O Gladiador de Roma

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.

The film is not all that bad, but it is dry except for a few scenes of action now and then. It's a lot of political and religious talk. Most all of the the leading actors play their characters flat, mundanely save for Gordon Scott who has a little bit of charisma as Marcus Lucilius. (I am speaking of facial expressions, movements and of the voice actors for the dubbing into English).

This is set in the times of Pagan Rome and Christians were considered to be outlaws. Nisa is a princess but only Valerio knows she is a princess and she's valuable to him. Marcus has become enslaved and Valerio wants him released as well. It ends up that the Christians and Gladiators escapes from the Pagan Romans. Of course there is big hunt for the escapees. In the end, some of the Christians and Marcus are being crucified... but if they make it out or not you'll have to watch it for yourself to find out.

It's barely entertaining. I really needed something else to pick it up and get it moving along a bit faster and in a better way. Could have been a good film - the potential was there.

2.5/10

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.

Those looking for brutal fights to the death in a Roman gladiatorial arena will most likely be extremely disappointed by peplum classic Gladiator of Rome: the only scene of gladiators fighting each other is a rather tame training session in which muscle-bound warrior Marcus (Gordon Scott) shows off his undefeatable sword-swinging skills (after having his muscles lightly oiled by comedic sidekick Pompilio, played by Pietro De Vico).

How Marcus came to be a gladiator, and how he eventually breaks free of his bonds, is a tragic tale that is part Ben Hur, part Spartacus, part Quo Vadis and part every other sword and sandal film/Biblical epic you've ever seen: the self-appointed protector of Silesian princess Nisa (Wandisa Guida), Marcus whisks the pretty royal away from her homeland after her father is violently usurped by King Uras. In Italy (currently under the rule of the cruel emperor Caracalla), the pair of fugitives find themselves sold into slavery, working for the family of Roman soldier Valerio (Roberto Risso), who falls in love with the princess, unaware of her true lineage. Before Valerio is able to ask his mother and father to free Nisa and Marcus from bondage, his parents are accused of being Christians by Caracalla and killed, the slaves sent to work on the building of a new road. When Valerio learns of this, he vows revenge on those responsible and sets out to find Nisa and her guardian. Also searching for the princess: General Astarte (Piero Lulli), an ambassador from Silesia who has been ordered to kill the girl.

Aided by beautiful serving wench Aglae (Ombretta Colli), Valerio organises an escape attempt for Nisa and Marcus, which fails; Marcus's punishment is to be blinded by hot pokers, but he is spared this fate by Roman governor Anio (Charles Borromel), who takes Marcus and Nisa back to his home, where the princess is put to work as a serving girl, and the strong-man as a gladiator. On discovering where Nisa has been sent, Valerio asks Anio's wife Prisca (Eleonora Vargas) to take pity and free the slaves, but she refuses. When Nisa is accused of being a Christian, and is thrown in prison (to await a nasty fate in the jaws of a hungry lion), Marcus rallies his gladiator pals and arranges an escape (which is more successful this time around). Learning that his slaves and prisoners have absconded, Anio and his soldiers go in pursuit and a battle ensues. Nisa and Marcus are recaptured and tied to wooden crosses to be burnt alive, but before the fires can be lit, Valerio and the surviving gladiators attack. Outnumbered, things look grim for Valerio and his pals until, in a really contrived happy ending, new emperor Macrinus shows up (Caracalla having been assassinated by a disaffected soldier) and, recognising Marcus as the man who saved his life earlier in the film, grants freedom to all of the slaves. Hurrah!

The few battle scenes in Gladiator of Rome are well handled, and star Scott is impressive as Marcus, the ex-Tarzan actor still possessing a formidable physique, but all of the lovey-dovey stuff, which makes up much of the movie, really makes matters drag. Excellent widescreen cinematography ensures that the film is nice to look at, but pretty pictures don't compensate for the dull stuff. And with that ridiculous sappy ending, the film simply isn't a great example of the genre - just a passable one.

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.