A few days ago on Good Friday ‘The Robe’ was shown on BBC2 in the UK along with ‘King of Kings’ with Jeffrey Hunter, and so I thought it was appropriate that we should post pictures from the film on this site.

Below:  Victor Mature in a superb piece of acting in the film. My Dad loved this scene and the acting performance of Victor Mature – and so did his co-star Richard Burton who was also full of praise describing Victor as a ‘wonderful man’ after having played opposite him in The Robe

I have said before that producers loved Victor Mature because all the films he appeared in made money – and here is a classic example.

The Robe was the highest grossing film of 1953 – and the next one Demetrius and the Gladiators was 4th biggest of 1954. We must also remember that only a few years before in 1949 he had played Samson in Samson and Delilah which again was the biggest grossing film of that year.

This was a big film – and went equally big at the Box Office.   I remember my Father taking us to see it on the huge Cinemascope Screen – with Stereophonic Sound – and it did not disappoint in any way. Tremendous Film.

Richard Burton spoke very highly of Victor Mature calling him a ‘wonderful man’ – and I have to say that he lifted the acting honours with his convincing performance.

I have read that it was estimated that Victor Mature’s fee for the film would have been 100,000 US Dollars equating to 1.2 million now.

The follow up ‘Demetrius and the Gladiators’ he was estimated to have been paid 80,000 US Dollars and then of course ‘The Egyptian’ came very quickly after these two.