Dates undetermined, but it could have been shown at least as early as May 1979 and there was at least one showing in Hollywood sometime between January and April 1980. This print has not been located. 4,650 meters = 169min51sec
(13) ? Same as (7) above, dubbed into German, but with six minutes deleted by order of the state censor. Released in April 1980. 4104 meters = 149min36sec including part titles
(14) ? French dub of (7) above, never released to cinemas. 14,029'+07fr = 155min52sec plus part titles
(15) Paul Rassam Abridgment of (14) above, shortened partly to avoid the extra VAT charged to violent programs, but mostly to squeeze in a fourth daily screening. Released July 1980. 3741meters = 136min22sec including part titles
(16) James Ferman et al Adapted from (7) above. Eventually named the “Modified Version.” Fourteen minutes were deleted by order of the state censor. Much of that footage was replaced by tamer material. Contains a few moments not included in any other version. Released in the UK in Oct 1980 and in Australia in June 1981. 13,462' = 149min35sec
(17) ? Same as (7) above, dubbed into Japanese, but with about 350 foggings. Released in Japan in November 1980. 14,029'+07fr = 155min52sec
(18) ? Québec version. Same as (7) and possibly (14) above, but with three minutes cut. Released in a French dub and also in English with French subtitles. Released in February 1981. 153min
(19) ? Alberta version. Same as (16) above, but with one minute cut. Released October 1981. 148min
(20) ? Ontario version. Same as (16) above, but with several cuts. Released October 1981. 148min?
(21) Nino Baragli R-rated version. Abridgment of (7) above for general US release, with replacement footage not seen in any other version. Opened in October 1981 in the Eastern States, and in February 1982 on the West Coast. 103min (1984 home video time-compressed to 101min)
(22) ? Manitoba version. Same as (16) above, but with two minutes cut. Released January 1982. 147min
(23) Franco Rossellini, Enzo Natale, Enzo Micarelli Io Caligola, adapted from (1) and (7) above, with some footage restored, many deletions, and a few attempts to repair the editing. Presumably all of the Guccione/Lui “additional” footage was deleted, but that is not certain. Newly dubbed into Italian, with mostly different music. Ready by late 1983. Never released. No print or master has been located. 4050meters = 147min38sec including part titles
(24) Franco Rossellini, Enzo Natale, Enzo Micarelli Io Caligola. Same as (23) above, but with further deletions. All of Guccione/Lui’s “additional” footage was deleted. According to ANICA this was released to cinemas under visa number 79492, but that’s impossible. This version was released only on home video. 3421meters = 124min43sec including part titles
(25) Franco Rossellini, Enzo Natale, Enzo Micarelli Io Caligola. Same as (24) above, but with further deletions ordered by the state censor. This is the version that received visa number 79492. Released in Rome and Milan at the end of March 1984 and the rest of Italy at the beginning of April, but was almost instantly sequestered. After court clearance it was re-released in September 1984. 3243meters = 118min15sec including part titles
(26) ? Mida VHS version. Same as (24) above, but with portions of the sequestered (9) and/or (10) above illegally reinstated. Unusually, the part titles were retained on this home video. 135min overspeeded to 130min including part titles
(27) ? Twentieth-Anniversary “Digitally Remastered & Fully Resorted” version. Same as (7) above, but printed from inferior materials, and with the mono of the original release synthesized to Dolby 5.1. The line “Not enjoying the emperor’s games?” became almost inaudible. Guccione’s promise to restore about 12 minutes of previously unseen material could not be fulfilled, as the negatives had been destroyed and the soundtrack had never been prepared. Released in the US in September 1999. 14,029'+07fr = 155min52sec
(28) Marc Kermode FilmFour version. Same as (7) above, but with overscanning to remove objectionable images, and with the hardcore footage deleted as well as some softer material. The result exists only on video, and was first screened on cable television at the end of October 1999. 142min overspeeded to 137min
(29) ? “Rated Version,” released on DVD in November 1999 and transmitted by Cinemax beginning in February 2000. Same as (7) above, with cuts approximating (20) above, but without any replacement footage. Exists only on video. Later released under the erroneous appellation “Theatrical Version” for the UK Imperial Edition in September 2008. 102min
(30) Nathaniel Thompson “Pre-Release” version. This began as a restoration of (6) above. Once the restoration was largely complete, an attempt was made to correct a few of the mistakes that had been present in all previous release versions, and a further attempt was made to delete Guccione/Lui’s footage wherever identifiable, some of which was replaced by previously unseen footage. Because much of the sound was degraded or missing, it was largely jettisoned and the image was synchronized with the mag master of (7) above as best as could be done. The mag master of (7) was two-channel in reels 1–14 and single-channel in reels 15–16. The result exists only on video, and was released on DVD in October 2007 and, with a few further corrections and additions, on Blu-Ray in November 2008. Some additional materials that could not be reinstated into the movie in time for the deadline were included as supplements. 153min

WHO KILLED CALIGULA?

In June or July 2009 or thereabouts, I learned about this new HiDef 3D feature project, but I was sworn to secrecy. Now that the secret is out, there’s no longer any reason for me to keep it a secret: Who Killed Caligula? (Chi ha ucciso Caligola?) What this will be, I don’t know. A remake? A revision? A farce? A Javanese Wayang shadow-puppet play? I don’t know. But I’m looking forward to it, whatever it turns out to be. If it turns out to be.... Tragically, Tinto suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in April 2010, prior to production. He’s one of the luckiest ones, and after a one-week hospital stay he was back at home and on the mend. So a full recovery is likely. But will he continue working? Let us hope so.

The Roman emperor Caligula, who is exposed to continuous conspiracies, is no longer safe even in his palace, and as humiliating as it may seem, he is forced to go to a luxurious brothel to satisfy his sexual appetite. Nevertheless, it is there where he loses his life to an absurd accident; however his right-hand man, Timocle, devises a plan to try to make his undignified death more respectful. Timocle will be supported by Messalina. They devised a plan that was used long before their time. The plan has a name, Caligula’s double “Asdrubale,” a man currently imprisoned and carefully guarded by the prison guard, Nasone. No one will notice that the emperor is missing; they will take Asdrubale to the palace and a few days later, they will kill him, making it seem like a conspiracy act. Then, they will simply switch the bodies and that’s it, of course... Problem solved. The plan seems very simple, but they need to hurry up: the emperor’s body is starting to rot. However, it will not be easy to hide the manners of “that boorish man” Asdrubale, definitely not fit for an emperor’s role. It will be very hard to continue to make everyone believe that such man can pass for the emperor. Servants, soldiers... everybody is just watching their master’s behaviour; especially the slaves. All of a sudden the emperor has become a very passionate man! A real sex machine. Of course, when Messalina discovers all that intense pleasure that foolish man can give her, she starts to change her mind about killing him: she wants him all for herself. There is no way she’ll let him die. At this point, time is running out; Timocle is fighting against time and he plans a conspiracy with some senators so that once the emperor is dead, he can rely on them for a favour. The “X” day has been set; what’s going to happen? The “X” day is a theatrical act where Caligula normally enjoyed participating as an actor. This is what’s going to happen, despite Timocle’s and Messalina’s interests being opposed, everyone will be pleased at the end. The emperor will be stabbed during the act. Does this mean that Messalina has lost the battle? Certainly not; she never loses: she is actually the one to give an original twist, because the actual person to die will be the horrible prison guard, Nasone; and this is how Messalina will keep Asdrubale for perpetual indulgence.

That plot summary sounds as lousy as any of those miserable 1970s sex comedies. But what can we discern from a plot summary? I’m sure Tinto had some delicious tricks up his sleeve, but...

In August 2010 Tinto had a change of heart. His traumatic illness forced him to rethink things, and he no longer wants to make sex-obsessed movies. He wishes to return to his roots with low-budget films of quality. Rather than do a 3D movie on Caligula, he now prefers to do one on Messalina, in the hopes of rehabilitating her reputation. More immediately, he wishes to make Vertigini, a story of a desperately ill man in his seventies who asks his daughter to assist with his suicide. You can read the full story in Corriere del Veneto of 30 August 2010. I thank Marco Fornier for sending me that link. But after that interview, the record goes silent.


HELP? We’ve been having TREMENDOUS trouble translating the legal documents. So I put together a table of some terms we keep running across, terms that are not found in the dictionaries. If any of these definitions are wrong, please let me know. Thanks!!!

ITALIAN
articolata provata formal interrogatories
associante directing party
associato contributing party
attore e convenuto plaintiff and defendant
bis reprise
C.C.I.A.A. Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato ed Agricoltura = Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture
c.m. corrente mese = current month
Codice fiscale Tax ID
comparente appearing in court
contradittorio cross-examination
c.p.c. codice di procedura civile = Civil Procedural Code
c.p.p. codice processuale penale = Penal Procedural Code
cpv capoverso = paragraph
c.s. come sopra = as above
dedotta brought into the court / brought into justice / made a case of
D.M. Decreto Ministeriale = Ministerial Decree
DPR Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica = Decree of the President of the Republic
G.I. Giudice Istruttoria = Investigating Magistrate
Giudice Rel. Giudice Relatore = Reporting Judge
IVA Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto = Value-Added Tax = VAT
la diffidente the litigant / the complainant
n.d.e. nota del editore / nota del escrivente = [in English we just use square brackets]
norma valutaria currency-exchange regulation
p.c. per conoscenza = carbon copy
P.I. Partita IVA = VAT Number
P.le Piazzale = Plaza
P.M. Pubblico Ministero = Public Ministry
P.Q.M. Per Questi Motivi = For these reasons
Procuratore Generale Procuratore Generale [alle liti] = Attorney [vested with general powers for legal proceedings]
(Procuratore Generale literally means Attorney General, but that’s not how it’s used in any of these documents)
p.v. prossima ventura = next venture
rapporto dedotto in giudizio report submitted as a pleading in the case
R.G. Registro Generale = Docket Number
riconvenzionale cross-claim
S.A.C.C. Sezione Autonoma per il Credito Cinematografico = Autonomous Section for Cinematographic Credit
S.p.A. Società per Azioni = Joint-Stock Company = JSC
S.r.l. Società a responsabilità limitata = Limited-Liability Company = LLC
S.V. Signoria Vostra = Your Honor
se ne strafrega strafregarsene = emphatic of fregarsene = laugh at / despise / care / does not care
(Chi se ne strafrega? = Who cares?; but: Me ne strafrego = I don’t care)
u.s. ultimo scorso = past [as in the week past, the month past, etc]
utile profit
Visto per il deposito tardivo Viewed for late filing
V° per autentica Visto per autentica = Confirmed as a true copy
VS/ DARE AMOUNT DUE
FRENCH
Aff. Affaire = Case
a forfait lump sum / flat rate
assigner au fond to summon for a substantive examination
C/ contre = versus = v
code affaire case reference
délais d’appel time for appeal [literally, call time]
NCPC Nouveau Code de Procédure Civile = New Civil-Procedure Code
P.J. Pièce Joint = Enclosure; Pièces Joints = Enclosures
SACEM Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique = Society of Music Authors, Composers and Publishers
saisie conservatoire interim seizure
S.C.P. Société Civile Professionnelle = Professional Civil Partnership
Société Anonyme Limited Company
Ste. Société = company
LATIN
ad usum delphini for the use of the Dauphin
(today, this expression is used in a pejorative way to indicate a work expurgated in order to be put into all hands)
cessio legis legal assignment
de quo above-mentioned (literally = about that)
ex tunc from the outset
fumus boni iuris smoke of a good right = presumption of sufficient legal basis
hinc et inde from both sides
in re in the matter of
per tabulas in forza degli atti scritti = based on the documents provided
ratio the reason
ratione loci because of the place involved
Salvis iuribus Without prejudice (without dismissing, damaging, or otherwise affecting a legal interest or demand)