[explaining how the studio ruined
Hannibal (1959)] My nicest scene, they cut
out. I could not find any documentation or any explanation why Hannibal
didn't take Rome after he defeated the Roman army at Cannae. Hannibal
represented a dying civilization, the Carthaginians, and he was
tremendously well-educated, knew that his civilization was moribund,
was dying, and he also knew that the idea of democracy of the Roman
republic was the coming thing, and couldn't get himself to destroy that . . . that was the future, and that's why Carthage did not let him come
back. That's why he had to commit suicide five years later. The story
actually should have been the tragedy of a man at that point in history
when he sees his society dying and can see with his eyes what good will
come--he cannot destroy it. But Warner Brothers threw it out--"much
too philosophical". It was foolish.