Exciting Peplum odyssey , 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 , he is the typical bouncing hunk man who fights against evil people . Ursus' parents were overthrown , then he was raised among lions . The good guys are the blond and beefy Ed Fury (Ursus) , Maria Luisa Merlo (the beautiful girl) , Mariangela Giordano and the bad guys are Alberto Lupo , usual nasty Gerard Herter (Spaghetti's customary) and Moira Orfei (sister of Liana Orfei also ordinary in Peplum) who's usually in these flicks as a Femme-fatale slave . Ursus will defeat them at an thrilling finale with elephants , battles and a firing scaffold .
This moving Peplum contains emotion , noisy action sequences incorporating circus elephants , spectacular battles with lots of sword-wielding warriors , court intrigue , stirring ending with a burning gallows and many other things . This mythological movie is plenty of adventures , thrills , atmospheric settings , evocative soundtrack by Riz Ortalani and colorful scenarios well photographed by Tino Santoni . 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 Alberto Lupo , Gerard Herter , Andrea Scotti and uncredited Salvatore Borghese as warrior at Ursus' saving . And including gorgeous women : the Spanish Maria Merlo , Moira Orfei and Mariangela Giordano , they are insanely beautiful, and their flowing dresses and magic hair styles supplement this . The Ursus's love interest is very sympathetically and believably played by pretty Maria Luisa Merlo , or Mary Marlon , best in the cast .
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) by Giorgio Simonelli with Ed Fury , Luciana Gilli and Claudia Mori . ¨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 Riz Ortalani . 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 Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia who made many fables of this kind ("Semiramis , The Queen of Babylon" , ¨The Sword and the Cross¨ , "Mighty Crusaders" , "Amazons of Rome" , ¨Anibal¨ and "Hercules vs. the Hydra" or "The Loves of Hercules") . Carlo along with Vittorio Cottafavi , Carlo Campollani and Giorgio Ferroni continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed an acceptable skill and mastery . The movie obtained success and originated sequels . Rating 4,5/10 , passable though mediocre .
