Exciting but standard Peplum odyssey titled Ursus nella terra di fuoco(1963) by Giorgio Simonelli with Ed Fury , Luciana Gilli and Claudia Mori , regularly-plotted , with a likable acting from Ed Fury as Ursus ("Ursus" is Latin for "bear") . Sword and Sandals film centers upon Ursus (Ed Fury or Edmund Holovchik) , of noble blood , but he was raised among lions , he is the typical corpulent hunk man who fights against evil people . A strange country is ruled by Lothar (Nando Tamberlani, ordinary in Peplum) , a king of fire-worshippers, while domineering a simple tribe of shepherds who only want to live in peace, living a quiet existence. Diana (Luciana Gilli) , the King's daughter was out riding , but she is come off when her horse frightened by a snake , as she was thrown off her horse into the lake, but, of course , she's saved by Ursus . Meanwhile , the king is overthrown by the nasty usurper Hamilkar (Adriano Micantoni). The good guys are the blond and beefy Ed Fury (Ursus) , Luciana Gilli (the beautiful girl) , and the bad guys are the usual nasty Adriano Micantoni and Claudia Mori (who married Adriano Calentano) as a Femme-fatale . Ursus will defeat them at an thrilling finale battle .
This moving Peplum contains emotion , noisy action sequences incorporating spectacular combats in which Ursus confronts several bouncing men attempting to throw him into a pit , spectacular battles with lots of sword-wielding warriors , court intrigue , thrilling ending and many other things . This mythological movie is plenty of adventures , thrills , atmospheric settings , evocative soundtrack by Carlo Savina and colorful scenarios well photographed by cameraman Luciano Trasatti. This is a regular spaghetti, myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious landscapes , but there are a few editing goofs . In addition to the muscular lead but always appealing sword and sandal elements are here ; however , this movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . The corpulent Ed Fury was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ . He was one of a number of bodybuilder and physique model types who followed muscleman Steve Reeves out to Italy in the early 60s and won campy notice playing Herculean characters in those campy Italian sand-and-spear epics . Ursus, Maciste, Goliath, Samson , Hércules , Atlas..., those Italian muscle man producers must have had a hard time figuring out what to call the musclebound actors who played all these legendary muscleman heroes . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest , Gordon Mitchell , Alan Steel , Dan Vadis , Reg Park , Brad Harris , Samson Burke , Richard Harrison , Rock Stevens , Kirk Morris and 'Gordon Scott' and , of course , the great Steve Reeves , as nobody , nevertheless, topped Steve in popularity . Fury started off his beefcake run off as a body double . Ed was the subject of legendary photographer Robert Mizer and appeared on the cover of Mizer's infamous magazine "Physique Pictorial" ostensibly promoting Fury's role in Ursus (1961), billed as "The Mighty Ursus". Ed was posing front-and-center as Herk himself and entering in the star-system based on pumped-up heroes playing ¨Sansone¨ or ¨Samson¨ or ¨Ursus¨ . On numerous occasions Ed was asked to play the legendary Greek hero , as well as the equally well-built demigods Samson and Ursus , even though the film titles often fused (or confused) them in their titles . Some other familiar faces show up here , such as : Nando Tamberlani, Tom Felleghy , Giuseppe Addobbati or John MacDouglas who's usually in these flicks . And including two gorgeous women : Lucina Gilli and Claudia Mori.
This film belongs to a quartet about this hunk character , ¨Ursus¨ , such as : "The Vengeance of Ursus" (1961) by Luigi Capuano with Samson Burke , Wandisa Guida , Livio Lorenzon , ¨Ursus¨ (1961) by Carlo Campollani with similar actors as Ed Fury , Maria Luisa Merlo and Moira Orfei and "The Son of Hercules in the Land of Fire" (1963) . ¨Ursus¨ movie is derived from Buddy Baer's character who is named "Ursus" , a secondary role in the famous colossal ¨Quo Vadis¨ (1951) directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starred by Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr . Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by the prestigious as well as prolific Carlo savina. Colorful cinematography , being filmed on location in Lazio , Rome and Studios : Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio ; Studio Olimpia, Rome , Lazio, Italy . The film was regularly directed by Luigi Capuano who made many fables of this kind , as well as hilarious Spaghetti Westerns . He directed various films for this popular couple Franco Franchi-Ciccio Ingrassia , such as : ¨Il Duo Sanculotti¨. ¨Due Sargenti de Generale Custer¨ , "The Two Crazy Secret Agents" ¨, ¨Due Mafiosi Far West¨ , "I due toreri" , "Two Sons of Ringo" , ¨2 Samurai Per 100 Geishas¨ . Simonelli also made adventure movies as ¨Robin Hood and the pirates¨ with Lex Barker , ¨Fra Diavolo¨, "Io Sono la Primula Rossa" , Péplum as "Ursus in the Land of Fire" , dramas and a lot of comedies , many of them starred by the comical couple Ugo Tognazzi and Walter Chiari .
