Picking up right where "The Robe" left off, "Demetrius And The Gladiators" is more of a Roman epic than a religious epic compared to its predecessor; whether that's good or bad is up to you. Demetrius' journey is rather predictable, but the production values are still solid, the fight scenes are well-choreographed (even if completely bloodless), the pace is good, there is some juicy dialogue ("tell me, how can you love a woman as your brother?"), Susan Hayward is a terrific, tempting Messalina (the film goes as far as censorship of the time would allow in suggesting that she gets turned on by the spectacle of gladiatorial battle), Jay Robinson is a convincingly mad Caligula, and William Marshall is commanding as a black gladiator (he has some scenes with Victor Mature which are reminiscent of, but predate, the Kirk Douglas - Woody Strode dynamic in "Spartacus"). **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Demetrius and the Gladiators
