Cleopatra (Five Star Collection) (1963)

Cleopatra‘s handsome three-disc set spreads the restored four-hour print of the movie across two discs. The anamorphic widescreen print looks quite magnificent and Alex North’s wondrous score comes up like new in Dolby 5.1 sound. There’s a patchy and only intermittently revealing commentary track from Chris Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz, Martin Landau, and Jack Brodsky. Much better is the comprehensive two-hour documentary that occupies disc 3, which tells in hair-raising detail the extraordinary story of a film production that became totally out of control. This is accompanied by some short archival material, but the documentary alone is a compelling reason to acquire this set.

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown, Roddy McDowall, George Cole, Martin Landau

192 minutes, widescreen, 1963