Die Gladiatoren

Talk about guilty pleasures. I saw this film for the first time when I was about 8-years old.

Back in those days you really only saw movies once - with mum and dad at the local cinema on Friday night. But my memory wrapped around this film almost as if I had a rewind button inside my head. It was one of those big-screen epics that made an impression on me.

With your Roman Empire movies, your best bet is to set the story in the reign of one of the three mad emperors - Nero is tops, but Caligula and Commodus are the next best thing. Someone like Augustus with his stable, 40-year reign is just a little too sedate when it comes to drama - a bit like the Eisenhower era.

Set in Rome during the reign of Caligula, all Demetrius (Victor Mature) wants to do is hand over the robe of Jesus to Peter (Michael Rennie), and lead a quiet life as a potter. Instead he has his faith shaken, and ends up in the arena where he dispatches many opponents and a streak of tigers. Along the way his most dangerous enemy turns out to be Messalina (Susan Hayward), the wife of Caligula's uncle Claudius. It takes Peter and a good buddy from the arena, Glycon (William Marshall), to guide him back to the light.

Well that's the story; the script is there to keep the spectacular arena scenes apart, and clear the set for Jay Robinson's viperish and eye-poppingly campy interpretation of Caligula. Despite tigers, dancing girls, oiled muscles, nets, tridents and short swords, the movie would have been pretty heavy going without Jay.

Victor Mature is on screen for just about the whole movie and for the most part is either angry or anguished. I've always thought he was pretty good for a guy who once told a club, which did not accept actors as members, that he wasn't an actor and he had the reviews to prove it.

One actor who was perfect in his role was Richard Egan. He plays Dardanius, a gladiator with attitude, and he looks the part with more muscles and teeth than Burt Lancaster.

Susan Hayward gave Messalina some of the same medicine Jay Robinson gave Caligula; together they keep the movie from getting too serious. I love the way Messalina does a complete turnaround right at the end to wrap the whole thing up in about two minutes flat.

Debra Paget is beautiful. Michael Rennie has gravitas and William Marshall is imposing - two great voices in the one movie.

Although technical aspects weren't things I noticed much back in the 50's, I can now appreciate how Franz Waxman's score gave the film spirituality and depth. Waxman was a composer who contributed intelligent scores to every film he did without repeating himself.

I must admit I still have a soft spot for this film; the arena scenes alone are worth the price of admission.

The film opens with Emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson) calling for his guards to find him the robe to bring him eternal life… Caligula stakes his life on the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards… So if they can keep him alive at all, why not forever?

Peter (Michael Rennie) gave Demetrius of Corinth (Victor Mature) their master's robe to keep for him… As we all remember, Demetrius took the robe from the foot of the cross before Jesus died…

By order of Caligula, 20 pieces of gold were authorized to pay for information concerning the robe that Jesus wore to the cross… Defending Lucia (Debra Paget) from malicious attack of a Praetorian Decurion, Demetrius is caught and sentenced to train as gladiator in the Claudian school…

Being fully a Christian entails having a commitment: Demetrius, obviously, is condemned to death because he can't take a man's life… Puzzled by his religion, and fascinated by his magnificent physique, and wanting to find out if Demetrius will kill or not his opponent, Messalina asks to be put in the arena against the king of swordsmen the Nuban Glycon (William Marshall).

The dramatic moment of the film comes when Lucia (Debra Paget)—Demetrius' sweetheart—sneaks in and is attacked by Dardanius (Richard Egan) and other gladiators... His faith shaken, Demetrius makes several kills, renounces his god, and succumbs to Messalina's charms...

Susan Hayward looked gorgeous as the wicked Messalina… The part, however, was not developed... It might have been an ideal role for this beloved actress... This was Hayward's second movie with the radiant Debra Paget, who was still considered a promising starlet, but, again, they were never together in a scene...

Future Academy Award winners Ernest Borgnine and Anne Bancroft had small parts... Michael Rennie and Jay Robinson were excellent in their respective roles... Julie Newmeyer was one of the dancing girls, long before she became Julie Newmar and played Howard's rival in "The Marriage-Go-Round."

"Demetrius and the Gladiators" is a lively, efficient sequel to "The Robe," with emphasis less on religiosity than on the brutality of the arena

Described by George MacDonald Fraser as "(r)ipe melodrama, but not bad history", 'Demetrius and the Gladiators' manages to be that rarest thing: a sequel that improves upon the original. Returning from 'The Robe' is writer Philip Dunne (who provides a script according to Fraser "well above par for this kind of film") as well as composer Franz Waxman and cameraman Milton Krasner.

In the title role Victor Mature is upped to star billing, with Jay Robinson's very mad Caligula ("why should I suffer death like any plebeian?") and Michael Rennie as St. Peter returning from the earlier film. New additions to the cast include Barry Jones, who gives the thing gravitas as Claudius, and Ernest Borgnine and black American actor William Marshall in dignified supporting roles. (It also has a strong female contingent led by Susan Hayward's haughty, flame-haired Messalina who boasts that "my claws are sharper than the tiger's"; with Anne Bancroft in a small part and even an unbilled Julie Newmar shaking those hips as a dancing girl.)

The most decisive piece of casting, however, is director Delmer Daves, who just rolls up his sleeves and gets stuck into delivering all this nonsense with gusto.

As a young boy going to the movies was entertaining and wondrous as I imagined how they could make men and animals so lifelike and real. When I first saw this movie " Demetrius and the Gladiators ", I was very impressed with the acting skills of both my favorite actors at the time. I loved the dynamic style of Victor Mature who plays Demetrius, and awed with his being able to fight a tiger to the death. I was further enthralled with my other favorite Richard Egan who played Dardanius. As a regular 'good guy' it was entertaining to see him play a heavy. Then again I felt that way about Ernest Borgnine who is Strabo and William Marshall as majestic 'Glycon, King of Swords'. The story is actually part two of the movie "The Robe" which I believed centered more on the Icon than on the slave character. There was something shortcoming about this sequel in that it concentrated on the search for the robe by the Mad Emperor Caligula, played to the hilt by superb actor Jay Robinson. With additional actors like Michael Rennie playing Peter the apostle and Barry Jones playing Claudius, the director tried to make this sequel as reverential as the first. But that was not what I sought when I first saw it. It was a great film for the arena action and that's what made it fun. I realize there are superior movies out there like 'Gladiator' by Ridley Scott, but I remember early films as a child and that's what made this one a Classic. ****

Once you have seen this movie you will never ever forget Jay Robinson's performance as deranged but cunning Caligula.Is it great acting or just one of the greatest slices of ham ever put on film?I don't know but it proves the maxim that one actor can make a basically routine movie into a personal favourite."Demetrius" is in some ways superior to its predecessor "The Robe" -it lacks the ponderous religiosity,theres more action,and Caligula moves into centre stage.