La Révolte de Sparte

Milo, tyrant of Sparta, has betrayed the Achea League. The evidence of betrayal is hidden by one of the rebels who is killed before he can reveal the hiding place to his friend Keros.

The cast is more or less the same as the Secret Seven and it has a number seven heroes going up against tyranny, however the Revolt of the Seven never reaches the heights as the Secret Seven, which a lively romp. Revolt .. is fun in parts, lively in some parts and has some humour but it never raises above routine. It's not unwatchable, far from it, but it lacks the drive and punch as the Secret Seven. Helga Line as the duplicitous Aspasia is great as a Lady DeWinter ( of Three Musketeers) Type, and throw in a little theatre travelling to avoid the soldiers a la Scaramouche. One thing, though, Tony Russel - a Rock Hudson lookalike - makes a lively hero.

This is one of the last of the Italian sword-and-sandal reels and like "Ercole sfida Sansone" it's one of those points where the genre crosses over into turkeyland. The fighting looks cheesy (check out the scene where the rebels, some of them dressed as women, wigs and all, get into a fistfight with the Roman soldiers - both the impact sounds and the movements are miles off any real fighting), much of the script seems more like Robin Hood than antiquity and it's all on a disjointed comic-book level.

The acting is generally dire. Fun at times because it's so utter carelessly done, but nowhere near real excitement. If you're looking for adventurous men fighting a tyrant, try "Flash Gordon" instead.

THE SPARTAN GLADIATORS is another 60's Italian sword and sandal so-called epic that is dogged by a poor script that borders on the incomprehensible at times. Clearly made on a miniscule budget, the version I watched contained some atrocious dubbing. During some of the fist-fights each punch that hit its target sounded like somebody's head being hit with a metal tray. At other times this curious sound effect was completely out of synchronisation so that the silent punch was followed about two seconds later by the sound of tray on head. Oh well, at least that injected a badly needed piece of humour into this ordinary tale, even if it was unintended.

The storyline, for what it's worth, concerns the quest of a group of escaped gladiators to seize a statuette from a Roman official who plans to use it to forge an alliance with a neighbouring country that will result in the gladiator's country-folk becoming life-long slaves. Or something. Quite frankly, the plot is secondary to the barrage of fight scenes that quickly become tiresome and boring, and seems to wander in and out of the movie with the same lack of enthusiasm as its viewers.

Aside from one quite neat murder, this movie is a complete dud that will satisfy only easily-pleased boys under the age of 10.

A number of peplums distributed in the U.S. via MGM often used to turn up on the TCM UK cable channel; in fact, I had caught up with DAMON AND PYTHIAS (1962) and HERCULES, SAMSON AND ULYSSES (1964) in previous Easter marathons – while the film under review, another such instance, had eluded me but, apparently, this also occurred on Italian TV… since the copy I now watched off "You Tube" was derived from a screening on a particular channel that is no longer available in my neck of the woods, but on which such genre outings had long been a matinée staple!

Anyway, this is a thoroughly routine effort – even if not as bad as some entries I have watched previously. Both the international and Italian titles, however, are a reference to nothing in particular as, while there are characters emanating from Sparta and the hero does a stint as a gladiator at some point, neither issue is ultimately given much weight! That said, it was called LA RIVOLTA DEI SETTE (literally "Revolt Of The Seven") on its home ground – which, again, alludes to the amount of people engaged in opposing the villain (I do not even call him tyrant as in myriad other such fare, since he is only looking out to protect himself from being exposed as a traitor!); yet, their number is never discussed, nor do they possess any special skills a' la THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) – which one supposes was the point behind it to begin with! In fact, even though the townspeople are never shown as being oppressed or even in on what the heroes were up to, they still take time out at the end to bid a long-drawn-out farewell to departing hero Tony Russel et al!

For good measure, we also have the intrusion on the dreary main narrative of elements from two popular swashbucklers: Rafael Sabatini's "Scaramouche" in the fact that the rebel group adopts a traveling show disguise (or rather appropriates a genuine one towards its end, with Livio Lorenzon hammily quoting Greek Tragedy every time he opens his mouth and the whole crew dressing up as vestal virgins for a caper at a crowded temple, the object being an incriminating statue!) and Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" (given that Massimo Serato's mysterious relationship with Helga Line' – though both are wasted here – recalls that between Athos and Milady De Winter!). The climax, then, sees the obligatory showdown turning into a veritable mudfight for no very good reason…while, in the foreground, two unfortunate horses attached to a chariot are struggling to get up on their feet all through the scene! Having said that, as if to claim authorship of his movies, the director has Serato interrupt Russel's execution of the villain so that he himself can accomplish that task in return for the latter's killing of Line'…as had been the case with the finale of De Martino's THE INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR (1961)!

This is probably the fastset paced of the peplum adventures with lavish sets, humor and unremitting action. The story gets kind of lost in it all, and it's hard to keep track of just why everyone is violently seeking the Athena statuette, but who cares! Tony Russel and his escaped gladiator pals have their hands more than full trying to outwit the conspirators and take many a beating before they finally triumph.