Sixty years ago, the Hollywood studio system crumbled under the weight of a failed blockbuster – and the Observer’s coverage did not help. On this weekend in 1963, the newspaper ran the second of three special features on the most expensive flop ever made – Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Called “The Ordeal in Rome”, the article even had its own logo, featuring mirror images of Cleopatra’s profile. Now a new book, Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios, explains why the world was so gripped by a doomed attempt to put...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
