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Customers find the TV series visually appealing, with one mentioning its lavish production and another praising Rhonda Fleming's performance. Customers describe the series as fun to watch. The quality receives mixed reviews, with some finding it acceptable while others express disappointment.
Customers appreciate the color of the TV series, with one mentioning its lavish production and another noting the lovely performance by Rhonda Fleming.
"...First, there is Rhonda Fleming. Second, this film has a lavish production. I can only think of several peplum or gladiator films, that look better...." Read more
This is a MOD (DVD-R) of a fun, typical early 1960's sword-and-sandal film in which slaves rebel against the Roman establishment. The film presents some excellent combat sequences in an arena. This is probably the only gladiator film to star American actress Rhonda Fleming. Also in the cast is the French singer/wildman Serge "Je T'aime" Gainsbourg, who looks somewhat uncomfortable in the role of an evil centurion.
The MOD presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2:35-1. I utilized my TV's zoom feature to properly display the anamorphic image.
In the early 1960's, this film played on a double-bill with another United Artists release, THE MINOTAUR. THE MINOTAUR is only available on a gorgeous Spanish PAL DVD which looks to have been struck from the original negatives, but has no English audio or subtitles.
Before going into the plot, I would like to comment one several pluses. First, there is Rhonda Fleming. Second, this film has a lavish production. I can only think of several peplum or gladiator films, that look better. Third the acting and dubbing are on a very high level. Fleming and, I believe Jeffries, do their own voices. The movie was filmed in English with the non English speaking actors doing their lines by rote and dubbed later. This was a fairly common practice in some higher budgeted Italian films. The dubbing is quite good so there is some real acting here. Also, some of the supporting characters are slightly better developed than in other peplums.
The plot is fairly familiar. A new rebellious slave, actually a Christian, is purchased by Fleming's aristocrat father. He refuses to fight to entertain Fleming's dinner guests and is whipped. Eventually they end up in love. He and Fleming end up in the dungeon with other Christians to be killed in the arena, the slaves revolt, get into the arena to stop the killing but here the ending takes a somewhat different twist which I can't say more about. One of the characters in the film is Sebastian, the head of the Pretorians. He is St. Sebastian, the Christian martyr. This has slightly more plot and character development and slightly less action than the average gladiator film and is a good film. The transfer is excellent with great color and sharpness.
Great DVD edition of this rarity! Perfect quality in picture and sound and in widescreen. About the movie: Produced before they made them by the dozens, it,s a very impressive production and well made in every department. The fine screenplay is handled well by the director and It is indeed a dramatic tale of Rome against the Christians, with violent scenes of figthing, torture and, of caurse, arena fights. Lang Jeffries became a star in europe with this, mostly rememberd for his many great spyfilms in the mid sixties. He was married shortly to Rhonda Fleming around this period and they are sparkling together. It,s not a fantastic movie but without question, one of the best peplums.