F amed as one of Hollywood's largest, loveliest follies, Cleopatra continues to frustrate 50 years on.

Clocking in at an eye-wateriღng four hours, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s historical epi🍰c is so busy bombarding us with huge, gilded sets that the plot is left to flounder in soapy melodrama and oddly stilted performances from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; you’d think there’d be more of a spark given the pair began their relationship on-set.

Still, every cent of the colossal $44m budget is up there to see; as a mo💞nument to pre-CGI pageantry, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.