By the Gods!

Peter Lupus plays Spartacus in CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR (1965)

One of my Holy Grails of my Ultimate Most Wanted List has been fulfilled: a widescreen copy of CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR in HD no less. For years, this movie was only available in two copies: one 4:3 aspect ratio from a TV broadcast on a now defunct Canadian TV channel called Drive-In Classics. Or a 4:3 aspect ratio of an Italian Broadcast. I made a complete comparison of those two copies here at the blog. You can view it at this link.

Directed by Domenico Paolella, who also directed HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (1963) and HERCULES AGAINST THE BARBARIANS (1964), this movie is as entertaining as those two classic PEPs. Peter Lupus is in 'pectacular' shape and the great thing about him is that he looks Mediterranean. 

Since the image is in widescreen and not cropped we finally see all the action and actors. In this scene, 3 of the gladiators are actors from THE TEN GLADIATORS series. I uploaded a clip of this gladiator fight at the PEPLUM TV Youtube channel. Check it out.

From right to left: Jeff Cameron, Romano Giomini, (unknown actor), Lupus, Walter Barnes and next to him is Salvatore Borgese. Cameron, Giomini and Borgese are from the TEN GLADIATORS series. Nice to finally see the movie uncropped. Cameron and Borgese are credited at IMDb but not Giomini (which is often the case for this actor).