When this film begins, I found myself feeling a bit sad. Here is an alcoholic and puffy Alan Ladd towards the very end of his career playing in an ultra-low budget Italian sword and sandal epic. Alan Ladd?! In this sort of film?! For fans of this once charismatic actor, seeing him in the Roman garb fighting limply, it is hard to watch.
It seems that Ladd is the commander of a legion in the early days of Rome--long before the Roman republic and even longer before the legendary days of the Caesars. This Rome is a city-state and it is not THE player on the Italian peninsula, but one of several city-states. This film focuses on the war between Rome and nearby Alba. During the war, Ladd is taken prisoner and assumed a coward by the folks back in Rome. When he ultimately escapes and returns, he's reviled--so soon he leaves for a quiet life in the country. However, when Rome needs his services once again, Ladd is content to sit this one out--after all, what has Rome done for him?
In addition to having Ladd looking old and puffy, he also isn't all that much of a hero in this one. Unlike the stereotypical Roman soldier, he's more than willing to turn tail and run. And who's to blame him--as in this film his brilliant strategy ultimately pays off!
The film has a lot of problems. Some of it is due to the terrible quality of the print from Diamond Entertainment (a relatively unknown company for a rather forgotten film). It's both blurry AND grainy--like it was copied off a badly degraded videotape. Now you can't blame the film makers for this, but you can blame them for choosing a far from charismatic leading man (an American star in order to give this Italian film some class), having a mostly dull script and for just looking amazingly cheap throughout the film. In particular, you never really see Rome--just a wall that looks like it was made out of painted plywood. Overall, it's a film not a whole lot better than the Maciste (aka, Hercules or Atlas or Samson) films of the same era.
Dull and cheap and only recommended to those who insist on seeing all of Alan Ladd's films--even the bad ones.
It seems that Ladd is the commander of a legion in the early days of Rome--long before the Roman republic and even longer before the legendary days of the Caesars. This Rome is a city-state and it is not THE player on the Italian peninsula, but one of several city-states. This film focuses on the war between Rome and nearby Alba. During the war, Ladd is taken prisoner and assumed a coward by the folks back in Rome. When he ultimately escapes and returns, he's reviled--so soon he leaves for a quiet life in the country. However, when Rome needs his services once again, Ladd is content to sit this one out--after all, what has Rome done for him?
In addition to having Ladd looking old and puffy, he also isn't all that much of a hero in this one. Unlike the stereotypical Roman soldier, he's more than willing to turn tail and run. And who's to blame him--as in this film his brilliant strategy ultimately pays off!
The film has a lot of problems. Some of it is due to the terrible quality of the print from Diamond Entertainment (a relatively unknown company for a rather forgotten film). It's both blurry AND grainy--like it was copied off a badly degraded videotape. Now you can't blame the film makers for this, but you can blame them for choosing a far from charismatic leading man (an American star in order to give this Italian film some class), having a mostly dull script and for just looking amazingly cheap throughout the film. In particular, you never really see Rome--just a wall that looks like it was made out of painted plywood. Overall, it's a film not a whole lot better than the Maciste (aka, Hercules or Atlas or Samson) films of the same era.
Dull and cheap and only recommended to those who insist on seeing all of Alan Ladd's films--even the bad ones.