A Real Gladiator Never Says I’m Sorry

The opening narration of 1960’s Spartacus refers to the Christian faith overthrowing the pagan “tyranny” of Rome, implying that all that was wrong with ancient Roman society was due to paganism. Except as the narrator makes clear a moment later, slavery wasn’t abolished for another 2,000 years. That’s right, Christianity did nothing to abolish slavery; when … Continue reading A Real Gladiator Never Says I’m Sorry

Snails and Oysters

With the movie version of Spartacus Kirk Douglas famously broke the blacklist by openly putting Dalton Trumbo’s name on the picture as the screenwriter, but right wing anti-Communist creeps like Hedda Hopper weren’t the only problems that the movie faced. The time was 1960, and the Catholic Church and other religious groups as well as the … Continue reading Snails and Oysters

Boys’ Night Out

With a cast that includes Kim Novak, Jim Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris, William Bendix, Jim Backus, Patti Page, and Jessie Royce Landis (not to mention Fred Clark and Larry Keating, both of whom had played the Burns and Allen neighbor Harry Morton), Boys’ Night Out starts with lots of comic star power in … Continue reading Boys’ Night Out