Androcles and the Lion (1952)

            Few organizations have done more for the preservation of culture while garnering so little attention for their efforts as the Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection has been responsible for making accessible those works of cinema that merit special consideration. Several directors, including Bergman, Godard and Truffaut have been the beneficiaries of this treatment.

            Focusing on the dramatic works of the great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, Criterion has made available the cinematic adaptations of the works of the Hibernian dramatist. One such offering is Androcles and the Lion, released in 1952.

             Shaw's adaptation of the classic fable is often overshadowed by his more celebrated works such as Pygmalion, Arms and the Man, Mrs. Warren's Profession and Major Barbara, but this does not signify that this meditation on Christian values in pre-Constantine Rome is any less worthy.

             Androcles and the Lion is the story of a naïf who is taken for a sorceror by the authorities. Fleeing for his life, the youth is set upon by a rapacious lion. The lion, it is revealed, is in the throes of agony induced by a splinter in his paw. Allowing himself to be healed by the fugitive, the lion desists from what comes naturally to him: preying upon his savior. Arrested shortly thereafter, the fugitive is sentenced to death along with the members of a renegade sect that threatens the cohesiveness of the Empire, in this case the early Christians. Pitted against the lion whose recovery he facilitated, Androcles the accused sorceror and erstwhile veterinarian, is saved as the lion expresses once again a gratitude towards that which he normally views as a source of sustenance.

              The film itself offers us a curious melange of British and American talent. The English-born, Canadian-bred Alan Young conveys well the simplicity of the titular character. Victor Mature is imposing as a Roman captain torn between obligation and love. Adding to the ensemble is Jean Simmons as an ingenue whose attractions help soften the heart of the Roman captain; in addition, Robert Newton conveys both menace and comedy in a deft portrayal of the condemned Christian Ferrovius.

Androcles and the Lion (1952)
Black and white
98 minutes
Directed by Chester Erskine