By the Gods!

Omar Sharif and Sophia Loren in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

The two characters married for political reasons (he's the king of Armenia) but we see very little of this relationship. Omar's role is basically a cameo, which is a shame because he was a great actor. Sophia had top billing. This seems a bit odd since there were rumours of her being difficult during the filming of EL CID (1961), also directed by Anthony Mann. If she was so difficult to work with why would Mann want to work with her again? I like Sophia in this. She brings a certain humanity that's often missing in a story populated with dozens of characters. My only problem with Sophia is she didn't seem related to Alec Guinness (father) and Christopher Plummer (brother). She's very Mediterranean while Alec and Christopher are clearly not.