Cecil B. DeMille’s THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932) presented by Forbidden Hollywood

Deemed “some of the boldest censor-bait ever attempted in a motion picture,” Cecil B. DeMille’s 1932 comeback after a string of flops finds the director known for his opulent epics working at his most unhinged and horniest. THE SIGN OF THE CROSS tells the story of forbidden love between Roman prefect Marcus Superbus (Fredric March) and Christian woman Mercia (Elissa Landi) during the time when Ancient Rome was ruled over by the mad Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton). Any sanctimonious messaging in DeMille’s adaptation of the play of the same name is overrun by its brash portrait of excess and depravity. Whether it was the queer content—both in regards to Laughton’s portrayal of Nero and the lesbian seduction dance intended to sway the pious Mercia away from her faith—the brutal torture scenes and violent arena climax pitting everything from Amazon warriors to pygmies to an assortment of wild animals against each other (prompting reports of audience members fainting in shock), or the famous scene in which a nude Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) bathes in milk, there was no shortage of sordid content in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS leading to film historian Mark Vieira referring to it as the most “controversial” film of the pre-Code era, and to the creation of the Catholic Legion of Decency that ultimately contributed to its end.

“Cecil B. DeMille’s insanely lavish treatise on the decline and fall of Western Civilization… was made in 1932, shortly before the Production Code fell so heavily on Hollywood, and DeMille seizes the opportunity to indulge the full range of his perversity one last time… Thoroughly mad and immensely enjoyable.” – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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