Romulus (Roger Moore) is visited by Venus (Rosanna Schiaffino) and Mars (Jean Marais) in ROMULUS AND THE SABINES (1961)
I like almost all PEPLUM movies, including this one even if sorta leaves me indifferent. The production is excellent, the cast is brilliant. There are great scenes like this one, a dream sequence of sorts, which is the highlight of the entire movie even if it's brief. The only big problem this movie has is that it suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a comedy? A historical picture? A historical comedy about...rape? It didn't know how to approach the touchy subject. Even the trailers for the movie are confusing, trying to make it appear as a light, fun movie about the kidnapping of the Sabine women. La Dolce Ratto? PEPLUM comedies are almost always the same. Not funny in a ROTFL way but not clever enough to be viewed as a sophisticated production. Scenes of bare-breasted Sabine women were cut from the US release but can be seen in the French version, which has all the scenes intact.
It'd have been interesting to know Roger's thoughts about the character (surely they were relaxed and practical wich made him more Romulus alike, IMO) or the director's reasons to chose him. Anyway he's ok for the role. This is an almost impossible film to find here in the wastelands.
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