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Context Trivia / QuoVadis

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1* CastTheExpert: Ursus was played by Buddy Baer (heavyweight boxer) and RafaƂ Kubacki (Olympic heavyweight [[UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} judoka]]) in the 1951 and 2001 versions respectively.
2* DawsonCasting: Creator/RobertTaylor was forty when he played Vincius, and was only six years younger than the actor playing his uncle Petronius, Leo Genn. Not an improbable age gap, particularly in Imperial Rome, but it still looks odd to modern viewers.
3* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/RobertTaylor's chest reportedly had to be shaved for his part because the studio feared its hairiness might be too "sexy" for a Biblical movie. However, both of Taylor's "beefcake" scenes in the movie still show chest hair.
4* UncreditedRole:
5** Creator/SophiaLoren has an unbilled, but easily spotted, bit part as a slave girl who strews flower petals in the path of Marcus' chariot during the triumphal march. While not her first movie, it was her first American movie, although it was shot in Italy.
6** The narrator is an uncredited Creator/WalterPidgeon.
7* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
8** Henryk Sienkiewicz investigated a possibility to write a sequel, set in the times of Julian the Apostate. However, after doing some research on that period, he scrapped the idea as he figured it would have made the story [[ToneShift a lot muddier]] [[GrayAndGrayMorality in the moral sense]] (ie. no clear dichotomy between Christians and Pagans), and he didn't want to drop that on his readers.
9** Creator/ClarkGable turned down the role of Marcus Vinicius, because he thought the costume would make him look ridiculous.
10** Creator/JanetLeigh was considered for the role of Lygia.
11** Creator/CharlesLaughton and Creator/OrsonWelles were considered for Nero.
12** Creator/FredricMarch and Creator/ClaudeRains were considered for Petronius.
13** Creator/MarleneDietrich was considered for Poppea.
14** Creator/JohnHuston was the original director, under the supervision of Producer Arthur Hornblow, with a cast headed by Creator/GregoryPeck as Marcus and Creator/ElizabethTaylor as Lygia. The studio was dissatisfied with the footage Huston was sending back from Rome, and Louis B. Mayer, an archconservative, unhappy with the script, which used Nero's persecution of the Christians as an allegory for the anti-Communist witch-hunts, to which Hollywood was then being subjected. After a couple of weeks' shooting, Creator/{{MGM}} shut down the production, ordered a new script written, re-cast the movie, and persuaded Creator/MervynLeRoy to assume direction of this movie.
15** Amongst the many actresses who tried out for a role in this movie was a pre-stardom Creator/AudreyHepburn.
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