Les dix gladiateurs

A number of familiar elements may be found in this undistinguished but surprisingly watchable "peplum" -- bare-chested strongmen, an evil despot, sword fights, a damsel in distress, slaughter in the arena, demonstrations of muscular strength, a sexy temptress, crucifixions, persecuted Christians, a "loveable" midget, etc. Unfortunately, these elements have not been welded into a coherent whole but instead have simply been tossed together in the vain hope that a rousing plot will somehow emerge. (Just try answering this question from Screen Writing 101: What is the key relationship in this movie?) On the other hand, "The Ten Gladiators" offers the undeniable visual appeal of the ever-shirtless Dan Vadis, (brother of Quo?), who has the body of a Greek god and the face of a football captain. He plays Rocca, (pronounced Raccha in English-dubbed prints), and though his nipples are constantly on display, his navel remains modestly hidden. It's one mark of this movie's lack of organization that it can't provide Vadis with a suitable romantic interest, (though one is clearly available), and it deals him a fate which most audiences will find both surprising and displeasing. And what's with forcing Vadis and his fellow gladiators to repeatedly throw back their heads and emit hearty laughter as if they'e semi-high frat boys walking the late-night streets of Daytona Beach? Note: the dungeon scene showing two half-naked musclemen being burned with hot oil dripping down from the ceiling appears to have been "lifted" from the 1961 "Colossus of Rhodes." Another note: director Gianfranco Parolini also appears as the Roman senator who's sympathetic to the Christians.

Masked bandits are stealing from the rich and give to the poor. Emperor Nero (Gianni Rizzo) decides that he won't allow that to continue. His men bring him a bunch of the usual suspects very quickly, ten gladiators who are traveling from one arena to another. They claim to be innocent, but the emperor condemns them to death - obviously, in the arena. Led by Roccia (Dan Vadis), the 10 gladiators fight their way to freedom and look out for the actual masked rebels to join forces against the emperor.

Below average action flick you will have forgotten on the next day. Gianni Rizzo's eccentric performance as Nero is the only bit of acting here, the rest of the guys looks like a football team practicing for a match.

Roccia and his band of merry gladiators are teaming up with Glaucus Valerius to overthrow Emperor Nero in a mildly funny and somewhat entertaining 1960s peplum. This one is about as cute and funny as the sequel Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators (1964) - that's not saying a lot only that the two films are about equal.

If you want a good peplum film then you'll have to look elsewhere but if you a lame dorky peplum comedy then you've find the right film.

The film is all that great but it beats nothing on an otherwise boring early morning.

3.5/10

I could not disagree more with Bryce on this film. Of all the gladiator type films I've seen over the years, this one stands among the top five.

The two films that followed were actually prequels, rather than sequels, but neither was as good as this one.

Vadis was among the best of the muscle-hound actors, even better than Reeves, in many ways. He could play good guys, as well as bad guys, and he even succeeded at playing bad guys better than good. His acting was athletic and animated...and he was at least as handsome as Reeves.

What happens to his character was shocking and unexpected, which actually made it better than the usual, to me. I like films that veer off in an unexpected direction, and that's exactly what the director had in mind, I suspect. Life is full of unexpected events. The ending was way cool! If you want to see what a fine actor Vadis was, check out the spaghetti western called Deguello. He's brilliant in it! All in all, this film is one the best of it's kind...good story, good acting, and all.

Ten Gladiators was the first of three films in a series of peplum films with the team of ten muscle dudes trained in the gladiatorial skills, who go around writing general wrongs. Here they are involved in the overthrow of Nero. No one paid too much attention to continuity because in one of their succeeding films they're aiding Spartacus in his revolt which was over 100 years earlier than Nero.

Dan Vadis heads the group of ten and he's built like and looks a whole lot like Lou Ferrigno. When I saw he was born in Brooklyn as was Ferrigno, I figure they have to be related somehow.

The plot is a knockoff of Quo Vadis with the Christian element only brought in at the last minute. There's a whole lot of grumbling about how Nero is running the Empire and plans are afoot to bring General Galba in for a palace coup. But Nero has his praetorian guard and these guys are nothing to be trifled with.

This film will make you pine for Peter Ustinov or Charles Laughton.