La fureur des gladiateurs

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has died. Marcus' son Commodus, who is a thug and amateur fighter, is now on the throne and is ruining Rome with his ways. There is a secret that only the Roman Senator knows the truth and tells the respected Roman Solider, Lucius Crassus, the story. Marcus Aurelius has twin sons. Marcus kept Commodus but ordered the other child's death. Tarruntius was given the task to kill the child but he could not do it and gave the child to a foster family. The foster family named the child Lucius Crassus. Lucius has just as much right to the throne as his twin brother Commodus. Commodus finds out that Lucius is his brother and is angry, he wants Lucius dead. The populace will not challenge and rid Rome of the evil, childish Commodus even though he is bring Rome down. There is now a Gladiatorial battle between the two twin brothers, the better fighter will win and take the throne of Rome.

Richard Harrison plays the heroic Roman solider Lucius Crassus. And there are a bunch of others with names I do not recognize but are fine Italian actors.

This is not a big budget film but looks like quite a bit of money was put into it (just not BIG money). It's an okay film, not great but watchable.

The copy I have is rather faded and poor, it is from one of those cheap Mill Creek 50-packs, Warriors. I cannot expect them to take the time to clean up each of the 50 films for a bargain price. Besides, most of the films are not worth the time to restore anyway.

4.5/10

Once upon a time there were born two twin boys to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and for reasons of dynasty the birth of twins was kept secret. One of the twins was supposed to be drowned at birth but fate intervenes and the kid is brought up in a good household and enters Rome's legions. He is unaware of his Lineage, until the person, who was meant to drown him but couldn't, tells him the truth. The reason - the brother in charge of Rome is no good.

Two Gladiators stars Richard Harrison, who starred in quite a few peplums, and Mimmo Palmara as Emperor Commodo - they are brothers, one good - Richard Harrison as Lucius Crassus - and Palmara is the bad guy who runs Rome cruelly. He steals the scene, playing his character as an unbalanced and cruel individual. Moira Orfei - Marzia - is his mistress who he treats badly.

The Two Gladiators is a pulpy version of the Fall of the Roman Empire with good production values and the actors seems to be enjoying themselves. It's really entertaining, engaging and it's quite spirited - it has more in common with 1940's swashbucklers than blood-drenched gladiator films. The fight scenes range from well choreographed to clumsy, but liveliness is always apparent. Plus Moira Orfei is a sight for sore eyes - what a beauty.

It is just unfair to be too severe about this film. It reflects the spirit and the taste of a public, a form of easy heroic passion, a genre so explored than it gives nothing new, very easy entertainment. To expect more is just bizarre. Sand and sandals, historical episodes as pretextes and good memories for today about actors. So, this story about brothers, revenge and justice, friendship and identical gladiators, with the spice of the love story is just decent. Not high expectations, not great revelations only a nice time front to romantic to naive film.

This sandal film is a copycat production based on the Hollywood success THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE with ACADEMY AWARD winner Sophia LOREN. Almost 40 years later, both films provide the blueprint for the mega-success GLADIATOR from 2000.

A gladiator (Richard HARRISON) fights with his buddies (Giuliano GEMMA and Alvaro De LUNA) against the evil Emperor Commodus (Mimmo PALMARA can really play it big ;-) There is a scheming beauty (Moira ORFEI) and a blonde beauty (enchanting : Ivy HOLZER). There's a lot of fighting, but the fun isn't neglected either.

Quite a passable sword and sandal film from Italy!

If you are pretty mediocre as a director and they want you to make a film with only very little money, what's the outcome? - "I due gladiatori" is an excellent example of the cheap-produced Italian historical pictures of the early sixties. Relying partly on models such as "Ben-Hur", one could call them monumental, only there was nothing monumental left in 1964.

For instance: when a man is holding a rat that has been hunted by the hungry crowd, the next take shows a juicy meal, and, as the camera zooms, we see it being brought to the emperor at a small party. Nice idea so far, but we can be sure that Mario Caiano would have loved to show a vast orgy in consequence, but there's nothing more to eat than the bit that has just been carried in, and there's just a small number of guests standing around. As more examples, the arena fighting scenes are reduced to taking place at the 20-foot front of the stadium's wall, and what is supposed to be a battle between Romans and - Gauls (did I get that right?) is merely a skirmish of some 30 against 30.

The story, however, is somewhat interesting though not new at all. It is based on the true fact that emperor Commodus (180-192 AD) used to fight as a gladiator himself from time to time. Writers Amendola and Brescia also made use of the fact that Commodus had a twin brother (who died early); here, he survived and grew up unknowingly. - Now that emperor Mark Aurel has died (awkwardly dated into 191), his son Commodus succeeds to the throne and turns out to be a despot (that idea is poorly established). Loyal senator Tarrunio gets on his way to seek the twin brother he once was ordered to kill but saved. This man, Centurio Crassus, follows Tarrunio to Rome (hey, what about the Gallic invasion?) in order to overthrow the tyrant.

A couple of the ideas, especially the setting, are taken from Anthony Mann's "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1963, with Christopher Plummer as Commodus), while the linking of brothers Commodus and Crassus reminds of Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston's doomed relationship in "Ben-Hur" (1959) - "closer than brothers", as Boyd says.

Handsome Richard Harrison is a poor replacement for Boyd (in "The Fall..."); but especially the task of writing effective women's rôles into the story remained unaccomplished. (Moira Orfei is a beautiful temptress as ever, though.) Giuliano Gemma and Alvaro de Luna as Harrison's faithful friends add to the hero's nonchalant bravado. Mimmo Palmara is an excellent fighter (as he has often proved in the genre), but as Commodus he is colourless. Peplum's classic heavies Piero Lulli and Alberto Farnese do well as the emperor's sinister advisors Cleander and Leto. Yet, it is not enough to make this cheap flick average at least, in a genre that had lost most of its momentum and magic anyway. Composer Carlo Franchi, too, has contributed better scores before.