It's been 50 years since Rome fell to the Goths and nowadays their rule is slipping . King Theodorico of the Ostrogoths tribe is dead and their daughters , Mathawsintha : Harriet Anderson and Amalaswintha : Honor Blackman are confronting for the powerful throne . Cethegus : Laurence Harvey, leader of the Roman nobility starts the war between the Ostrogoths and their queen , Amalasuntha and the Byzantine Empire . But when the Byzantine force commanded by Belisarius : Lang Jeffries invades Italy to reconquer Rome , it threatens to ruin the plans for Cethegus who tries to uses his own army to take control of the dangerous situation . Along the way , Cethegus attempts to set the two sides : The Goths and Byzantines to wage war against each other . Things go wrong when Cethegus' daughter : Ingrid Boulting falls in love for a Barbarian prince and Goth heir : Robert Hoffman.
A disjointed and heavily cut film based on the novel written by Felix Dahn , dealing with the downfall of the Roman Empire and taking very freely the actual facts . It packs moving drama with twisted events , betrayal , brief nudism , and especially impressive battles . In the picture stands out the breathtaking battles staged by thousands of extras from Romania and in charge of two director assistants : Andrew Marton and Sergiu Nicolaescu , both of whom experts on mass movements . In the film happens some historical happenings as Ostrogoths and Bizantine invasion over Rome . Equally , appearance of some important historical characters as Emperor Justinian stunningly played by Orson Welles , his greedy wife Theodora : Sylva Koscina , General Belisarius : Lang Jeffries and Narses : Michael Dunn.
It displays an atmospheric cinematography by Richard Angst , shot on location in Romania , Buftea studios , Bucharest and Germany, however , being really necessary a perfect remastering, because of the film copy is washed-up . As well as evocative musical score by Riz Ortalani . The motion picture was regularly directed by the prestigious filmmaker Robert Siodmak . This notorious German director emigrated to Hollywood when he made nice films , such as : "Phantom Lady" , "Son of Dracula" , "Christmas Holiday" , "The Suspect" , "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" , "The Dark Mirror" , "The Cobra Queen , "The Killers" , "The Spiral Staircase" , "Criss Cross" , "Cry the City" , "The File of Thelma Jordan" , "The Crimson Pirate" , "The Great Sinner" . Many years later , he returned to his native country where he made inferior films than those he released in Hollywood, such as : "The Devil Strikes at Night" , "Die Ratten" , "The Rough and the Smooth" , "Katia" , "The Yellow One" , "Custer of the West" , "Tunnel 28" , "My School chum", "A Matter of Minutes" , "Treasure of the Aztecs" and his last one , this "The Last Roman" .
