Charles Laughton ’I, Claudius’ - Dirk Bogarde and ’The Epic That Never Was’

In 1937, filming began on “I, Claudius,“ from the Robert Graves novel, with Charles Laughton in the title role. The cast also included Merle Oberon, Flora Robson, Emlyn Williams and Robert Newton. Producer Alexander Korda hired Josef von Sternberg to direct but once the cameras started rolling it became evident that Laughton was having great difficulty in getting into his part. Matters went from bad to worse, so that when Merle Oberon was involved in a car crash and hospitalised for several weeks, it was lo