Sign of the Cross was DeMille's first sound spectacle and his return to Lasky, now called Paramount Pictures. It was made in 1932, three years after the great stock market crash, when all the banks were closing. However it managed to be a huge success with people flocking to see it. This film was indeed a melodrama of sex and violence, but with a moralistic tone that showed the triumph of the christian religion in the face of Roman persecution. It contains a famous bathroom scene where Claudette Colbert bathes in asses' milk and we watch kittens lapping at the edge of the pool (see more in my section on bathroom as shrine). While I find it a bit slow moving, the final scenes in the arena are still harrowing and an incredible feat. I can't believe that DeMille got away with some of the scenes depicting the Roman's excesses, but Will Hayes was just beginning his censorship code and although there was some resistance, most of what DeMille wanted to include is there. Starring:Frederick March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert and Charles Laughton as Nero, who is incredibly young and wearing a fake nose which was, I suppose, intended to give him more of a Roman look.