Demetrius and the Gladiators

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The H was about to rate it 3 for the tiger fight, but the end was too corny to handle Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/16/24 Full Review Olivia Y The reason it's good? Jay Robinson. He's marvelously insane. Just like the Robin Hood films with basil Ruthbone and Alan Rickman who totally outshone their leads, so does Robinson. Shame the film has to display too much American naffness…… Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/20/23 Full Review Audience Member This sequel to The Robe brings more of what made these period pieces so great back in the day. Along with the likes of Cleopatra, Demetrius and the Gladiators sports fantastic set pieces, wonderful costumes and stories of Rome of old. While I think the portrayal of Emperor Caligula is much more subdued than any other I've ever seen, he is still clearly not a very nice emperor The gladiator games are where this film really gets interesting. While nothing like the tv show Spartacus, being more like the modern film Gladiator, it shows some truly entertaining arena combat. Not as flashy as modern films with action more akin to the stage, it is still a spectacle to behold. Demetrius and the Gladiators is a wonderful film and should delight any fans of older films and those who enjoy seeing the likes of Italy before it was called Italy. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member an excellent follow up to the movie The Robe Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member As a sequel to the robe this naturally continues the themes of the early days of Christianity in the Roman world. It's a fair survival romp for Victor Mature with a mix of romance, danger and action. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member There's nothing quite like an old school Biblical classic from the 1950s to evoke those old feelings of nostalgia for childhood Sunday afternoons. Demetrius and the Gladiators fulfils that role completely as it has all the stereotypes required for such a movie. The film is a sequel to The Robe and picks up right from where that story leaves off. Starring Victor Mature as the eponymous Greek forced into the gladiatorial arena, it is a technicolor, bouffant haired, sword and sandal tale that's not really an epic. Truth be told, it's a rather shallow tale and Mature makes for an uncharismatic lead. The hoard of 50s beefcake actors struggle to look anything more than camp and rather sorry these days and this is especially true of Mature who seems to have his features re-chiselled into a slightly more improbable semblance of a relevant emotion each time he's not in frame. The rather tepid Susan Hayward makes for an unconvincing femme fatal as the scheming Messalina and Debra Paget's Lucia is woefully boring. The mood is lightened however by the fleeting presence of Michael Rennie as the disciple Peter (who wisely nips off to see to some business in Galilee for most of the movie) and the gloriously over the top Jay Robinson as the bonkers Caligula. He is marvellous in this role and it is easy to forget that he only played this part twice as his performance as the mad emperor is so ingrained in my mind. The voice, the cloak clutching and the swooshing around the columns makes him like some malevolent, golden sandalled imp out to bring mayhem and havoc to the Roman empire. He's a silent movie villain trapped in a technicolor age and brightens up an otherwise rather dull movie no end. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Demetrius and the Gladiators

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