La vendetta dei gladiatori (1964) Online

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.

It takes Mickey Hargitay nearly twenty minutes to make his first appearance in this movie and when he arrives on the scene, he adds little to the proceedings. Best known as Jayne Mansfield's one-time husband, Hargitay excelled in bodybuilding but he's an indifferent actor with little charisma -- especially when he's asked to be "noble" and "heroic" -- and he's flatly dubbed in English with the voice of an oily radio announcer. As for the plot, it's the usual mishmash of corrupt rulers, dastardly villains, damsels in distress, and muscular heroes leading a revolt. As often occurs in these peplums, (pepla?), the brawny leading man winds up in torturous bondage, and while Hargitay looks good with his shirt off, his body lacks the spectacular quality of Steve Reeves or Gordon Scott. The torture to which he's first subjected is also quite disappointing. It consists of having him tied to a pole where he's denied water and occasionally given a half-hearted lash with a whip. Ooooh! The agony! Later we see Hargitay tied to a high cross with his arms stretched out and pulled around the crossbeam. This is apparently meant to give the plot a religious touch but it merely results in a chance to see Hargitay stripped to a loincloth and looking mildly uncomfortable. (Curiously, his crucifiers allow Hargitay to retain his footwear.)

This fails in every way. bad acting cheap settings laughable battles and also false telling of the events happened in 454 AD in rome. general Aetius never faced geiseric in battle. it's true geiseric invaded rome but that was after Valentinian died. anyways those are minor faults as we are talking about b-movie sword and sandal film but as I said also the rest of the movie sucked in all levels too. if u want a film worth of that time of the 5th century then go for Attila the hun 1954 and 2001 versions and for the king Arthur 2004 movie and the last legion 2007 movie plus the revenge of the barbarians 1960 movie.