The Robe is best remembered as the first movie shot in CinemaScope, the wide-screen format designed to lure audiences away from the new medium of TV by exaggerating the contrast between the big movie screen and the small TV screen. Even today, the film seems grand and sweeping; the mere spectacle is enough to make it worth seeing. Some of the performances may seem dated today -- particularly Richard Burton's Oscar-nominated turn as the centurion -- but they don't detract from the film's intriguing premise. Best-known for helming 1950's Harvey, the dependable Henry Koster keeps the material in check. The success of The Robe, as well as Quo Vadis? (1951) and Samson and Delilah (1949) before it, helped usher in more than a decade's worth of lavish Biblical epics, including The Ten Commandments (1956) and the multi-Oscar-winning Ben-Hur (1959).