Cleopatra USA, 1963 Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz    Epic film about the historical and poetical drama of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt who wants to stabilize her power by using the tensions in the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar falls in love with her and helps her keep her throne. After Caesar's death she chooses for Marc Anthony, but thus gets caught in his power struggle with Octavianus (Augustus). In the end they lose all. The film is infamous for almost bankrupting film studio 20th Century Fox. It was made at a cost of $44 million, an impossibly extravagant figure for that time. This was partly due to the fact that the film's elaborate, complicated sets, costumes and props had to be constructed twice, once during a botched shoot in London and once more when the production relocated to Rome.