The ending to SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959), with Queen Zenobia (Anita Ekberg) on 'trial' and with Marcus Valerius (Georges Marchal) defending her. Lorella De Luca and Jacques Sernas are at the far right. Gino Cervi is on the far left.
This film which had a multitude of directors and writers involved, including Riccardo Freda, Michele Lupo, Michelangelo Antonioni and Sergio Leone. The end result sorta reflects this 'too many cooks spoil the broth' situation: some of it is very good but some of it is a mess. For example, the ending is odd because of one thing: we never see a close-up of Anita even though she's on trial. She's kept in the distance. This was most likely due to the anachronistic dress she wore. She's stunning in it but it doesn't really fit the setting. I'm sure all of those directors and writers were present on the set that day.
Do you know what Antonioni had to do with this film? I've never heard of him being connected with it
ReplyDeletebefore. It would certainly be an odd movie for him to be involved with.
Antonioni was a 'second unit director'. Sergio Leone and Michele Lupo were assistant directors, and Riccardo Freda, who was the second unit director for the battle scenes
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