American Cinematographer - May 1991 - 39

Spartacus was filmed in Super Technirama 70,
a

recent enhancement of Technirama,

around since 1957 and

itself

which had been

anamorphic
Super Technirama 70 release
prints were on 65mm stock but the negative utilized
35mm film on which the exposed image was printed
horizontally, eight sprockets wide. The projected as¬
pect ratio would measure 2.05 X 1. The enhanced
clarity of the huge image was one advantage of Super
Technirama 70; another was the spectacular six-track
stereophonic sound. Spartacus was only the third fea¬
ture shot in the process, following King Vidor's
Solomon and Sheba (1959) and Walt Disney's Sleeping
Beauty (1959).
Unlike most location-happy epics of the pe¬
riod, Spartacus was filmed almost entirely on the
Universal back lot. Virtually every standing set was
refurbished or razed, including the Ma and Pa Kettle
house, the Phantom Stage, site of the famous Paris
Opera House, and the European street. The transfor¬
mation took about six months of planning and another
was

an

variation on VistaVision.

six months of construction, under the direction of art
director Alex Golitzen. Locations in the San Fernando

Valley and Thousand Oaks, with a few strategically
placed backdrops to mask the freeway traffic in the
distance, stood in for the Italian countryside. "You've
got to rebuild Rome to shoot Roman history," Douglas
said at the time. "Why cross a continent and an ocean
to do that when the finest pool of technicians and talent
in the world is in your own back yard?"
The Spartacus company only went beyond an
easy drive from Universal for a few scenes: Laurence
Olivier's lavish villa was actually Hearst's Castle at San
Simeon; the climactic battle between Spartacus' slave
army and the massed forces of Rome were shot on a
plain near Madrid, Spain; and the opening scenes were
filmed in Death Valley.
Production began on January 27,1959. After
two weeks, Universal told Douglas to drop Mann.
"Then I fought!" says Douglas. "I don't like to change.
Once you're married you try and make the marriage
work." In his heart, however, Douglas believed that
Mann should be removed. Friday, February 13, was
Mann's unlucky day. Douglas fired him and paid him
his full $75,000 fee. The quarry scenes which Mann shot
still open the film. Ironically, Mann would go on to
direct two of the biggest and best-and most intelli¬
gent-of epics: El Cid (1961) and The Fall of the Roman
Empire (1964).
Mann was replaced by Stanley Kubrick, who
had just left Marlon Brando's eccentric Western, One
Eyed Jacks (1961) in the directorial hands of Brando
himself. Kubrick and Douglas' previous collaboration,
Paths of Glory (1957), had been successful, although the
two men did not always see eye to eye. "The kid has a
healthy ego," said Douglas at the time. "He infuriates
you at first, then you settle down and admire him."
Today, Douglas calls Kubrick a "brilliant di¬
rector. In my book I called him a shit, which I think he
is. But he's a very, very talented guy. I divorce one from

May 1991

Left: Laurence
Olivier takes

charge of the
Roman armies.
Camera operator
at right

of the
Super Techni¬

rama

is

70 camera

Harry Wolf,

ASC. Above:
Hearst Castle at
San Simeon
became a
Roman palace

Spartacus.

the other. You don't have to be a nice guy to be a tal¬
ented guy."
If Spartacus is less a "Stanley Kubrick Film"
than Paths of Glory or later masterworks like 2001: A

Space Odyssey, it is because all the aspects of the pro¬
duction were set before he entered the scene. Peter
Ustinov says of Kubrick, "One knew there was con¬
siderable talent there, and perhaps more than that, but
he wasn't allowed to display the creative qualities on
a

big scale that he showed with much smaller films like

The Killing (1955). He was still an employed man."
Kubrick did, however, leave his mark on Spartacus.
His first action was to discharge actress Sabina

Bethmann, saying she "lacked experience." He offered
the role of Varinia to Jean Simmons, who readily ac¬

cepted. "Making a film with Kubrick was very excit¬
ing," Simmons says. "This kind of Biblical thing didn't
seem to be
quite his cup of tea, but I think it turned out

American

Cinematographer

37

in
American Cinematographer - May 1991

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