Il gladiatore di Roma

Sword and Sandals film with Gordon Scott and Wandisa Guida

The Roman Empire under Emperor Caracalla (around 217 AD): The country house of the respected Valerians is attacked by the emperor's henchmen because they are suspected of being followers of the emerging Christianity. In the absence of young Valerius (Roberto Risso), who is currently fulfilling his military obligations, his parents are cruelly murdered and all of the house's slaves are condemned to building roads. Among the slaves who are still loyal to the Valerians are the beautiful Nisa (Wandisa Guida) and the powerful Marcus (Gordon Scott). Nisa, who is actually a princess (that's it!), sincerely loves the young Valerius, who also wants to marry her. The loyal Marcus becomes her battle-hardened protector on their journey together. This leads to all sorts of complications. Nisa falls into the clutches of an unscrupulous new mistress, and Marcus quickly becomes a gladiator in the arena. But love is not neglected even for the broad-shouldered hero. Aglaja (Ombretta Colli), the muscle man's great love, will give the returning Valerius the crucial clue to finding his beloved Nisa again. She is in great danger, from which even the brave Valerius cannot save her until an action worthy of Spartacus takes place...

In terms of plot, nothing out of the ordinary happens in this classic sandal film by veteran director Mario Costa. The time of persecution of Christians in which the whole thing takes place is interesting. The gladiator theme isn't as central to the game as one might expect from the title. But there are plenty of fights with fists and swords to see. A big plus of the film is the actors. Gordon Scott (1926-2007), retrained Tarzan from the US cinema, is convincing as always as an ancient muscle hero. Wandisa Guida, born in 1935, is also an experienced Peplum actress. Roberto Risso (1925-2010), who is best known as the admirer of Gina Lollobrigida in "Brot, Liebe und Phantasie / Bread, Love and Fantasy" (1953), acts really well. And the beautiful Ombretta Colli (born in 1945) surprises with her further career. The actress was also successful as a singer and later became a member of the European Parliament. Raf Baldassare and Nello Pazzafini appear in smaller roles as gladiators.

Solid and entertaining sandal film that scores incredibly high points thanks to the actors' enthusiasm.

A must for genre fans!

Il gladiatore di Roma(1962) is a run-of-the-mill Peplum set in ancient Roman Empire in which performances are average and the image and dubbing are lousy . Marcus (Gordon Scott) is a warrior protecting a slave girl, Nista (Wandisa Guida) , who's actually a princess , they were once slaves from the same Roman domains . Their masters await them willingly and always kind to them . But now they have fallen into the hands of nasty slavers and have to work as unfortunate slaves in the quarries . However, the son of their former masters , Valerio jr. (Roberto Risso) , is hopelessly in love with Nista and is trying to free her from the nasty usurpers . Until then, strong Marcus should watch over her . Framed by the mandate of the emperor Caracalla , who is obsessed with a blind hatred towards Christians and successfully transmits it to his subjects, so that they, driven by the pursuit of higher tasks , happily escape the ruthless pursuers . At the same time, this hunt provides the first foundations , because an honorable Roman family falls victim to the tyrant's hatred of Christians, so that Valerius' parents and their servants meet death by the swords of the heinous rulers or his way to the tyrannical chains and submitted to slave labor . A first attempt at liberation goes awry and Marcus eventually winds up in the Roman arenas where is trained as a gladiator . Little by little , more and more slaves gather around Marcus who want to live in freedom and together they try to run away . From now on, the "world" of good guys calls for revenge and longs for the downfall of the reign of terror.

Mario Costa's film uses several peplum ingredients such as bustling upheavals of rebel slaves , sword fighting , betrayals , bare chested males, cruel bondage with whipping included , arena combats and noisy battles among Romans . As a result , despotic rule, the persecution of Christians, a small love story, the associated decoding of the identity of a slave, and the gladiatorial rebellion are used . Lots of variations built into a playtime of about 80 minutes, the fact that some things look half-baked here shouldn't produce surprising resonances . It is advisable to view ¨The Gladiator of Rome¨ with a certain tolerance rather than a meticulously review of the twisted developments and avoiding overly analysis as well as comparisons with Roman history. The movie is quite a messy and nonsense pastime . The focus is on the visually stunning bare chested Marcus , played in his usual style by the hunk Gordon Scott , who left the US after six films as Tarzan movies to shoot sword and sandals movies in Italy. His love story with a beautiful girl is completely unbelievable and boring . Also , the chemistry between the two is non-existent . While the love story of Nista and her Roman prince is more believable. The chemistry between the two is just right and somehow it all fits together here . If Marcus's love story had been omitted , the narrative would have been a bit tighter and the pacing more comfortable . Otherwise, there are some good fight scenes , nice costumes , and pretty decent sets . It's certainly not an outstanding sword and sandal movie , but it still has some strength but the results result to be middling . Unfortunately, the image on the screen is only letterboxed and is utterly faded . Stars beefcake Gordon Scott who's fine as the mythical hero bending metal bar and who finds several dangerous situations while attempting save his protegee as well as her lover , and eventually being crucified. Strongman Gordon acted as a bouncing hero in great number of films and was randomly assigned the identity of Hércules , Goliath , Samsom for US viewers . Scott usually playing historic characters , such as ¨Coroliano¨, ¨Mucius Scevola¨ and ¨Remo¨. He was one along with Ed Fury, Dan Vadis , Alain Steel , Mark Forest, Reg Park and several others, whom the seek fame and fortune led to Italy , acting absurdly muscle mythological figures, but nobody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity. Along the way , appearing here and there a lot of secondaries usual in Sixties , Seventies' Italian genres : Peplum, Spaghetti Western , Giallo , such as : Piero Lulli, Alberto Farnese , Charles Borromel , Mirko Ellis , Nando Tamberlani , Nello Pazzafini , Andrea Aureli , Raf Baldassarre , among others.

The Gladiator of Rome" comes from the most productive creative period of Mario Costa (between 1959 and 1962) , a stage characterized by Peplum and pirate films , whose final products do not elevate its mediocre results , but they do not disappoint either and are rarely boring. This grade-B picture was regularly directed by Mario Costa . He was a good artisan who directed Spaghetti Westerns as ¨La Belva¨, ¨Buffalo Bill hero of the Far West¨. And especially known for shooting several adventures, Peplum movies as ¨Conqueror of Corinth¨, ¨Gladiator of Rome¨, ¨Cavalier in Devil's castle¨, ¨The son of the Sheikh¨, ¨The barber of Sevilla¨, ¨The kings of France¨, ¨Kan the Sheik's son¨, ¨The queen of pirates¨, among others. Rating : 4.5/10. Below average Peplum . Only for Gordon Scott fans.

More or less u know what u will find in a peplum film. the genre which started in Italy in late 50s with reeve's classic Hercules film and grew with more than....300 films until the late 60s when spaggeti westerns took over causing peplum (sword and sandal genre) to decline. the peplum films are divided in two categories. those who are not so much worth the time and those which have some value. this film is belonging in the 2nd category. we get a lot of politics in the time of the cruel emperor Caracalla (211-217) and we even get to see for the first time in a movie the only official roman emperor who was promoted to the throne while he was serving as leader of the praetorians before the assassination of Caracalla. yes...i'm talking about macrinus who ruled for a brief period from martch 217 to the summer of 218 before he was defeated and executed by the Syrian legions who promoted the mad boy emperor elagavalus to the throne cause he was the supposed illegal son of Caracalla. Anyways if u like this B Movie genre then this movie is for you.

After making six Tarzan movies in the 1950s, Gordon Scott re-located to Europe where he continued his career in a series of sword-and-sandal adventures -- most notably "Duel of the Titans" in which he went pec-to-pec with Steve Reeves. While a somewhat lesser effort, "Gladiator of Rome" is still a satisfying piece of entertainment, though it suffers from the miscalculation of having two heroines. There's the blonde princess-turned-slavegirl whom Scott is pledged to defend and then there's the brunette barmaid whom he's said to fall in love with. (The romantic angle here is weak and unconvincing.) Combining these two women into one character might have made for a stronger plot.

However, "Gladiator of Rome" does deliver on what its audience wants to see. Gordon Scott, for example, never wears a shirt and thus is bare-chested from first scene to last. At about age 34, Scott was just a mere shade past his physical prime here, and he looks convincingly heroic in all the various actions he's asked to perform. As you'd expect, he's also put into the required bondage-and-torture positions. In the first, he's chained flat against a wall and threatened with hot irons designed to put out his eyes. In the second, he's chained to an X-shaped cross with the makings of a bonfire piled up below him. Curiously, while his legs are spread apart on the cross, thus making him especially vulnerable to that fire, his arms are not chained to the cross but are bound behind his back.

These bondage scenes are far more striking and memorable than the movie's few scenes of gladiator combat. In fact, the only arena scenes we're shown are when Scott is in training to become a gladiator and this training occurs at a small, provincial arena far from the magnificence of Rome. Thus, "Gladiator of Rome" may be an impressive title on the marquee but it's not really an accurate summation of the movie's contents.

A word of praise for Roberto Risso, the young Roman who's in love with the princess-turned-slavegirl. Despite formidable competition from Gordon Scott, he dares to do a bare-chest scene of his own. This courage on his part makes up for the fact that his physique is not at all impressive.

Although star Gordon Scott only trains as a gladiator and never actually gets into the arena and most of the action takes place outside of Rome, this peplum classic is entitled Gladiator Of Rome. It derives its plot from many different sources.

Watching this today I caught bits from Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, Spartacus, and the Cecil B. DeMille classic The Sign Of The Cross. The film involves persecution of Christians under Emperor Caracalla and a dynastic struggle in Silesia which takes place in Italy.

Gordon Scott is a Silesian servant to a princess who family was killed by a usurper and she and Scott sold into slavery by the Romans. The Silesians are friendly barbarians in the pay of Rome guarding the Empire's boarders and the usurper wants the princess found and killed.

But Roman politics intervene and the Roman house to which she and Scott were sold into is similarly ravaged and the head of the household who is a Senator is killed. A Roman general who has the contract on the princess is on the hunt again.

In the meantime Scott is trained as a gladiator, but they haven't seen a gladiator like him since Spartacus was running amuck in Italy. He gets the other gladiator trainees incited and the action really pops.

Of course this film is not anywhere as good as any of the sources I could identify for it. But Gordon Scott certainly had the build for these films though why he was given up for Tarzan films I'll never know.

For peplum and pecs fans.