Androcles and the Lion

“SPECTACLE, ROMANCE, COMEDY!...as only Shaw could write it and the screen show it!”

5.8(15)19521h 38m

Comedy

George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

Director

Chester Erskine

Where to watch

Stream

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Cast

Victor Mature

Captain

Jean Simmons

Lavinina

Alan Young

Androcles

Robert Newton

Ferrovius

Maurice Evans

Caesar

Elsa Lanchester

Megaera

Reginald Gardiner

Lentulus

Gene Lockhart

Menagerie Keeper

Alan Mowbray

Editor of Gladiators

Noel Willman

Spintho

John Hoyt

Cato

Jim Backus

Centurion

Reviews

1 review

Geronimo1967

2y ago

7.0

I think Charles Erskine has done pretty well with this entertaining adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw comedy. Escaping from his overbearing wife "Magaera" (Elsa Lanchester), "Androcles" (Alan Young) discovers a lion in the wilderness with a thorn in it's paw. Despite being petrified, he removes the offending pain and the lion escapes. Shortly afterwards, he finds himself a prisoner of the Roma...