Ursus, il gladiatore ribelle (1962)

In order to persuade the Emperor to spare his village, the mighty Ursus is forced to fight the greatest gladiator in Rome in the Roman Arena.

Director:

Domenico Paolella

Writers:

Alessandro Ferraù, Domenico Paolella,

Stars:

Dan Vadis, Gloria Milland, José Greci

Cast

Cast overview:
Dan Vadis	...	Ursus
Gloria Milland	...	Marzia
José Greci	...	Arminia
Sergio Ciani	...	Commodus
Andrea Aureli	...	Gladiators' Instructor
Tullio Altamura	...	Antoninus
Nando Tamberlani	...	Marc Aurel
Salvatore Borghese	...	Gladiator
Gianni Santuccio	...	Senator Emilius Letus
Consalvo Dell'Arti	...	Senator Lucius
Carlo Delmi	...	Settimius Letus
Marco Mariani
Pietro Ceccarelli
Bruno Scipioni
Claudio Marzulli

Storyline

In order to persuade the Emperor to spare his village, the mighty Ursus is forced to fight the greatest gladiator in Rome in the Roman Arena.

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Plot Keywords:

gladiator | arena | ancient rome | bare chested male fighting | showdown | 

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Taglines:

Desperate Men Against a Savage Tyrant!

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Genres:

Adventure

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Rebel Gladiators

Company Credits

Production Co:

Splendor Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Of all the onscreen portrayals of Commodus, Sergio Ciani's is probably the closest to the real emperor. The real Commodus was athletic and muscular. In reality, Commodus, as in the film, did enjoy performing as a gladiator. He was also said to have been a skilled swordsman and marksman.

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Goofs

Commodus is referred to in the movie as Marcus Commodus. Never in his life did he ever have that name, nor was he ever known by that name.

User Reviews

THE REBEL GLADIATOR (Domenico Paolella, 1963) *1/2

Until fairly recently, I hadn't heard of director Domenico Paolella and the only films of his I'd seen prior to this one were two good Italian comedies featuring legendary Italian comic, Toto'; one of them, IL CORAGGIO (1955), was a revamping of Jean Renoir's BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING (1932), tailored to suit the star's unique brand of mimicry! As it happens, this muscleman epic is quite another thing, with the mythical giant Ursus – who was made famous by Buddy Baer in the MGM super production of QUO VADIS (1951) and played here by the aptly (and hilariously) named Dan Vadis! – somehow incongruously inserted into another retelling of the events which were much better, and more spectacularly, handled in Anthon Mann's THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964) and Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR (2000). Unfortunately, I was unable to keep a straight face most of the time especially with Alan Steel (another muscleman who featured heavily in such fare) playing a very athletic Commodus – rather than the mad wimp which history tells us he was!