La vendetta dei gladiatori (1964)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

Luigi Capuano

Writers:

Luigi Capuano (story)
Arpad DeRiso (story)

Release Date:

1964 (Italy)

Plot:

In 454 A.D. barbarians led by the Vandal king, Genseri, besiege Rome which is ruled by the ineffectual Valentinian III and his wife...

Plot Keywords:

Gladiator | Stabbed In Stomach | Fight To The Death | Torture | Sword And Sandal

Cast

Renato Baldini
Nerio Bernardi
Aldo Canti
Luigi Casellato
Andrea Checchi
Giovanni Cianfriglia
Antonio Corevi
Andrea Costa
Aldo Cristiani
Franco Daddi
Pasquale De Filippo
Emilia Della Rocca
Mirko Ellis
Mickey Hargitay	...	Fabius
Livio Lorenzon	...	Genseri the Vandal
Roldano Lupi
Giulio Maculani
Dante Maggio
Gino Marturano
Andreina Paul
Bruno Scipioni
Benito Stefanelli
Giulio Tomei
Amedeo Trilli

Also Known As:

Revenge of the Gladiators (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Splendor Film

A superior peplum film, certainly Hargitay's best performance...

I couldn't disagree more with the other reviewer. Many of the peplum films were cheapened by very long silly tavern brawls and tiresome, boring exploits of midgets. This one is done seriously and is every bit as good as the Hollywood big budget efforts such as "Demetrius and the Gladiators" and the Lang Jeffries peplums. It opens with the Roman Emperor (an obnoxious, egotistical and insecure Valentinian) and the Roman populace indulging themselves in their favorite entertainment, watching accomplished professional gladiators commit mass murder in the arena. The action proceeds at a brisk pace from then on, and we learn that those champion gladiators are really discontented former veterans, and Hargitay's loyal father,a general, was eased into a premature death by corrupt plotters at court who are hand in glove with Rome's Vandal enemies, furnishing them with supplies meant for the legions. It's a tough fight for Hargitay's character to get to the heart of the conspiracy and his life's at stake every inch of the way. Hargitay maintains the dignity of his character's upper class heritage, and as for his physique, he's much more believable than Reeves or the other muscle-bound heroes who played many of these roles. Like Lang Jeffries, Ettore Manni, Kerwin Mathews and others, he is muscular in the true classical Greek sense, not a product of 20th century gym rat culture with over-developed, distorted tree-trunk limbs looking like they were achieved by steroids. That is certainly a plus in my book. The two women in the film are also especially pleasing...with Valentinian's beautiful daughter Priscilla (Hargitay's love interest) resembling Gina Lollobrigida at the height of her beauty. And the chief plotter and Valentian's bete noir played by a very snaky woman resembling a young Barbara Stanwyck.