[MrHenryDog]

The Criterion Colloevtion 105

Of all the actors to try their hand at producing, Kirk Douglas may have been the most audacious. Spartacus illustrates his taste for unorthodox material, and the story behind the making of the movie reveals a great deal about Douglas’ feisty, combative spirit. The movie actually came into being because of a part he didn’t get to play. Douglas craved the title role in Ben Hur, but director William Wyler wanted Charlton Heston as the stalwart hero and offered Douglas the choice role of Ben Hur’s enemy, the villainous Messala. Refusing to play second banana, Douglas decided to make his own Roman epic to show up Wyler and company. As he admitted, “that was what spurred me to do it, in a childish way—the ‘I’ll-show-them’ sort of thing.”