The Robe News

No, I don't mean Mel Brooks's Robin Hood and his very merry band of merry men in tight! tights, some of whom are now major studio executives.

From left are actors Victor Mature, Richard Burton and Michael Rennie in a scene from "The Robe" in this April 1953 photo.

" The Robe " was the first feature film to be released in Cinemscope. The 1953 film has been restored for this DVD release.

'Where are we, Auntie Em?' That was the question from a puzzled friend as we exited the Avalon Theater in downtown Grand Junction Saturday night after the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

Back in the day, Catholic-school kids spent a few hours every Easter season watching The Robe projected on a sheet hung on the back wall of a classroom.

Once upon a time, Hollywood cared about the persecution of early Christians -- or maybe it was just that studio chiefs then knew there were audiences waiting for historic spectacles of tyranny and redemption.

This is a curious specimen: In many ways it's a typical Hollywood religious epic - with stiff acting, stilted dialogue and stodgy direction - but it's strangely moving.

The first film to be released in CinemaScope, Henry Koster's 1953 "The Robe" forever altered the way movies looked.

In the early 1950s movies were in a position much like network television today.

If you're a film nerd, you know the answer: The first film to be released in cinemascope.

Elegy, new to DVD this week, is a thoughtful adult film about human emotions. By that, I mean it is introspective and moves slowly, which signals that impatient viewers may find it boring.

Within the vacuous walls of this sanctimonious, self-righteous abode are enough high-minded false prophecies to make even the most dedicated Messiah balk.

DVD Talk Collector Series To say that from a technical standpoint The Robe was the most influential movie since The Jazz Singer revolutionized sound would not be unreasonable.

The Lord moving in mysterious ways, as they say, the latest could-be-controversial restoration of a big deal classic film -- in the wake of The French Connection and Pinocchio -- is now with us, and it has a distinctly religious theme.

Biblical epics abounded in Hollywood during the mid 20th century, but none had the impact on film history like the 1953 classic "The Robe" starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons.

And speaking as we were yesterday of the possibly controversial restored version of the 1953 Romans versus Christians epic The Robe , I'd be remiss if I didn't put in a good word about its as yet unrestored and in many ways more entertaining sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators , originally released in 1954.

Heads up, conservative film fans: Today sees the Blu-Ray debut of two of the all-time great Christian movies, Quo Vadis and The Robe .

A pair of biblical-inspired epics - "Quo Vadis" and "The Robe" - lead this week's release of Blu-ray titles.

CINEMASCOPE, which offered movies nearly three times as wide as they were high, was one of the more successful gimmicks Hollywood introduced in the early '50s to compete with TV.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is releasing a blu-ray version of the very first film ever released in CinemaScope: The Robe .