Jay Robinson

 

Jay Robinson became a big star 70 years ago for chewing scenery in Henry Koster's film adaptation of Lloyd C. Douglas's reverent novel The Robe (1953), which used to get a perennial Eastertide screening on the major networks back in the day.

Robinson played the laureled and effete Roman emperor Caligula. Caligula's reign did indeed track along with early years of the spread of Christianity, which at first was believed to be a subset of the Jewish religion. 

In the movie, Caligula has had his eye on the winsome Diana, played by Jean Simmons, but she is betrothed to handsome and gallant Tribune Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton). So there is bitterness there.

Before Caligula assumed the throne, Gallio was in charge of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. He took Jesus' robe, which was left at the foot of the cross, but is at first repelled and sickened by it. However, he is slowly won over to Christianity with guidance from his servant Demetrius (Victor Mature) and the Christian leader Peter (Michael Rennie). Gallio renounces his oath of loyalty to Rome and is brought before Caligula to answer charges of treason.

The last reel of the film is in a way a showdown between the emperor's resplendent brocaded cape and the simple carpenter's robe that Gallio refuses to part with. Unwilling to bow to Caligula, the emperor sentences Gallio to death. Diana joins him on his slow march to the archers and then on to the new kingdom. Caligula's taunts echo in the halls but are gradually drowned out by angelic Hallelujahs.

Everything about the film is stiflingly earnest except Robinson's performance, which is outsized and campy, though not entirely unfitting for the role and the purpose to which Koster puts him. Robinson reprised the role in the sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and went on to become one of the most familiar faces and voices among Hollywood character actors for many years.

Jay Robinson died in 2013 at age 83.