Androcles and the Lion is a 1952 RKO film produced by Gabriel Pascal from the 1912 George Bernard Shaw play of the same name.

Megaera swoons, but tender-hearted Androcles sees that a large thorn is deeply embedded in the lion's paw; he draws it out while soothing the beast with baby-talk.

They are joined by the fierce recent Christian convert Ferrovius, who subsequently provides much of the comic relief in his struggle to keep his bellicose nature in check.

Love interest is provided by the growing attraction between the Roman Captain and the nobly born Christian convert Lavinia.

Eventually the party is sent into the arena to be slaughtered, but when Ferrovius demonstrates his powers of conversion—and kills all of the gladiators—Antoninus Caesar declares that all his subjects should become Christians and offers him a commission in the Praetorian Guards.