RSVP : ‘Spartacus’ Gladiators Return to the Arena

In a way, the “reunion reception” Wednesday at the Bistro Garden for the Kirk Douglas-led cast of the 1960 epic “Spartacus” had a theme straight from ancient Rome. It was a circus. A media circus. Le Cirque du Kirk.

Outnumbered two to one by the lions (sound-bite hungry television crews), the gladiators--in this case Douglas, Tony Curtis, Woody Strode, Nina Foch and Joanna Barnes--were thrown before the cameras with only a glib publicist for a shield.

These old pros have been seasoned by a thousand skirmishes with the press. Skillfully, Douglas parried questions with words on how “the film had stood the test of time.” Deftly, Curtis reflected on how “the film touches on all parts of the human condition.” Repetitiously, the TV crews asked the same questions over and over and over.

The impetus for all the hoopla is that the three-hour-plus Stanley Kubrick film is being painstakingly restored by a crew supervised by Jim Katz and Robert Harris. It will be re-released by Universal in late April with a gala premiere benefiting the American Film Institute.

It should be noted that not only was Douglas the film’s star, but his Bryna company produced the film.

When the film was being made, there were numerous stories about conflicts between the stars. Besides the actors at the press conference/reception, the then-31-year-old Kubrick had to contend with the strong wills of Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov, Jean Simmons and Charles Laughton.

“There was a constant struggle for center stage,” said the film’s producer, Eddie Lewis, at the reception. “The actors were all rewriting their scenes. Then privately they’d be high-tailing it up to screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s shack to get (themselves) in more scenes.

“Stanley had no fear in dealing with them. I remember Olivier called me once from the Chateau Marmont. He said, ‘Dear boy, this director of yours has no culture.’ ”

Curtis doesn’t remember Olivier wanting more scenes, but he does recall that he wanted more muscles. “He wanted big arms,” said Curtis. “I said to him, ‘You tell me how to play the scene, I’ll tell you how to pump iron.’ ”

Pump iron? Dear boy, the real job is pumping up the film for re-release.