A Roman tribune (Richard Burton) and his slave (Victor Mature) run afoul of the emperor (Michael Rennie) and are sent to the province of Jerusalem to put down a slave uprising. After crucifying the leader, the tribune experiences untold amounts of guilt, leading him to believe the dead man's robe had been cursed and the only way to save his deteriorating mental health is to find his former slave and burn the robe.
Honestly, this is one of the worst movies about the Passion I've ever seen. Burton is playing a drunken sot and looks like he leaned too hard into method acting for it, he has no chemistry with lead actress Jean Simmons, the dialogue is wooden, costumes are generic, action scenes are laughably bad, and the whole thing is almost two and a half hours long when 90 minutes might have been a generous amount of time. Mature is the only actor treating it seriously and Rennie is the only one having fun with it.
I thought the timeline was off since I've never heard Caligula mentioned in the same breath as Jesus but it's plausible Burton's tribune spent four years combing the desert for Mature. Still feels weird, though.
It's streaming on the Criterion Channel though only God knows why.
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