He Is Spartacus

Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles will host a special screening Friday, April 29, of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, as part of the annual TCM Classic Film Festival—and the mighty gladiator himself will be there. Kirk Douglas, who at ninety-four is one of the great surviving legends of Hollywood’s golden age, is scheduled to be on hand to spin tales of the epic production, which also starred titans Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, and Peter Ustinov. To promote the event, the Los Angeles Times has published a new interview with Douglas, in which the actor talks about his insistence that Spartacus’s blacklisted screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, get credit; his discovery of Kubrick after seeing the neophyte director’s The Killing and his love for Paths of Glory; and his hand in bringing Kubrick to Spartacus after the studio hired Anthony Mann.