Caligula
1979, NR, 156 min.
Directed by Tinto Brass, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, John Gielgud, Malcolm McDowell.

Not reviewed at press time. This infamous 1980 mix of “historic” porn and gruesome disembowelings comes to theatres as an uncensored 20th-anniversary director’s cut, overflowing with Penthouse pets and the forever-lost youth of a now much-aged cast. Lavishly produced by Bob Guccione, this hardcore porn movie was critically reviled at the time of its original release, thus the current distributors were understandably reluctant to advance-screen this one for the press. Either that or John Gielgud knows the monarchy would strip him of his knighthood if this embarrassment were to get too big.

This article appears in December 3 • 1999.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.