Wilson Barrett, b. 1846, was an actor, a manager, and a playwright. He played Hamlet and other Shakespearean roles, but his most famous role was in a melodrama he wrote called The Sign of the Cross. In this very popular drama, Barrett played Marius Superbus, a Roman prefect, who attempts to seduce a young Christian maiden named Mercia. As the play ends, Mercia is condemned to be eaten by the lions; however, Marius is so impressed by her faith that he joins her in the arena and dies with her. Audiences in 1896 and thereafter loved the play. In fact, it was so popular that Cecil B. DeMille made a 1932 movie based on the it. According to reviews I read, the movie was an extravagant epic filled with blood, gore, violence and sexually provocative scenes of all kinds. The scene everyone mentions in telling about this film involves Claudette Colbert as Nero’s wife, Poppaea, taking a bath in milk, but that was by no means the most vivid depiction of evil in this film. By the way, I’m not recommending the movie. It sounds to me as if the original play was melodramatic and contrived, and the movie just went beyond all bounds. One reviewer said this movie could only have been made by DeMille before the Hollywood Production Code came into effect in 1934.

My point: We think movies are bad now, but sin has always been sin. And some movie makers, as well as some writers and other artists, will always push the limits of what is acceptable if they think they can get away with it. And even those who mean well (possibly Barrett?) can write and produce some poor stuff for mass consumption. Witness the “Left Behind” phenomenon.