A Vingança de Ursus

Despite a meaningless title and a lead (Samson Burke!) who gives new meaning to the word "wooden", this is not too bad for what is essentially a formulaic muscleman effort. The plot is typically chockful of court intrigues within Ursus' camp – by way of the King's deceitful rotund consultant who contrives to have his own master killed, Ursus convicted of the crime and appointing bald-headed Livio Lorenzon (an above-average village who keeps a leopard for a pet) as his people's new ruler; a couple of attractive ladies: one good (Ursus' fiancée', of course) and one evil (who, clad in an iron mask, even disguises herself as the latter at the King's wedding ceremony!); and, to up the suspense factor somewhat, an independent-minded kid brother for the hero (from whom he tries to keep his superhuman past by posing as an indefatigable farmer)! For what it is worth, at one point the action once again requires Ursus to engage in a tug-of-war with a number of elephants…although here he needs their impending threat to his little sibling for him to eventually manage in suppressing them!

Made the same year as " Ursus e la ragazza tartara (1961)" ,these other Ursus adventures have nothing to do with it ;even the muscle man is not the same : Joe Robinson in the former ,Samson (sic) Burke in this one ;but both films have something in common: Ursus has almost always a brat on tow ;this kid sometimes plays the part of a supporter in a football game: "come on Ursus! come on!

The plot is childish : the noble king wants to marry his daughter to a treacherous sovereign of a kingdom bordering his ;Ursus ,secretly in love with the damsel (soon in distress) , accompanies and protects her during her trip to her future homeland and in the court of the fiancé .Double-dealer king's adviser (Gianni Rizzo , the regular baddie of the Italian sword and sandal ) will put a spoke in the giant's wheel.

In THE VENGEANCE OF URSUS, the mountainous hero of the title (Samson Burke) rescues Princess Sira (Wandisa Guira) from a band of ne'er-do-wells, and becomes her Protector In Chief. It seems that a nefarious relative has vowed to kill the Princess by any means necessary! In fact, so much treachery occurs that it's difficult to keep track of it all!

Another of the zillion or so hero epics of its era, this movie has some fun scenes. Especially, Ursus' encounter in the tavern, when he tosses and twists his weak opponents into human pretzels!

There's also the typical "test of strength" for Ursus, that will either kill or exonerate him. Plus, the expected "battle royal" at the end. Burke holds his own in his muscular role, which is made easier by his being a walking industrial furnace! No kidding! This guy's a boulder!...

I have never done this before, but I am writing a review specifically to tell you not to try to watch "La Vendetta di Ursus" (or "Vengeance of Ursus") from a particular DVD producer. That's because I found the DVD to be completely unwatchable and of such unacceptable quality I just gave up trying to see it.

Not surprisingly, the film I tried to see was from Alpha Video. Alpha is known for producing films that are in the public domain. And, since they are such a cut-rate producer, they do absolutely nothing to clean up the prints, nor do they provide any DVD extras or captioning. The only way I'd ever recommend them is if no other company has released the film--and unfortunately, this is often the case. The films they do bring us are wonderful to lovers of B-movies and silents...provided the prints are watchable.

The film was scratchy, completely bleached (you could barely tell it had even once been a color film it was so bad) and the film repeatedly jumped--with missing bits and pieces throughout the film. While I can ignore the scratchiness and washed out print, because often portions of sentences were omitted and the scenes jumped about due to missing frames, I just gave up and recommend you find another version if possible or just skip it entirely. After all, there must have been 29123491324 different Italian muscle-dramas from the era starring the likes of Hercules, Maciste, Ursus or Samson.

The evil King Zagro has designs on the beautiful Princess Sira. He wants to marry her so he can take over her kingdom and add it to his own. When Sira is kidnapped, Ursus leaves his farm to rescue her and to eventually lead a revolt against King Zagro.

Samson Burke is adequate as the muscle hero Ursus in this typical peplum interspersed with palace intrigue and coups here with evil king Zagro's plans being scuppered by Ursus, a pretty princess waiting to be saved. It's fairly standard but enjoyable enough with plenty of action to keep an average peplum fan happy. The fighting in particular is good with Ursus flinging and clobbering the thugs with abandonment. Trial that Ursus has to do prove his innocence is quite good, especially the bit where the elephant is pulling him to the arrow points sticking out of the wood. The only thing I didn't like was Ursus' kid brother as he was annoying and nosey.