The BBC documentary, The Epic that Never Was, is the absorbing story – told mainly through interviews with participants – of Josef von Sternberg’s I, Claudius, producer Alexander Korda’s 1937 British superproduction, that was abandoned unfinished after several weeks of shooting. We see over 20 minutes of rushes that Sternberg himself had edited into partial scenes, showing a brilliant return (after Crime and Punishment and The King Steps Out) to his signature mise en scène, a film that would have counted among his finest had it been completed. But when leading lady Merle Oberon was in a serious automobile accident, rather than replace his future wife, Korda ended the production. The film is based on Robert Graves’ books about the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius, who rose to power by posing as an idiot. Both the documentary and Sternberg’s memoirs focus on Charles Laughton’s emotional difficulties enacting Claudius. The documentary appears to side against the director’s cold treatment of the actor, whereas Sternberg describes working with Laughton in terms similar to his excursus on bringing a performance out of the masochistic Emil Jannings. The footage we see shows Laughton giving one of the most moving, nuanced performances of his career, brilliantly directed and photographed. Costume designer John Armstrong complained that Sternberg – harking back to Stroheim – broke with historical accuracy when he demanded 60 vestal virgins rather than 6, and as naked as possible.

Janet Bergstrom