How the film "Spartacus" (1960) was filmed: footage from filming and 22 interesting facts about the film (22 photos)

The film "Spartacus" (1960) with Kirk Douglas in the title role left few people indifferent.





1. It all started when Kirk Douglas learned about the filming of the big-budget film "Ben Hur", in which he certainly decided to star. But the filmmakers refused the actor the leading role, offering him the role of a minor character.

But Douglas was not satisfied with the minor role, so he decided to make his own film with his beloved one in the leading role. As a result, Douglas chose the film adaptation of Howard Fast's book "Spartacus". He bought the film rights and also hired Howard Fast as a screenwriter to adapt the book into a film.



2. Despite the fact that the author of the book, Howard Fast, was involved in the adaptation, his script turned out to be simply terrible. Kirk Douglas even had to invite another screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo. However, there was one small problem. Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted from Hollywood because of his communist beliefs.





Dalton Trumbo (writer)

Of course, this did not mean at all that no one worked with people from the blacklist. It’s just that producers usually registered such people under other names. And the work of blacklisted screenwriters was much cheaper for producers because of their status.

But as for Dalton Trumbo, Kirk Douglas paid him the full fee that legitimate screenwriters received. Moreover, Trumbo was credited under his own name rather than his fictitious one, even though studio bosses feared the film might suffer because of it.

Director Standy Kubrick even offered to write himself as a screenwriter, but Kirk Douglas considered this an insult and abandoned the idea.

3. The next stage was to find a studio that would produce the film. And then new problems began. Kirk Douglas began negotiations with United Artists, but the studio bosses said that they had already announced the film "Gladiators", which will be on approximately the same topic.



Upon learning of this, Kirk Douglas began hastily looking for another studio in order to begin filming as soon as possible and release his film before Gladiators.

As a result, the famous studio "Universal" gave the go-ahead to shoot the film "Spartacus" under its wing, but with one condition - the director would have to be Anthony Mann, who specialized in Westerns.

Douglas did not like this idea, but he agreed because he wanted to start filming as soon as possible.

And about 2 weeks after the start of filming, Kirk Douglas fired Anthony Mann as director, offering double the fee to the young director, Stanley Kubrick. Having learned about the fee he would be paid, Kubrick agreed, practically without reading the script.



Stanley Kubrick

The only condition that Kirk Douglas set was that Stanley Kubrick had no right to change the concept of the film or make changes to the script without his consent.

4. Despite the fact that Kirk Douglas defended screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, he still tried not to advertise it. Therefore, even during filming, Trumbo was secretly brought to the set, where he continued to work on script edits.



But despite the fact that they tried to keep it all a secret, everyone knew perfectly well that a blacklisted screenwriter was working on the set of the film.

5. When selecting actors for the main roles, Michael Douglas was guided by national characteristics. He immediately decided that the slaves would be played by the Americans and the Romans by the British. True, everything did not go quite according to his plan. And of course, he wanted to see well-known actors in his film, whom the audience adored.



6. There were no auditions for the role of Spartacus, since Kirk Douglas immediately decided that he would play the main character.

7. Kirk Douglas wanted to see a foreign actress in the role of Varinia. Therefore, he decided to offer this role to the French actress Jeanne Moreau. But she was unable to take part in the filming.

Then Kirk called the German actress Sabine Bethmann, and she agreed to take part in the filming.



But Kubrick didn’t like Bethman. He believed that she was a very mediocre actress, which is why he fired her, despite his limited powers. And for the role of Varinia, Kubrick invited the British actress Jean Simmons, who immediately agreed to this role.

8. A character like Antonin was not in the original script, but actor Tony Curtis literally convinced Kirk Douglas that he simply had to star in this film. That is why a new character was written in the script specifically for Tony Curtis.



9. Laurence Olivier, having read that Roman generals rode horses without a saddle, decided to follow their example. True, due to the lack of a saddle, the poor actor kept falling from his horse with every movement of the animal.



As a result, Stanley Kubrick was so tired of all this “leapfrog” that he ordered the scenes with the horse to be re-shot without the participation of the horse. That is, in the shot when Olivier sits majestically on a horse, the actor was actually standing on the stairs, and the horse was filmed separately from him.

10. Cinematographer Russell Mettey was very unhappy with Stanley Kubrick because he constantly told him how to shoot correctly. He was wildly infuriated that some upstart would teach him how to set up a camera.



But the most interesting thing is that Russell Metty received his first and only Oscar for the film “Spartacus,” and I think, not without the help of Kubrick’s advice.

11. To control the process of filming extras during battle scenes, Kubrick ordered several hundred numbered signs to be made. This way he could give a command to a specific extra to lie down in the correct position or move closer.



12. Stanley Kubrick was so passionate about filming that he always came in the same clothes for a considerable number of days. This eventually began to stress Kirk Douglas out, causing him to tell him to change his clothes.



13. Douglas called the scene on the cross one of the most difficult scenes of the Scream. According to him, it was incredibly difficult. And when he found out that this scene was significantly shortened in editing, Douglas became furious and began yelling at the assistant director, after which he simply fired him.



As it turned out, it was the assistant director who called the crew to lunch while Kirk Douglas hung painfully on the cross. Therefore, the actor and producer simply could not bear the fact that all his suffering on the cross was in vain.

14. By the way, according to Trumbo’s revised script, Spartacus was supposed to go to the cross while already dead. But Kubrick decided that this would be a very bad move. Therefore, he suggested to Kirk Douglas that Spartacus be hanged on a cross alive so that he could see his son.



Douglas liked this move and in the end this scene was filmed that way. True, Trumbo himself was furious that his script was changed on the fly without his knowledge, since in his opinion it was wrong.

15. There were some injuries during filming. During the filming of the scene when Spartacus plunged Marcellus's face into a vat of soup, Kirk Douglas misjudged the force, causing actor Charles McGraw to break his jaw.



But despite the sharp pain from a broken jaw, McGraw did not stop filming, but played the scene to the end so as not to screw up the take.

And during the filming of a fight scene with wooden swords, Kirk Douglas again miscalculated his strength and broke a stuntman’s rib.



16. Despite the fact that filming took place mainly in the United States, some battle scenes were filmed in Europe, namely Spain. Kirk Douglas justified this by the fact that it turned out cheaper.



And by the way, about 8,000 real soldiers of the Spanish army were involved in filming these same battle scenes, who portrayed both gladiators and Roman legionnaires.

17. Because of actress Jean Simmons, filming had to be delayed for a month. She underwent surgery due to gynecological problems. This worried Douglas very much, because he did not want to prolong the filming process by increasing the film's budget.



18. In the fall of 1960, the film “Spartacus” was released on big screens. The film premiered in New York. Representatives of the American Legion organization did not like the fact that the screenwriter of the film was a communist, so they decided to boycott the screening of the film, sending out more than 17 thousand letters and leaflets urging people not to watch the film.



True, this did not help them, especially since US President John Kennedy himself came to watch the film, which had a very positive effect on the film itself. Moreover, after the film was shown, the Hollywood blacklist, which included screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, was eliminated, which Kirk Douglas considered a huge victory.

19. Due to censorship, many scenes were cut or shortened. As I mentioned earlier, a considerable part of the scene with the crucifixion was cut out, because the censors felt that it was impossible to show the torment of the main character for so long.



Also cut from the film were scenes with Jean Simmons naked while swimming, scenes where Gracchus and Caesar visit the slums, and of course the scene of Crassus and Antoninus talking about oysters and snails, which contained LGBT overtones.

20. With a budget of $12 million, the film “Spartacus” grossed $90 million (of which $30 million came from American distribution). It was definitely a success.



Kirk Douglas and Stanley Kubrick

21. After the film's premiere, Kirk Douglas joked that production on Spartacus took longer than the Spartacus uprising itself.

22. The film “Spartacus” received 6 Oscar nominations, but took home 4 statuettes, namely for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Supporting Actor (Peter Ustinov) and Best Production Design.