Spartacus et les dix gladiateurs

From a female standpoint of view, there is no (real) beefcake here because they all look like a bunch of apes. Spartacus being the ugliest of the apes. Good thing this is a comedy! They have Spartacus and his 10 merry men rebelling against fighting their own in the coliseum sports. Yet half of the film is of Spartacus and his 10 men fighting their own. Ironic ain't it. They roll around really well on the ground too. :P It's a terrible B film but does have some funny stuff that makes it worth watching on this rainy morning. It's an awful movie but it is cheap entertainment from the Mill Creek Warriors 50-Pack.

3.5/10

If you watch one Spartacus movie - don't let it be this one. If you are a fan of Swords and Sandals movies in general I will not persuade you to not watch this though. But you know the formula: big oiled men, fight other men and overpower them or something along those lines.

So you know what this will be about: historical accuracy is not one of those things. You want to watch it, be my guest, but don't complain if you don't like what you see.

As I've mentioned before in the past, I generally don't think much of the sword and sandal movies that came out of Europe in the 1960s. So you might imagine my surprise when I found this particular example of the genre to be not that bad at all. Now, I'll admit it's far from perfect. The movie does have a major weakness, and that is with the characters. The ten gladiators, for one thing, are pretty much interchangeable; we hardly learn a thing about them such as their names, and they all seem to talk and act alike. Spartacus isn't that much better written, one reason being that he doesn't make that many appearances, and the few times he shows up are pretty short in length. As for the bad guys, they are straight out of the stock character catalog.

But if you're willing to put up with the poorly written characters, the movie does all the same manage to be reasonably entertaining. The story is snappily paced, and even manages to put in a bit more plot than usual. The production values aren't bad, and the main selling point of the movie - action - is well done. There's quite a bit of action, and the action is choreographed and directed in a manner to be quite exciting at times.

"Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators" isn't a great movie, but it does satisfy the lazy weekend audience. It is perfectly fine non-think entertainment. We all get in that mood on occasion, so when you're in that particular frame of mind, give it a spin in your DVD player.

There are three films featuring the Ten Gladiators and starring Dan Vadis as the muscleman Roccia (literally "The Rock"!); this is the second entry in the series and, with a title like that, comparisons to Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS (1960) are bound to arise which, frankly, do it no favors at all! For one thing, the Spartacus of this film is overage and engages in an interminable fight with Vadis on their first meeting (after which they become allies); on the other hand, the slimy Roman senator and chief villain here is given a Charles Laughton-like voice in the English dubbing but is saddled with an incompetent giant (!) for a henchman (actually the same 'actor' was equally ill-at-ease in SAMSON [1961], which I had watched earlier in my peplum marathon). At least, Euro-Cult regular Helga Line' is on hand as the attractive heroine

I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had while watching SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS. It's starts up with an action packed beginning with the gladiators battling in an arena and never let's up until the end. Though nothing earth-shattering about SATTG, I was amazed by how focused and assured the direction was by Nick Nostro. There's almost no wasted moment in the entire film. Even the moments of comedy work and never get trite. The story about the ten gladiators teaming with Spartacus to over-throw an evil and corrupt Roman ruler is not to be taken as seriously as Stanley Kubrick's version of the legendary rebel but oddly enough, in this case, it works, this mostly due to the sharp direction by Nostro who never takes it too seriously and knows this is all about action, action, action.

Unlike THE TEN GLADIATORS, the melodrama in SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS is kept to a minimum. The same with the comedy bits, which was really annoying in the first film (no midget here). The music is pretty good. The color scheme is actually tasteful (for a Peplum). And the acting, though nothing remotely memorable, is much better than its predecessor. The gang really click here and, again, because of the focused direction, the ten gladiators stand out better here. Dan Vadis is fun and seems to enjoy himself. The only real weakness, like the first film, is the underdeveloped explanation for the beefy bunch. Why are they together? What are their names? The script is seriously underwritten in this respect. The same could be said for the villains. Though suitably evil in a campy way, the pudgy Roman ruler and his henchman are hardly worthy adversaries to ten powerful gladiators. This series needed worthy bad guys to probably make it more memorable. And the battle sequence at the climax is probably footage from another film, which is unfortunate and lowers the merit of the whole film as a whole.

But even with these obvious weaknesses, SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS has several stand-out scenes in it, including the beginning in the arena, the fighting between Vadis' character and Spartacus. The many battles sequences, which are sharply edited. The funny moments when the ten gladiators start eliminating the Roman soldiers. But the most memorable moment in the whole film is when Vadis, along with other slaves, hangs from a tree by a rope wrapped around a single arm (ouch). Then the Roman soldiers start killing the men hanging there with bows and arrows. Visually, this whole scene is a knock-out. The conclusion, with chariot and horses, is also visually striking. These moments tell me that director Nick Nostro had some talent for action. His style reminds me a bit of Sergio Leone.

Like in all these kind of films, the beefcake quota is pretty high. Vadis looks quite impressive here: agile and yet powerful. The actors playing the other 9 gladiators, whoever they are, are believable in their roles. Also, there are a couple of beautiful women in the movie. Ursula Davis is pretty but Helga Line is the babe in the movie. She really looks exotic. Incidentally, I recently caught Helga in the dreadful THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE and even though she basically looks the same, if a bit older, she didn't look as "exotic" in it as in SATTG.

Like I said, I was surprised by how much of a good time I had while watching this film. SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS is a Sword and Sandal film waiting to be rediscovered. A proper widescreen transfer is in order. I'm certain my estimation of it would grow even more.