The film Cleopatra is another proof that the kinema may accomplish some of the effects of authentic dramatic art if it will only select its subjects judiciously.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2021

Scenery and costumes no more constitute a dramatic masterpiece in the movies than they do in the theater. There must be an architecture in the plot, a scientific employment of the stresses and strains of motives.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

[Cleopatra presents] half a dozen of the most artistically beautiful scenes that have ever been photographed.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

The battle scene was so well handled as to merit special praise. Even the Sphinx looked on with wondering eyes.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

Especially effective are the desert scenes... There are furious races across the desert sands, by way of contrast a furious sea battle, and the struggle raging in the city of Alexandria between the armies of Cleopatra and of Octavius Caesar.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

Without question, the film should prove Miss Bara's crowning success... Cleopatra deserves to rank with the few truly great pictures. Historic facts have been followed closely, even when it demanded [the] reproduction of ancient cities and palaces.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

The movement of the play is stately, for it has to do with kings arid queens and mighty warriors, and its settings are in accord with its theme that of the love of Cleopatra for Mark Antony, and the overwhelming disasters to two kingdoms that followed.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2021

As the Siren, Miss Bara makes the most of her opportunity. Her wonderful consumes are an imposing feature, albeit a bit scanty it would seem, to have required the services of ten seamstresses, as claimed by the producers.

Full Review | Sep 4, 2020

[Bara] contributes a thoroughly successful portrait of "the serpent of the Nile, the siren of the ages, and the eternal feminine," in the words of the screen, and thus does the ill-starred Queen of Egypt become the well-starred queen of movies.

Full Review | Dec 12, 2019