Sternberg's Unfinished Masterwork: I Claudius

What we have here are frames from Josef von Sternberg's aborted adaptation of Robert Graves's rather questionable account of the reign of the Emperor Claudius. Whatever the outcome might have been, what he left us is infinitely preferable to the stodgy BBC adaptation, which is unfortunately much better known. The main performers shown in these images are Flora Robson, Emlym Williams, Robert Newton, Charles Laughton, and Merle Oberon. It was nominally due to a car accident which fractured the leg of Miss Oberon (the lover of the film's producer, Alexander Korda) which caused the filming to be canceled irrevocably. The real reasons were never revealed and all the records were destroyed after the insurance money was paid.