Spartacus und die zehn Gladiatoren

If you watch one Spartacus movie - don't let it be this one. If you are a fan of Swords and Sandals movies in general I will not persuade you to not watch this though. But you know the formula: big oiled men, fight other men and overpower them or something along those lines.

So you know what this will be about: historical accuracy is not one of those things. You want to watch it, be my guest, but don't complain if you don't like what you see.

This was the second of three "Ten Gladiators" films made during the '60s, each starring Dan Vadis.

Like the first film, "The Ten Gladiators," this one is based on characters from history, freely adapting a fictional story within the historical setting. Consequently, the plot reflects the oppression and brutality of Antiquity, albeit with an occasional sprinkling of humor to lighten things up.

Director Nick Nostro keeps the pace going fast and furious, and the film does cover a lot of ground in 90 minutes. The characters are likable; the ten gladiators are handsome and appealing; the locations and sets are impressive; the score is excellent. It should be noted that one must see "Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators" in its native CinemaScope format to appreciate how dynamic and well produced it really is. Those blurry, faded 4:3 16mm TV prints don't do it justice.

Leading man Dan Vadis was never more handsome than he was in this and its follow-up "Triumph of the Ten Gladiators." The same can be said for the other nine warriors, whose physiques provide ample eye candy during the movie's slower passages.

Like all pre-21st century films, the viewer must have a normal human attention span to enjoy this motion picture. Consequently, contemporary audiences, unable to stop texting or smoking pot while "watching," will likely be too preoccupied expressing their usual disdain and condescension to enjoy it...

Choose not to make that mistake yourself.

As I've mentioned before in the past, I generally don't think much of the sword and sandal movies that came out of Europe in the 1960s. So you might imagine my surprise when I found this particular example of the genre to be not that bad at all. Now, I'll admit it's far from perfect. The movie does have a major weakness, and that is with the characters. The ten gladiators, for one thing, are pretty much interchangeable; we hardly learn a thing about them such as their names, and they all seem to talk and act alike. Spartacus isn't that much better written, one reason being that he doesn't make that many appearances, and the few times he shows up are pretty short in length. As for the bad guys, they are straight out of the stock character catalog.

But if you're willing to put up with the poorly written characters, the movie does all the same manage to be reasonably entertaining. The story is snappily paced, and even manages to put in a bit more plot than usual. The production values aren't bad, and the main selling point of the movie - action - is well done. There's quite a bit of action, and the action is choreographed and directed in a manner to be quite exciting at times.

"Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators" isn't a great movie, but it does satisfy the lazy weekend audience. It is perfectly fine non-think entertainment. We all get in that mood on occasion, so when you're in that particular frame of mind, give it a spin in your DVD player.

71 B.C. during the rebellion of Spartacus , a gladiator named Rocca (Dan Vadis)and his band of fellows gladiators (Sal Borgese, Vassili Karis, Pietro Torrisi, Jeff Cameron... )flee from Coliseum. After that ,they save the damsel in distress , a senator 's daughter (Ursula Davis) . They're well received by the senator Varro (Gianni Rizzo) , though are poisoned and locked . Later on, they escape and join forces with Spartacus (Ivano Staccioli, alias John Heston) to fight patrician senator Varro. Spartacus wants return to Tracia and is waiting some ships. Ten gladiators are faced at every turn by Roman army. Meanwhile Rocca falls in love with Daliah(Helga Line) and then must rescue her from slavery and death. The slavers are building an aqueduct and the gladiators attack the detachment.

This is the second part in the ¨ Ten gladiators trilogy¨. It packs action, fights , sword-play, adventures and some touches of humor . Ample support cast formed by muscle-men and regular from Western and Peplum as Enzo Fiermonte, Jeff Cameron,Pietro Torrisi who in the 80s as Peter McCoy played several sword and witchery movies and Ricardo Pizzuti as Roman soldier , he's usual in Terence Hill-Spencer movies. As comic relief appears Sal Borgese, a sympathetic secondary playing a deaf-mute. Good production values with spectacular final battle full of extras and stock-shots from previous Roman films . It's shot in Rome, Lazio and Barcelona, Cataluña, because it's a co-production Spanish/ Italian produced by Alfonso Balcazar . Atmospheric score by Carlo Savina with catching musical leitmotif, he's usual of Western and substituting to Angelo Francesco Lavagnino who composed the first entry. Cheesy edition by Bruno Mattei, later famous director of ¨Z¨ Italian films.The motion picture is professionally directed by Nick Nostro.

The best installment is the first titled ¨I dice gladiatori(1963) or Ten gladiators¨ by Gianfranco Parolini with Roger Browne, Jose Greci and Dan Vavis as Rocca who dies at the end ; here the gladiators taking on Nero, Gianni Rizzo, and his henchman Tijelinus . It's followed by ¨Spartacus and ten gladiators¨ and the third outing titled ¨Triumph of ten gladiators or Il Trionfo dei Dieci Gladiators ¨ again by Nick Nostro and Gianni Rizzo as evil villain.

From a female standpoint of view, there is no (real) beefcake here because they all look like a bunch of apes. Spartacus being the ugliest of the apes. Good thing this is a comedy! They have Spartacus and his 10 merry men rebelling against fighting their own in the coliseum sports. Yet half of the film is of Spartacus and his 10 men fighting their own. Ironic ain't it. They roll around really well on the ground too. :P It's a terrible B film but does have some funny stuff that makes it worth watching on this rainy morning. It's an awful movie but it is cheap entertainment from the Mill Creek Warriors 50-Pack.

3.5/10