The Roman emperor Caligula (12-41) purportedly killed his grandfather, slept with his sister, made his horse a Senator, and was generally the most decadent of the first twelve Caesars. Gore Vidal’s Caligula seems a fitting first film to be produced by Penthouse Productions, an offshoot of Bob Guccione’s Penthouse magazine. While based on an essay Vidal wrote in the 1950s, it is an original Vidal screenplay. Guccione claimed it would be another Citizen Kane in its impact on the industry. Vidal quipped in the press conference that it was about “your average Roman emperor,” but emphasized that the script focused on the problem of absolute power and the treatment of people as toys. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole, plus a busload of porn stars, the film was an attempt to create the most explicit prestige picture in the history of cinema.

As filming progressed, and Vidal saw what Guccione, director Tinto Brass and lead actor Malcolm McDowell had done to his script, adding extra sex and violence to increase its chances of commercial success, he sued to have his screenwriter credit removed. He called Caligula "easily one of the worst films ever made." Variety described it as “a moral Holocaust,” and Helen Mirren called it “an irresistible mix of art and genitalia.”

Including several minutes of restored footage, “The Ultimate Cut” of 2023 will screen.

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