Lang Jeffries and Rhonda Fleming during the rousing ending in REVOLT OF THE SLAVES (1960)
There's a lot of back story to the making of this film, a lot of it not very positive. Lang was a TV star and Rhonda was a movie star. The two married in 1960 in Vegas, just prior to making the movie. They traveled to Rome and Lang sought the lead male role when he saw that no one was cast yet. Lang was Rhonda's third husband. The two divorced 2 years later. This was Lang's first movie role. It's always difficult for me to watch a movie with the leads are married in real life. I love REVOLT OF THE SLAVES but their on-screen relationship is awkward. Probably the film's biggest liability. There's literally no chemistry between the two even if they were in their honeymoon phase (red flag!).
I like Rhonda. She had great screen presence. Lang had a solid masculine presence but his acting was limited.
To make matters worse, the director, Nunzio Malasomma, refused to talk directly to both actors during production which is highly unusual. Because of this, Lang claimed he directed their scenes. Nunzio probably had someone else in mind for the two lead roles. The movie was shot in Spain. I'm not sure if the interior scenes were also shot in Spain. Looks more like Italy. The sets are beautiful.
Lang eventually retired from acting and went into real estate. Rhonda would marry three more times. Rhonda's film career was pretty much over after this movie, with TV roles in WAGON TRAIN, which I recently saw (it was sad...). Unlike many PEPLUM movies, UNITED ARTISTS retain distribution rights across many countries, not just the US which is usually the case. IMDb claims the movie cost next to nothing but the movie has big, detailed sets and huge crowd scenes, which aren't cheap. Many have dismissed it as being an uninspired remake of FABIOLA (1949). I disagree totally. For example, the catacombs scene is excellent and there's no scene like that in FABIOLA (addendum: there's a scene set in a catacomb in FABIOLA but it's just people talking. The one in ROTS is suspenseful/action scene that's really well made. Totally different).
Even with all of the negative stuff, I really like this movie. It's very entertaining.
8 comments:
I like the film a lot. I thought Lang and Rhonda met making the movie. Where did you read otherwise? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious.
Wikipedia profile of Lang Jeffries
I find you need to take Wikipedia info with a grain of salt. Anybody can list anything they want without fact substantiation.
Yes, one has to take wikipedia not so seriously but the info is linked to a newspaper article from 1961. You need to register to read it.
I found this from another source. "Rhonda Fleming and Lang Jeffries met while making The Revolt of the Slaves, as Jeffries was her co-star in the film. They married after their time on set."
I highly doubt they married after they made the movie. That means they made the movie in February or March of 1960 in Spain. If you watch the movie, it's clearly summer.
I watched Fabiola some time ago. But there is a catacomb scene in that movie. And it is very good. Did you watch the truncated theatre version, running at 99 minutes of the extended version running at 154 minutes?
Paul, yes there's a catacomb scene in FABIOLA but they are totally different. The one in FAIOLA is a drama. People talking. The one in REVOLT OF THE SLAVES is a suspenseful/action oriented scene.
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