The Cleopatra Costume on Stage and in Film (Part 5) by C. David Claudon, copyright 1999

The notoriety and expense of the filming of the Taylor-Burton "Cleopatra" made Elizabeth Taylor perhaps the most known Cleopatra of the modern age

The Cleopatra Costume in the Twentieth Century (1950 to 1990) 1951...Caesar and Cleopatra/Antony and Cleopatra		In 1951, presenting the Shaw and Shakespeare plays in London, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh brought them to New York. Designer Audrey Cruddas, therefore, designed costumes for both the "kitten" and the "siren." Young Cleopatra's costume consisted of a chemise gown with Greek designs. She also wears a small collar. For the coronation scene, and later the masoleum scene, Cleopatra's costume consists of an elaborate gold "feather" cloak. On her head she wears a stylized vulture crown. This costume of the most create Cleopatra costumes. For the mature Cleopatra, Miss Leigh wears a cloak which is made to suggest hanging-sleeves. The border on the sleeves and the front are trimmed with gold feathers, cloth, and red stones. Her crown is a band with a uraeus and side flaps. Around her neck she wears several necklaces. The costume suggests Persian influences rather than Egyptian. Another costume shows Cleopatra wearing a gold gown, similar to the earlier one and a cloak and collar. The cloak is embroidered with gold.
1953...Serpent of the Nile		S. Scheuer (1981) says of the film: Serpent of the Nile (1953)** Rhonda Fleming, Raymond Burr, William Lundigan. Foolish drama about the Roman Empire in the days of Cleopatra (Rhonda Fleming) and Mark Antony (Raymond Burr) and their eventual suicides. Rhonda looks ravishing. (Dir: William Castle, 81 minutes) (p. 588) Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra appears more 1950's country club socialite than Queen of the Nile. She wears a gown with a tight strapless bodice and a long slit skirt. The gown is in a dark color with gold chevron and lotus motifs. She lacks any jewelry except for the headdress with headband, side panels, disk, and raised uraeus. Everything about the final appearance is contemporary.
1953...Antony and Cleopatra		In the winter of 1953, Michael Redgrave and Peggy Ashcraft starred in Shakespeare's play. The costumes were designed by Motley. The costume worn by Miss Ashcraft suggests the Roman-Egyptian period, but the designer has concentrated on full gowns of voluptuous materials. The low-necked gown has long sleeves and a cloak. The headdress is purely fanciful.
1953...Antony and Cleopatra		During the same year, Yvonne Coulette also enacted the role of Cleopatra. Her costume suggests an Egyptian gown with pleated skirt. On her head she wears a crown of uraei.
1957...Antony and Cleopatra The lobster queen		The costumes worn by Margaret Whiting are described by Mary Clarke (1957): [In the first scene] Cleopatra wore a cherry-red gown with golden ornaments in her hair. [In the last scene], like her women, she wore solem black but she kept with her the great scarlet cloak of her Antony and fondled this as she spoke of him. . . .(no page numbers given) On the whole, however, Clarke felt the costumes were "unfortunate and unsuitable. . . . Pleated chiffon gowns created a very different vision from the general notion of Egypt's royal queen." (no pages given) One can understand the costumer's failure by merely looking at her in her crown and robe. She looks more like a queen of the lobsters with the fan-like headdress.
1957...The Story of Mankind "Men and their women from the beginning of creation! Never so vast an undertaking!" (Halliwell quoting publicity for the movie, p. 965)		Virginia Mayo played Cleopatra in Irwin Allen's Warner Bros. film, The Story of Mankind. Halliwell (1989) writes: A heavenly tribunal debates whether to allow man to destroy himself, and both the Devil and the Spirit of Man cite instances from history. Hilarious charade, one of the worst films ever made, but full of surprises, bad performances, and a wide range of stock shots. ... 'A poor excuse to use a batch of available actors in some of the weirdest casting ever committed.'--Newsweek The cast included people like Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Cedric Hardwicke, the Marx Brothers, Hedy Lamarr, and Agnes Moorehead, among others.
1960...Antony and Cleopatra		From June to September, 1960, Katherine Hepburn and Robert Ryan starred in the American Shakespeare Festival production of Antony and Cleopatra. The highly imaginative designs were by Rouben Ter-Arutunian. In one of the scenes, Miss Hepburn wears a light colored gown and chiffon cloak. Her headdress is theatrical, an elaborate circlet at the back of the head with a tight wire cap and five strands of beads around her chin and neck. In another scene, Hepburn has put a "cloak of beads" (?gold of various shapes from round to egg shape) over a gown and chiffon cloak. Her headdress combines the horns and moon with a headdress which consisting of abstract lotus flowers at top and two side panels. Draped from the headdress to under her chin are several strings of beads. She also wears arm bracelets. In another picture she wears what appear to be a sleeveless costume with Oriental pants. For the mausoleum scene, she wears a hooded cloak of black. Ter-Artutunian's costumes are basically threatrical, but the stylized Egyptian motifs place the play with a fantasy Egyptian framework.
1962...A Queen for Caesar: Cleopatra		Originally titled, Una Reina para Cesar: Cleopatra, according to the poster, the film starred Pascale Petit, Gordon Scott, and Akim Tamiroff. The film listing by S. Scheuer in Movies on TV, the 1982-1983 edition (1981) says: Queen for Caesar, A (France, 1962)**1/2... Another Cleopatra tale as the beauteous princess challenges her borther to the throne. The alluring Miss Petit and some good production values rate this historical drama slightly better than the usual. Dubbed in English. (Dir: Victor Tourjansky, 95 mins.)(p. 540) As can be seen in the poster, Miss Petit wears a white tightly draped gown, elaborate gold and red and blue jeweled collar. Her crown appears to be the double crown (usually in red and white, but here done in blue and white) with uraeus. The crown is edged in gold trim. (The top of the crown is a speculation since I have not seen the movie.)
1963..."Cleopatra" This gown became one used for the cover of the souvenir book sold when the movie played.		In 1963, Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most beautiful women of her generation, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison starred in perhaps the most well-known and expensive version of Cleopatra's story. The 20th Century Fox film took six years and approximately $37 million to make. At four-hours in length, the production was notorious because of the personal life of its co-stars, a false start in England, and the massive costs of the film, finally filmed in Italy. S. Scheuer (1981) says of it: Cleopatra (1963)***... As a spectacle, this elaborate production has few equals, but much of it is lost on the TV screen. As historical drama it leaves something to be desired. The acting ranges from brilliant (Harrison as Caesar) to uneven (Taylor as Cleopatra, and Burton as Antony). Overlong, but most viewers will stay to the end. Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz came in after Rouben Mamoulian left and revamped the project in his inimitable way in very little time. (p. 124) Miss Taylor's final costumes, some forty in all, were designed by Irene Sharaff. Since the costumes were basically modified contemporary gowns, the attempt to achieve historical accuracy was often unsuccessful. The gown worn by Miss Taylor for the Tarsus banquet scene was a white pleated chiffon dress with tight V-neck bodice cut to emphasize her cleavage, and a full skirt. Over the dress is a glass-beaded cloak. She wears a coin collar with "diamond" trim. Her hairstyle, with a sun hair ornament, is primarily contemporary, and only vaguely suggests the elaborate styles of the late Graeco-Roman period. For the coronation scene at left, Miss Taylor wears the double crown of Egypt. In another scene on the throne, she wears a blue gown with gold embroidered diamonds. The bodice is tight and V-necked and has long sleeves. She wears a "grasshopper necklace" and has a emerald green braided wig and blue uraei crown similar to that worn by Vivien Leigh in the Shaw film. She carries the crook and flail. Only the accessories, however, really suggest period.
The zippered closure front was a jarring anachronism of the costume.		The Isis costume, used for the entry into Rome and the mausoleum, is probably the most successfully accurate dress, despite the zipper closing. Reminiscent of the "feather" costume worn by Vivien Leigh, the costume of gold lame, suggests the feathers of the protective goddess found protecting the Tutankamon shrine. On her head she wears the Isis crown complete with gold horns, moon, solar uraei, plumes and vulture headdress. At close study, the headdress includes (?) electrum feathers, jewels of pink, blue, and diamond, and (?) electrum uraei with gold sun disks. For a wonderful site showing many of Messel's aborted costumes and those used in the film, see http://pages.xtn.net/~allant/cleocostumes.html.
1965...Carry On Cleo Cleopatra goes burlesque		As part of the popular "Carry On" series of comedies from Great Britain, Carry on Cleo starred Amanda Barrie, Sidney James, and Kenneth Connor. Says Scheuer (1981): Carry on Cleo...**1/2..Corned-up take-off on the Cleopatra legend, with some comics scampering around, like an old blackout skit prolonged. Despite the cruidity, it's reasonably amusing. (Dir: Gerald Thomas, 92 mins.)(p. 106) Miss Barrie wears a revealing outfit of a gold bra, overskirt and lame underskirt. She has a theatrical diadem on her head. The picture at left is based on a publicity still from Hughes-Hallett's book (Fig. 46)
1966...Antony and Cleopatra Chatty Cathy at the Met		To open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, Franco Zeffirelli directed a new opera based on Shakespeare's script with music by Samuel Barber. Playing Cleopatra was Leontyne Price. Said Newsweek(September 26, 1966): Zeffirelli's lavish sets and costumes look like a children's edition of "Quo Vadis" illustrated by a middle-aged Aubery Beardsley. . . . Price's lustrous voice was just right for the vocal demands--such as they were. But Zeffirelli has dressed her like a campy Queen Victoria, and her Cleopatra becomes more Chatty Cathy than serpent of the Nile. (p. 98) Zeffirelli presented the opera in Egyptian Elizabethan costumes, and as has usually been the case, the audience's reaction to Elizabethan Egypt was negative.
		One of the costumes consists of a chiffon farthingale, V-shaped bodice with the suggestion of bared breasts, jewelled collar, and enormous wig. She wears the same costume (which is white with a blue collar) and a pale blue cloak. The headdress in the second picture is different. The weighty costumes look clumsy, heavy and highly theatrical. The costume for the final scene is the most elaborate of Price's attire. She wears a gold lame farthingale, with a dark blue underskirt. The v-shaped bodice covered with stones is made to appear to be open. The rest of the costume appears huge Elizabethan puff sleeves of gold lame with sequins, a heavy jewelled collar, and finally a jewelled and sequined Egyptian klaft.
1975...Antony and Cleopatra		On January 4, 1975, the Royal Shakespeare Company of Great Britian with Janet Suzman and Richard Johnson presented Shakespeare's play on the American ABC Theatre. The costumes for Cleopatra were done to suggest period, but in an impressionistic manner. The first gown was a white gauze caftan with long sleeves and v-neck. Next was an oatmeal v-necked caftan with an orange decorative panel down the front. Embroidery was done down the sides of the sleeves. A black full cloak was worn over a black Empire-waisted gown similar to the tunic with braces. A sari-style gown was in rust-orange. The final costume, complete with gold isis headdress, included a heavy gold braid wig, lapis lazuli necklace, long-sleeve cloak with a lapis blue and red-gold pattern worn over the black dress mentioned earlier.
1977...Caesar and Cleopatra		Elizabeth Ashley starred with Rex Harrison in a play panned by Time(March 7, 1977). Said the reviewer of the play: The scenery and the costumes, which cost $300,000, are a dazzling plus. But the acting is, surprisingly, no more than competent. Elizabeth Ashley is a vital Cleopatra--half alley cat, half Queen--but more Shakespeare's lady of the Nile than Shaw's. One costume shown of Miss Ashley shows tunic with braces with a diamond gold-on-blue dress and wide red-gold bands at the bottom. Her wig is braided and she wears a gold band with a net-like construction at the back. She wears no collar, but has bracelets. During latter part of the twentieth century, Cleopatra was often envisioned as a glamour queen. Historical accuracy might include an oppulence appropriate to ancient Alexandria, but costumes were still locked in the twentieth century.