Unravelling Cleopatra: a production history

Using a wealth of extant and previously unreferenced evidence, this critical history reconstructs, examines, and interrogates Fox’s production of Cleopatra (Mankiewicz, 1963, Fox) from 1958-1966. The absence to date of an objective critical account means that for 60 years Cleopatra has acquired near-mythical status as one of Hollywood’s biggest flops, obscuring its pivotal role in the shift from the classical to the modern Hollywood system, and the impact of that shift upon Cleopatra’s production and subsequent reception. The critical history at the heart of this research considers how key events and decisions informed Cleopatra’s reaction to, and impact on, the economic and ideological shifts changing America’s mainstream film industry as all Hollywood sought to find a new way of working. This study therefore considers a pivotal moment in Hollywood’s conversion from the Classical to the Modern Studio System.