A Little More to the Left

Stanley Kubrick's Roman epic, Spartacus, proved too risque in 1960 for the Catholic Church's National Legion of Decency, which convinced Universal Pictures to cut some gory battle scenes and suggestive footage. Now, as the film undergoes restoration for re-release this spring, six minutes, including the ''snails and oysters'' scene between Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis, will be reinserted. Set in the Roman baths, the sequence has a young singer (Curtis) sponging off Crassus (Olivier), while Crassus quizzes him on his favorite delicacies. Some people like snails and some like oysters, but ''I like both,'' Olivier says. Cutting that thinly veiled proposition and other scenes created muddled plot lines, according to film historian Robert Harris, who is putting the movie back together with producer James C. Katz. Their restored version should clear things up. Says Harris, ''It's ironic that what would have damned you to hell in 1960 is now PG material.''