As Virgens de Roma

I really love the crack another viewer made about casting the urbane Louis Jourdan as a barbarian warrior. Was not Cary Grant available? I could not possibly top that.

Other than ludicrous casting Amazons Of Rome is a passably interesting peplum picture concerning those events in early Roman history when it was just trying to survive as a city against some very nasty Etruscans who rule the countryside. The legendary hero Horatio is played by Italian actor Ettore Manni who did more than a few of these kind of films.

While Horatio is trying to regroup and retrain an army, the women of Rome take to the field led by the aristocratic Sylvia Sims. It's there that she meets Jourdan. If they can make peace, is it possible for the rest?

The Etruscan leader is played by Julien Chevrier who would like a permanent peace, but has some folks who are looking for glory and conquest and as long as they get it doesn't matter how much blood is spilled.

Poor Louis Jourdan, he looks like he is annoyed that a table at Maxim's isn't ready.

This is a well-made historical actioner with the most memorable performance being given by Ettore Manni, who is much more comfortable in this early Roman period than either of his costars Sims or Jourdan. Manni, as in so many of his other films, steals the whole show. In this case he's the heroic and ill-fated Horatio who dies defending the bridge.

You know you might be in for a less than stellar time when a film has more than one screenwriter. There are exceptions, of course, but this one has at least four, and thus is no exception to the rule.

My favorite part in this turkey is during the fight at the flimsy wooden bridge at the beginning of the film when one of the extras playing a barbarian puts his hands up to his face and you can clearly see a Band-Aid on his thumb. Once you see something like this, it's hard to take the rest of the film seriously.

It's amazing when you think that Sylvia Syms played the female lead in the excellent Dirk Bogarde film, "Victim," in the same year she appeared in "Amazons of Rome."

Wow! I wish all my Sword and Sandal films looked this good. He print shown on TCM was crystal clear and in widescreen! The story is OK but it is the Cinematography that really makes this film shine.

Sylvia Syms is absolutely gorgeous in this one and I don't agree with the reviewer who says that Louis Jordan is miscast for the part. Oh, I agree he is no barbarian. But that isn't his role. His charismatic portrayal is perfect for the part. The opening battle scenes is where he steals the show.

Seeing this one in widescreen good quality was a real treat. It's too bad all of the other Sword and Sandal movies couldn't be viewed the way they were meant to be seen. That is good quality and widescreen. See this TCM print!

Good looking spectacle with a cast of tens. You can see that actors are playing both sides in what amounts to a Euro-western set in the ancient world. Its Etruscans vs Romans with the woman taken hostage after they dressed as Roman soldiers after their side lost. The dialog is stupid and the romances wobble any hope of a decent story. Its the kind of film that almost seems good but isn't so seems much worse as a result. I've seen it twice by accident and I hope never to see it again.