Georges Marchal and Anita Ekberg in SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR
A film which suffered from a case of too many cooks. Multiple (soon-to-be famous) directors and (soon-to-be famous) writers and the final result is meh. It looks good and it looks like a PEPLUM should but the story is nothing remarkable. It's a shame because all the ingredients were there, including Marchal and Edberg as a couple. I liked them. They worked well together. I don't view this as a total flop. No. I've watched this film so many times and will continue to watch it because it feeds my craving for all things PEPLUM but I just wished the story and direction were more than meh. Also, the English title doesn't make any sense.
This is one the first films I reviewed years ago. I stopped reviewing films because no one seemed to care. I might start again if I can find some extra time. My review of the film was from viewing a poor quality copy. My estimation of it has somewhat grown with the much better widescreen copies I've got since writing that review (including one in English) but what I think of it is pretty much the same : a to and sometimes dull mess. Here's the page : Featured Film
This movie was not entirely too bad, but I did do some head scratching and I also thought there could of been a plot that was more worthwhile. I have tell you this Monday nite I watched for the first time ever MACISTE IN HELL on my Amazon Prime in HD. The movie looked great with pristine color, and was the original Italian release. I say this because the credits were in Italian and though it was dubbed parts were in English and Italian. What a difference from my washed out copy THE WITCHES CURSE and all the scenes were intact. Amazon will soon have several other PEPLUM Films added to their vast collection of movies. AMAZONS OF ROME will be one of them from what I gather. They do have some, but some of those they have are not top quality.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. If you haven't seen MACISTE IN HELL in its original state, you haven't seen the movie. It must have been amazing in HD
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