Tale of ancient Rome during the reign of Nero, in which a Roman military commander falls in love with a devout Christian, resulting in all sorts of complications.
Well-meaning but strident and bloated religious epic in which all the Romans are insufferably awful, and all the Christians are insufferably pious. Taylor is badly miscast; his romantic dialogue is cringeworthy, to say the least, while Kerr is syrupy and insipid. They may ostensibly be the stars, but the film belongs to Ustinov as the petulant brat of an emperor, Genn as his silvetongued syncophantic courtier, and Laffan's slinky Poppaea, who are really the only reason to watch other than the Technicolor spectacle. When the Romans are the best thing about a epic set in the early days of Christianity. . .
