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I'm gathering notes for a Theda Bara novel that takes place during the filming of Cleopatra. Unfortunately, my online sleuthing skills are not all they should be, so I'm hoping one of you kind folks can help.

I'd like to be as true (or as true to a lost movie as you can be) to reality as I can whenever the action is on set. Does anyone know where a copy of the shooting script for Cleopatra might be - if it survives - , or, perhaps, could put me in touch with Philip Dye (whom, I understand, is recreating the film based on the surviving stills)?

Many thanks,
Christopher DiGrazia

When in the late 50s 20th Century Fox president Spyros Skouras ordered the studio's script department to be combed for old material suitable for future (re)productions, someone came up with the old script of the silent Theda Bara film - so the saying goes. (The result was the ill-fated but notoriously underestimated Elizabeth-Taylor-version).

If I remember it well, the inventory of 20th Century Fox' script (or purchased material) holdings was published at some time. (I would have to look it up.) So I would suggest, that you try to get hold of this publication and then contact the Fox people if there is a chance that they still have a script in their vaults.

By the way: Have you ever considered to contact veteran Hollywood director Blake Edwards. It was his grandfather Gordon J, Edwards who directed the Bara-production. Perhaps there are family anecdotes (passed from generation to generation) that he would like to share with you (and eventually us).

Good luck with your project and best wishes from Berlin
Tom

Just in case you would not have found out already: A very short surviving clip of "Cleopatra" was donated by film historian Anthony Slide to the Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.

Cheers
Tom

murnaumagic wrote:Just in case you would not have found out already: A very short surviving clip of "Cleopatra" was donated by film historian Anthony Slide to the Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.

Cheers
Tom

And the clip is included in Hugh Monroe Neely's Theda Bara: The Woman With the Hungry Eyes documentary. It is basically a few seconds of a long-shot of Bara looking sultry and looking at the camera.

I'll remove the logo later.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3769 ... raca00.jpg

The title I had in mind was:

KENT, SIDNEY R., et al. / Catalogue of the Stories and Plays Owned By Fox Film Corporation, Times Mirror Press, 1935