Saw Trumbo, and therefore some Spartacus and then Kubrick story: I am Trumbo

[Mark Kohut]

Kirk Douglas insisted that Trumbo be given screen credit for his work,
which helped to break the blacklist.[7] Trumbo had been jailed for
contempt of Congress in 1950, after which he had survived by writing
screenplays under assumed names. Douglas' intervention on his behalf
was praised as an act of courage.

In his autobiography, Douglas states that this decision was motivated
by a meeting that he, Edward Lewis, and Kubrick had regarding whose
name(s) to put against the screenplay in the movie credits, given
Trumbo's shaky position with Hollywood executives. One idea was to
credit Lewis as co-writer or sole writer, but Lewis vetoed both
suggestions. Kubrick then suggested that his own name be used. Douglas
and Lewis found Kubrick's eagerness to take credit for Trumbo's work
revolting, and the next day, Douglas called the gate at Universal
saying, "I'd like to leave a pass for Dalton Trumbo." Douglas writes,
"For the first time in ten years, [Trumbo] walked on to a studio lot.
He said, 'Thanks, Kirk, for giving me back my name.'"[2]

The filming was plagued by the conflicting visions of Kubrick and
Trumbo. Kubrick complained that the character of Spartacus had no
faults or quirks, and he later distanced himself from the film.[8]
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A compromise was reached by filming the intimate scenes in Hollywood,
and the battle scenes, at Kubrick's request, in Spain. Kubrick found
working outdoors or in real locations to be distracting; he believed
the actors would benefit more from working on a sound stage, where
they could fully concentrate. To create the illusion of the large
crowds that play such an essential role in the film, Kubrick's crew
used three-channel sound equipment to record 76,000 spectators at a
Michigan State – Notre Dame college football game shouting "Hail,
Crassus!" and "I'm Spartacus!"

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In the climactic scene, recaptured slaves are asked to identify
Spartacus in exchange for leniency; instead, each slave proclaims
himself to be Spartacus, thus sharing his fate. The documentary
Trumbo[7] suggests that this scene was meant to dramatize the
solidarity of those accused of being Communist sympathizers during the
McCarthy Era who refused to implicate others, and thus were
blacklisted.[33]

Regarding this scene, an in-joke is used in Kubrick's next film,
Lolita (1962), where Humbert Humbert asks Clare Quilty, "Are you
Quilty?" to which he replies, "No, I'm Spartacus. Have you come to
free the slaves or something?"[34
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