Based on a story that's been filmed many times since, DeMille's picture is an interesting piece of movie-making. Of course the acting is pretty broad, and the production is not all that polished, except for the marble surfaces in Gloria's bathroom, that is. It's probably one of the earlier examples of a film with a flashback to biblical times (like "Noah's Ark" and DeMille's own silent version of "The Ten Commandments"), but surprisingly the flashback -- to ancient Babylon -- isn't that interesting (it's very short, too.) A film to watch once just to satisfy your curiosity.

• Based (but altered considerably) on James Barrie's play, "The Admirable Crichton." The play originally opened in London on 4 November 1902.
• The leopard, which Thomas Meighan is carrying in the movie, was actually a real, living leopard. It had killed a man in a nearby zoo, and was to be put to sleep, but De Mille refused to have it killed. They then drugged the Leopard with chloroform, and let the actor act out a scene, carrying the leopard on his shoulder.
• Paramount Pictures' biggest hit of 1919.