dbdumonteil Alan Ladd seems exhausted during the whole movie.It is a wonder he can escape from the wolf pit and then defeat Curiazio in the final duel.His features thickened and he was only the ghost of the dashing hero of the brilliant westerns of the fifties .Most of the time ,he does not seem to care about his family,his love and the plot.This is a well-known story:Pierre Corneille wrote one of his most famous tragedies "Horace" in 1640 about the Roman legend.The writers did the same here,but it seems that their job was not as good as in the contemporary "Romolo e Remo" .(Publius)Horatio is away most of the time and no actor on the screen can generate excitement or interest.Only the scene in the woods when Horatio defeats two of the Curiazi retains some suspense ,not unlike that Terence Young will use later in "Wait Until dark" .Horatio's sister who falls in love at first sight with the "enemy" is not killed by his brother after the victory ,as in the legend!She commits suicide .Now Tullius will reign over the two towns ,Rome and Albe .As for Alan Ladd,he was to pass away three years after,but it's better to consider "the carpetbaggers" -albeit a movie of average worth- his swansong:he easily outclassed the rest of the cast in that film with his part of an old actor down on his luck.

MARIO GAUCI This international co-production tells of a "famous" duel between two sets of three brothers (one from each side of the Romans and the Barbarians) which was to decide the fate of the ongoing war between them. While the production values sounded promising on paper – co-director Terence Young, American actors Alan Ladd and Robert Keith (whose last film this turned out to be), French star Jacques Sernas, ex-Fellini alumnus Franco Fabrizi, four noteworthy screenwriters, etc – the film comes off as a rather talky and undernourished affair which cannot hope to do justice to its mythical subject.A visibly tired Alan Ladd, then, is evidently miscast and seems to be playing his role as if he has just stepped in from the American West rather than being at the head of a Roman legion! The hokey, would-be tragic "Romeo and Juliet" subplot involving Ladd's sister and Barbarian Fabrizi doesn't help matters either; on the plus side, however, is a sequence early on where Ladd is teared at by a pack of hungry wolves and the forest hunt by the three barbarian brothers for Ladd (after having killed his two siblings) which rebounds on themselves – with our hero, naturally, emerging victorious at the end to walk off into the sunset with his beloved.

Poseidon-3 Ordinarily, sword and sandal epics such as this require a tall, virile, heroic, muscle-bound lead at the helm. Perhaps the filmmakers were going for something different... and they succeeded. The result is a middling-at-best piece of forgettable, low-budget celluloid. As the story begins, Rome and Alba are locked into a long, costly war which neither side seems to be fully capable of winning. Ladd, a commander in the Roman army, falls from grace when he is captured after a battle and not killed. His brother marries his intended bride and plans to run the city of Rome once the present ruler Keith is dead. Eventually, however, the opposing forces realize the futility of the constant warring and decide to place their fates in one solitary battle. Each side must present a trio of brothers. They will fight each other (in the title event) until one side loses all three and the to the victor goes the upper ruling hand. So Ladd is asked to return to Rome and help win his city's independence. Meanwhile his sister has inexplicably fallen in love with one of the opposing brothers following their temporary kidnapping of her! It's an understatement to say that Ladd is miscast here. At 5-1/2 feet tall and 48 years-old (but looking much older), he hardly brings to mind the hearty, powerful type that this role calls for. Besides, his decidedly 20th century hair and nicotine-infused voice, with it's patently mid-western accent, undo any hope of period verisimilitude. He appears to be trying to suggest strength and skill in the fight scenes, but they're nearly all done in close-up so that his grimaces can take the place of any actual physical exertion. The rest is handled by stunt men. This just wasn't his milieu. His daughter appears in the film as well, but her acting career never really materialized. Keith (who makes Ladd look younger by comparison) does a decent enough job, but this is hardly a prestigious end to his lengthy career. A few notable scenes include Ladd's tussle with a trio of wolves and his deep woods dispatching of his opponents (however, wouldn't a true warrior have stood and fought in the appointed battle area and not run off into the trees in order to trap his enemies?) Viewers will also note the preposterously top-heavy (and not exactly easily hidden!) helmets of some of the Alban troops. Fans of Ladd may enjoy this more (and there appears to be a version twenty minutes longer than the currently circulated 85 minute copy), but most gladiator movie fans will feel that something is left wanting.

heliopause While those of us interested in ancient stories and sword and sandals productions will find this story to be interesting, it falls short, well short, in production quality and script to be the epic it could have been.The plot follows the story of one of the Orazi brothers of Rome, at war with Alba. This brother is accused of cowardice in battle and is captured by the Albans. He escapes, but is not warmly welcomed upon his return to Rome. After years of war, the Romans and Albans agree to decide the battle in a duel of 3 Roman brothers (the Orazi's) vs. 3 Alban brothers. In the end, this Orazi wins the day but the victory is bittersweet as displayed with his disgust for the need for killing.What stands out is the epic musical score composed by Francesco Lavagnino at his peak. Clearly, the music is at a far different level than the movie, it elevates the story but cannot raise the production near to the realm of an epic. Still, it is a collectible for ancient movie fans. Available on budget DVD, the DVD transfer is terrible.