Once derided and now celebrated as a fabulously decadent example of cinematic excess, Cleopatra counts as one of the most notorious epic productions in Hollywood history. Brought late to the troubled production after the original director Rouben Mamoulian was fired, Mankiewicz courageously seized the reins of Cleopatra to place an underappreciated personal stamp on the film that would almost destroy his career. Mankiewicz's fascination with the decline of overripe and crumbling empires – be they the Fifties Hollywood of Barefoot Contessa or the corrupt family dynasty of House of Strangers – transforms the sweeping saga of Cleopatra's tempestuous affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony into a dazzling realm of theatrical artifice and intrigue. Elizabeth Taylor is ideally cast as the seductive princess who brought Rome to its knees and whose bewitching powers cast a real-life spell over her co-star Richard Burton, launching the love affair that would anoint Liz and Dick as symbols of hedonistic amour fou. – HG