A follow-up to 20th Century Fox's first big CinemaScope success , the religious mammoth epic titled The Robe from bestselling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas , that begins where the former one left off and resulting to be better than the original . Stars Victor Mature again as the title role , Demetrius , the Greek who is given charge of the rob of Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion. In fact , there's a brief introduction about legionnaire Marcellus : Richard Burton , as he was in charge of the group that was assigned to crucify Christ and from his official duties he won Jesus' homespun robe in a dice-game . Meanwhile , Christ's garment is now the object of quest of Emperor Caligula and he will stop at nothing to get it and at whatever means . As the holy-robe-carrying slave is enlisted as one of Caligula's gladiators and along the way he mixes with the sex-hungry Messalina . The religious and pieties from previous film have partially gone , to be replaced by the tortuous court machinations of nasty Caligula : repeating role Jay Robinson, his astute uncle Claudius : Barry Jones and cunning Messalina : Susan Hayward .
This is an overwhelming Colossal turning out to be the continuation of the Robe, packing breathtaking combats among furious gladiators , a sensitive love story between Victor Mature/Debra Paget , an adequate cast of thousands , religious remarks mainly starred by apostle Saint Peter : Michael Wilding and reaching an exciting peak at the end . There are some moving battles in the arena and an impressive fight between Victor Mature and various hungry tigers. There are also some historical characters as the extremely baddie and sadistic Caligula giving him a hammy overacting by Jay Robinson , the allegedly silly but really intelligent Claudius finely played by Barry Jones and the tempter , seducer Messalina nicely performed by the trampy Susan Hayward . While the main star Victor Mature provides a wooden interpretation , as usual . They are competently performed by an attractive support cas , such as : Ernest Borgnine playing a gladiator trainer, Richard Egan as a brave hunk gladiator , William Marshall as Glycon , Anne Bancroft , Charles Evans and uncredited as gladiators : Michael Conrad , Russell Johnson , Jeff York and Ed Fury , the latter to be continued an Italian career as a Peplum or Sword and Sandal heroe , in addition , appearing as uncredited dancer girl , Julie Newmar .
It contains a rousing as well as lyric musical score by great composer Franz Waxman . As well as colorful and brilliant cinematography by Milton R. Krasner in glimmer Technicolor . The motion picture was well directed by Delmer Daves (The Red House , Broken Arrow , Cowboy , Jubal, The Last Wagon, Destination Tokyo, An Affair to Remember) and showing much more ease in the CinemaScope format than The Robe by Henry Koster . Rating : 6.6/10 . Decent Colossal that will appeal to star-studded fans and Roman time lovers .
