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Faith against the godlessness of Communism” (Wyke, 28). In Quo Vadis
and The Robe, and later in Ben-Hur, the Hollywood film industry was
eager to demonstrate its commitment to the rhetoric and ideology of the
Cold War being waged by the United States against the Communists, by
portraying the clash between repressive Roman rule and the Jewish or
Christian struggle for personal religious freedom: it is not by accident the
costume designers accentuated the color red in the Roman uniforms. When
Frank Ross, the producer of The Robe, bought the rights to Douglas’ novel
during World War II in the 1940s, he wanted his film to depict “a conflict
between Roman decadence and Christian purity [that] would present a
parallel with the persecutions currently being instigated by Hitler and
Mussolini” (Wyke, 28–9). But by 1953, the year of its release, The Robe
would resonate with a viewing public already on high alert to the struggle
of American democracy and faith against the evil Soviet Antichrist, and
the film would simultaneously put forward a comforting and patriotic
analogy about the eventual victors in the Cold War.
Yet, just as Quo Vadis did two years before, The Robe also hints at the
subtle correspondence between the restraints exercised by the Roman
Empire upon individual liberties and those perpetrated by the United
States upon its own citizens. When Tiberius sends Marcellus back to Palestine
to investigate the Christian conspiracy and compile a list of names
of anti-Roman dissidents, the emperor replicates the demands of Senator
Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC),
established in 1947 and again in 1951, to root out subversive elements in
the Hollywood film industry (Babington and Evans, 210–13). During the
hearings, HUAC summoned before it many artists and writers working
in the movie business, and ordered them to “name names,” to divulge the
identities of associates and friends affiliated with the Communist Party.
The nervous authoritarianism apparent in McCarthy’s notorious question,
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist
Party?” is echoed in Tiberius’ sinister command:
Tribune Gallio, I give you an imperial commission. For yourself, find this
robe and destroy it. For Rome, seek out the followers of this dead magician.
I want names, Tribune, names of all the disciples, of every man and woman
who subscribe to this treason. Names, Tribune, all of them, no matter how
much it costs or how long it takes. You will report directly to me.
After Marcellus is imprisoned for being a Christian, Diana begs him to
state his allegiance to Caligula to save himself, perhaps an allusion to those
THE ROBE (1953) 55