Peter Finch for Best Actor for "No Love for Johnnie" (1961), although like "Oscar Wilde", the film lost money. He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra" (1963) and filmed scenes in London, but when the film was postponed he withdrew; the role was recast with Rex Harrison. Finch made a series of unsuccessful Hollywood films: "The Sins of Rachel Cade" (1961), an attempt to repeat the success of "The Nun's Story", with Angie Dickinson; then two for director Robert Stevens at MGM: "I Thank a Fool" (1962) and "In the Cool of the Day" (1963). Finch restored his critical
Cleopatra (1963 film) the objections of Mankiewicz) that the film be cut once more, this time to just barely over three hours to allow theaters to increase the number of showings per day. Mankiewicz unsuccessfully attempted to convince the studio to split the film in two in order to preserve the original cut. These were to be released separately as "Caesar and Cleopatra" followed by "Antony and Cleopatra". "Cleopatra" ended up costing $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time, and almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. The music of "Cleopatra" was scored by Alex North. It was released