One year, A.D. , Rome rules over Greece , in Sparta governs the Eforos . A gladiator named Dario ( Richard Harrison ) getting his freedom , thanks his courage in the Roman circus ; formerly his band of fellows gladiators ( Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla , Joe Marco , Enrique Avila ) flee from Coliseum . Dario returns to Sparta where governs the Eforo Hiarba (Gerard Tichy ). There discovers his father has been killed by Hiarba who also wants to murder Dario and marry to Aglaia (Loredana Nusciak , Djanjo) promised to Dario and daughter of Milone . Then Hierba orders to kill Malone and accuses Dario . After that ,they save the damsel in distress , a Eforo 's daughter . Later on, Dario escapes and join forces with the Spartans, he unites his six professional gladiators to rid itself of the scourge , they are his formers Circus partners , to fight patrician ruler . Seven Spartans are faced at every turn by enemy army . Meanwhile Dario falls in love again with his former sweet-girl named Aglaia and then must rescue her from slavery and death. The gladiators attack the detachment and the fortress where is prisoned Aglaia.
Peplum or ¨Sword and Sandals¨ remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic ¨The seven samurais ¨and John Sturges's ¨The magnificent seven ¨ , it's an adventure film with all the ingredients as action , suspense , comedy , amusement and typical confrontation between good guys and bad guys . The picture allows for periods of humor and calm in which to establish characters punctuated by viscerally exciting bursts of action . It packs fights , sword-play, adventures and some touches of light humor . These culminates in the spectacular climatic battle between the Spartans and the enemies with bulls included . Ample support cast with most of the actors are relative unknowns and formed by muscle-men and regular from Western and Peplum as Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla, Jose Marco and Antonio Molino Rojo , among others. As comic relief appears Bernabe Barta Barry , a sympathetic secondary playing a corpulent man . Good production values with spectacular final battle full of extras , some stock-shots and nice maquettes and scale model by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio . It's shot in the area round Madid , Manzanares and Pedriza where in the 60s were filmed several movies as El Cid , and is a co-production Spanish/ Italian produced by Italo Zingarelli . Atmospheric score by Marcelo Giombini with catching musical leitmotif . The motion picture is professionally directed by Pedro Lazaga , a Spanish craftsman who directed various film with the popular Paco Martinez Soria.
It's followed by other films in similar style such as the ¨The ten gladiators¨ trilogy formed by ¨I dice gladiatori(1963)by Gianfranco Parolini with Roger Browne, Jose Greci and Dan Vadis and followed by ¨Spartacus and ten gladiators¨ and the third outing titled ¨Triumph of ten gladiators or Il Trionfo Dieci Gladiators ¨ again by Nick Nostro .
