Quo Vadis, Pardner?

Millions of U.S. moviegoers have seen the $6,500,000 epic Quo Vadis. In the 15 months since its release, the Technicolored spectacle of pagan Rome has become the third biggest grosser*--$10,500,000--in movie history.

It was only fitting that MGM's Roman-made picture should play in Rome at advanced prices, for all the city to see and admire. After the pressagents took over, there were a few false starts. The Colosseum was to be used for the premiere, but: "It's too damn cold now to get them sitting out there at night." Also abandoned was a scheme to stage a chariot race along five roads converging on Rome. There were plenty of advertising tie-ins, however. Quo Vadis was linked with shirts, perfume, razor blades, and a contest among 400 hairdressers for the best coiffure inspired by the movie.

Finally, Quo Vadis opened, last week.

Thousands of Romans had worked as extras during the filming in 1950, and although a good many came mainly to see themselves and their friends on the screen ("Look, there's Uncle Giulio!" cried one), most stayed and enjoyed the picture.

Yet, like so many U.S. critics, the Italian reviewers were tough. Wrote Il Messaggero: "Overloaded, slow, cold, sometimes even annoying, without that alacrity, that concentration, that surprise, that stimulus . . ." Giornale d'Italia: "Artificial characters . . . commonplace grandiosity ..." Il Tempo: "[Quo Vadis] leaves the Italian public disturbed and perplexed. We have studied Rome and the Romans in school, and every day along our streets we meet their memories in stone. It cannot give us pleasure to see them camouflaged as clowns, or, to put the best light on it, as cowboys."

*Nos. 1 & 2: Gone With the Wind ($26 million), The Greatest Show on Earth ($12 million).

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