poster

1952

NR (12/01/1952) (US)

Comedy,

1h 38m

58

User Score

SPECTACLE, ROMANCE, COMEDY!...as only Shaw could write it and the screen show it!

Overview

George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

1952

58

User Score

NR (12/01/1952) (US)

Comedy,

1h 38m

SPECTACLE, ROMANCE, COMEDY!...as only Shaw could write it and the screen show it!

Overview

George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

Cast

Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons

Lavinina

Alan Young

Alan Young

Androcles

Robert Newton

Robert Newton

Ferrovius

Gene Lockhart

Gene Lockhart

Menagerie Keeper

Alan Mowbray

Alan Mowbray

Editor of Gladiators

Jim Backus

Jim Backus

Centurion

Woody Strode

Woody Strode

The Lion

Strother Martin

Strother Martin

Soldier (uncredited)

Millard Sherwood

Millard Sherwood

Christian (uncredited)