SOURCE: Miller, Anthony. “Julius Caesar in the Cold War: The Houseman-Mankiewicz Film.” Literature/Film Quarterly 28, no. 2 (2000): 95-100.

In the following review, Miller examines the 1953 MGM film adaptation of Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. Miller relates the film to aspects of 1950s American culture and argues that at the time the movie was made the United States had succeeded Rome both as a classical republic and as the center of a worldwide empire.

The MGM film of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (directed by Joseph Mankiewicz) went into preproduction in early 1952, was shot in the second half of 1952, and premiered in May 1953. Its appearance at this date sent out a variety of political and cultural signals. At the height of its postwar power, the U.S.A., with its Virgilian laureate, Hollywood, positioned themselves as inheritors of the Roman imperial function and custodians of the English literary classic. This apparent...