Maciste et les cent gladiateurs

The film deals about Maciste (Mark Forest) , gladiator of Sparta , the mythical hero who encounters pretty risked situations while trying to win over his true love , a beautiful Christian . Maciste who is nicknamed Hercules in US must use all his strength to save the girl he loves from malicious emperor (Peter White) and the Pretorians captain (Robert Hundar) making a desperate bid to rescue the Christians . The picture is a undercover version of ¨Quo Vadis¨ but with lack luster and budget , thus our hero (Mark Forest) like Marco Vinicio (Robert Taylor) must save his sweetheart Christian of the Emperor Vitelio likeness to Nero (Peter Ustinov) and his villain guards chief (Robert Hundar, an usual of Spaghetti Western) similar to wicked Tijelinus .

The film gets dramatic scenes of gladiators combats in the arena and martyrdom Christians and stunningly cheap special effects as the shots and closeups of a giant rubber gorilla which is a man suited struggling against Maciste . The robust and strong Maciste or Hercules is Mark Forest in a wooden acting , he was a muscleman who left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the Opera , he used the amount of money he made acting as gladiator films in Italy to study Opera , he currently teaches it in the Los Angeles zone . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , Alan Steel , Reg Park , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune and fame interpreting absurdly muscle mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . The film will appeal to Spaghetti myth-opera although is a better than most muscle opera , thanks to expert director Mario Caiano .

I found this film on TCM and was drawn to it. It really is a terrible film, but it is so bad it is laughable. This is a movie designed for MST3000, or maybe Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's attentions.

Years before Schwarzenegger decided to capitalize on his Mr. Olympia celebrity in Hollywood, other muscle-heads took a shot at the big screen. The results were mostly uneven and only suitable for drive-in movie B-film marathons.

This film is among the worst, which makes it among the best for comedy. (I saw the English-dubbed version.) The acting was amateurish. The dialogue (subtitled) was inept. Best of all was the plot. It really drove the humor.

Imagine the director and wardrobe head meeting in a costume store. The director says, "The gladiator must battle an animal in the ring. What animal costume looks the most real?" Apparently, the answer was "gorilla" and the gladiator scene wrote itself. Hilarious.

Surprisingly engaging peplum featuring one of the most popular muscle-bound heroes – Maciste, a home-bred figure who had first appeared in the Silent epic CABIRIA (1914)…which leads one to pose the question: how did he come to be the Son Of Hercules (in the English-language version of the film), even if he is in fact made to emanate from Greece in this particular outing (as per the original Italian title MACISTE, GLADIATORE DI SPARTA)?

Incidentally, this appears to have been a pretty rare item until its recent release on Italian DVD – for I could only find the ambiguous and idiotic English title above attached to it, slapped on dubbed TV prints of the film! The epithet “Terror Of Rome” may, in fact, be a reference to any of the following: the Roman Emperor (who’s actually quite genial here!), his influential but vindictive aide, and a giant ape(!) whom the hero fights and defeats in the arena (for the record, other enjoyably inventive challenges he has to overcome during the course of the film are a gladiatorial bout in which Maciste’s outnumbered four-to-one, a blindfolded swordfight between hero and villain, and also being tied to a number of horses and dragged across the field of the Circus Maximus).

Anyway, this is easily the best of the recent spate of such low-brow spectacles I’ve been watching (if somewhat overlong at 103 minutes) – which still isn’t saying much perhaps; even so, the fact that the movie was presented in Italian and Widescreen (albeit with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 rather than the official 2.35:1) certainly helped in this regard. Once again, Mark Forest is the impossibly youthful hero – with THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES (1964)’s Marilu' Tolo as the female lead (interestingly, however, she’s a popular Roman courtesan who’s accustomed to getting her way but whom Maciste spurns after falling for a blonde, and bland, Christian: nevertheless, Tolo remains faithful to him and even goes so far as sacrifice her life for his new cause!). Speaking of which, an unintentionally funny incident occurs when Maciste (and a handful of Spartan gladiators) beats up the Roman garrison guarding the dungeon prisons and, upon freeing the aged Christian bishop, the latter naively enquires of the hero, “Have you turned Christian?”

The supporting cast is also above-par for this type of film: the villain is played by Robert Hundar (whom I first got to know via his role of the ill-fated revenge-seeking hero of the fine but notoriously nasty Spaghetti Western CUT-THROATS NINE [1972]); typically, he’s a rival to Forest for Tolo’s attentions and, of course, a fervent enemy of the Christian faith – at one point, he promises to throw Forest’s new girl to the lions completely naked but, naturally, this never comes to pass (pity, therefore, that the film wasn’t made by De Mille back in the day!). Hundar’s death, by the way – knifing himself by accident after Maciste slips from his grasp – was an unexpected but welcome ironic touch. Another important figure in the film is the corpulent Roman Emperor – depicted as jaded, volatile and, needless to say, perennially-hungry; on the side of the Christians, providing the comic relief (which, for once, is agreeable rather than intrusive), we get Ferruccio Amendola – father of popular actor Claudio and who’s better known for dubbing the performances in native editions of titles featuring such heavyweight American stars as Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro!

As for director Caiano, he was another versatile artisan of the “Euro-Cult” school: I’ve watched a number of his films over the last few years…though, ironically, I was personally let down by what is probably considered as his best-known work – NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965), an atmospheric but derivative Gothic chiller starring iconic “Scream Queen” Barbara Steele!

Mark Forest never looked better then in this lavish gladiator story. Maciste schemes against Caesar to free a group of Christians whom the emperor plans to feed to the lions. Above average peplum with some lovely color photography, nice sets, and well staged battle scenes...this one obviously had a bigger budget then most films of it's kind. A bit overlong, but still enjoyable as Mark Forest and others put forth some fairly decent performances, marred only slightly by the annoying dubbing.

The bodybuilder Mark FOREST (1933-2022), who was active as an opera singer in his later years, is this time as a gladiator from Sparta. Maciste seeks to be close to those in power, even if they are very unsympathetic. At the festivals of ruler Vitellius (Franco COBIANCHI), the beautiful Olimpia (Marilu TOLO) also dances around the muscle god. This doesn't suit Sifacius (Claudio UNDARI), Vitellius' scheming and power-hungry advisor, at all. When Maciste falls in love with the blonde Christian Silvia (Elisabetta FANTI), Sifacius has the opportunity to strike back...

As Maciste, Mark FOREST has a lot of battles to overcome here. His duel with a guy in a gorilla costume is particularly funny. It's all very entertaining, but not earth-shattering either. The films with Mark FOREST are not among the best in the genre, but they generally offer acceptable average fare.