Best Movies About Cleopatra, Ranked

Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt in the 1st Century BC, has inspired countless creative works, from a Shakespeare play to dozens of Hollywood films. The silent era produced a boom in Cleopatra pictures beginning with 1912 and continuing into 1917, shaping the polished look that endures in popular imagination.

This list focuses on the best of the ‘talkies’ that followed. Mid-century takes vary from the Technicolor adventure Serpent of the Nile (1953), directed by William Castle and starring Rhonda Fleming and Raymond Burr, to the Italian comedy Two Nights with Cleopatra (1954), which casts Sophia Loren in dual roles as the scheming queen and her lookalike.

Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), with Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains, offered lavish Technicolor production values, while Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra (1934) featured Claudette Colbert and won an Oscar for cinematography.

Egypt

cleopatra, silent era, talkies, technicolor, hollywood films, shakespeare, vivien leigh, sophia loren, claudette colbert, william castle