Musings!

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Alfio Caltabiano and Mario Novelli are not dead in REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS (1964)

Ok, more Cinematic Confusion. This is the last of the SLAVE series from director Michele Lupo. His films are hyper action, quasi-cartoony PEPLUM movies with hyper masculine characters and massive close-ups. You either like his movies or not. I like them but sometimes they are a bit much. This movie shares the same title of another 1964 PEPLUM called REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS with Mickey Hargitay. The Italian title for this movie translates as REVENGE OF SPARTACUS (La Vendetta di Spartacus). The story switches from dead serious to slapstick, which is not unusual in Italian PEPLUM movies. In this improbable scene, the villains (Daniele Rocha and Giacomo Stuart Rossi) meet on the beach where there are hundreds of dead bodies. They celebrate that the rebels are all dead. There's a big and obvious problem with this scene. The corpses have no blood. It's obvious they're not dead but just pretend to be dead and boom, they all stand-up and attack the villains and their soldiers. Just look at the people in the background. There's no blood. This climax, as action-packed as it is, is weak. The whole film is sorta forgettable, certainly compared to SEVEN REBEL GLADIATORS and SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST ROME, which are memorable from beginning to end. Lupo lost steam with this production.

Alfio is the stuntman and is often 'Master of Arms' in movies he's not acting in. This stance, with legs wide apart, is his signature stance. If you watch a PEPLUM movie and the actor fight like this, Alfio is involved with the movie.