Quo Vadis (1951 film)

Quo Vadis a Latin phrase meaning Where are you going? is a 1951 American epic film made by MGM in Technicolor. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from the classic novel Quo Vadis 1896 by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The novel had previously been made into an Italian film Quo Vadis 1924. The music score was by Mikls Rzsa and the cinematography by Robert Surtees and William V. Skall. The title refers to an incident in the apocryphal Acts of Peter see Quo vadis?.

The action takes place in ancient Rome from AD 6468, a period after Emperor Claudius illustrious and powerful reign, during which the new corrupt and destructive Emperor Nero ascends to power and eventually threatens to destroy Romes previous peaceful order. The main subject is the conflict between Christianity and the corruption of the Roman Empire, especially in the last period of the JulioClaudian line. The characters and events depicted are a mixture of actual historical figures and situations and fictionalized ones.The film tells the story of a Roman military commander, Marcus Vinicius Robert Taylor, who is also the legate of the XIV Gemina, returning from the wars, who falls in love with a devout Christian, Lygia Deborah Kerr, and slowly becomes intrigued by her religion. Their love story is told against the broader historical background of early Christianity and its persecution by Nero Peter Ustinov. Though she grew up Roman as the adopted daughter of a retired general, Aulus Plautius Felix Aylmer, Lygia is technically a hostage of Rome. Marcus persuades Nero to give her to him for services rendered. Lygia resents this, but still falls in love with Marcus. ........

Source: Wikipedia