Androcles and the Lion( 1952)

TV-MAComedy

58%

User
Score

SPECTACLE, ROMANCE, COMEDY!...as only Shaw could write it and the screen show it!

Overview

George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

Top Billed Cast

Victor Mature
Captain
Jean Simmons
Lavinina
Alan Young
Androcles
Robert Newton
Ferrovius
Maurice Evans
Caesar
Elsa Lanchester
Megaera
Reginald Gardiner
Lentulus
Gene Lockhart
Menagerie Keeper
Alan Mowbray
Editor of Gladiators
Noel Willman
Spintho
John Hoyt
Cato
Jim Backus
Centurion
Lowell Gilmore
Metellus
Woody Strode
The Lion
Strother Martin
Soldier (uncredited)
Millard Sherwood
Christian (uncredited)

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Review 1Discussion

A review by CinemaSerf

Written by CinemaSerf on Thu Aug 10 2023

I think Charles Erskine has done pretty well with this entertaining adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw comedy. Escaping from his overbearing wife "Magaera" (Elsa Lanchester), "Androcles" (Alan Young) discovers a lion in the wilderness with a thorn in it's paw. Despite being petrified, he removes the offending pain and the lion escapes. Shortly afterwards, he finds himself a prisoner of the Romans under the command of Victor Mature. He is rounding up Christians for the Emperor's grand circus and has already recruited "Lavinia" (Jean Simmons) and will soon add the ferocious "Ferrovius" (Robert...