Historical adventure , being fast moving , which benefits from its Venetian setting . Exciting story of love and adventure , the complete romance and the historical events about the Venetian council of Dux . It is packed with derring-do , intrigue , a love story , action , drama and moving swordplay . Great epic plenty of action and adventure with glamorous gowns and luxurious sets from Venice . It is a passable entertainment with nice Venetian settings , lots of court intrigue and duplicity , and it stars one of the finest American expatriate actors in 60s Eurocinema , Brett Hasley , who here is entangled in a web of treachery and intrigue , along with the always brilliant Conrado San Martin . Rolando Candiano (Brett Halsey) is close to marrying the golden-haired beauty daughter (Vira Silenti) of a powerful Venetian person called Dandolo (José Nieto) . As three evil grand enemies , the treacherous Capitano Altieri (Conrado San Martín) , Bembo Altieri (José Marco Davó) and Capitano Lorenzi (Paolo Gozlino) join forces and attempt to condemn his enemy , the main Doge of Venice , Candiano (Jean Murat) , and his son Rolando . As our hero attempts to marry his bride but Roland is condemned by conspiracy after a highly unfair judicial process and locked up in a Venice jail . Digging a tunnel with the aid of his cellmate Scalabrino (Burt Nelson) , Rolando succeeds to escape . The picture was partially based on historical ¨Dux¨ derived from Latin dūx, "military leader" , sometimes translated as Duke . Doges were the chief magistrates and leaders of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the man selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city. The doge was not a duke in the modern sense, nor was a doge the equivalent of a hereditary duke. The "doge" was the senior-most elected official of Venice and Genoa; both cities were republics and elected doges .
This is an entertaining swashbuckling , plenty of action , thrills , fights , romance , double-crosses and a lot of fencing . It is something quite diverse from the ordinary adventure scenery , it is set in the end of middle ages , next to the Italian Rennaisance period : Venice Canals , different boats , the Gondolieri , the spectacular palaces , bridges and "Il Donte Dei Sospiri" , of course . Decent production with elegant gowns , evocative sets , right cinematography and powerful score . Lots of court intrigue , treason , twists and turns ; if you do not like low-budget , early 60s dubbed Italian costumed historical adventures, you won't like this one either . The picture contains rousing scenarios , suspense , romantic adventure , mayhem and a fine cast doing a fine job . The climax and ending are quite satisfying , including a stirring duel between Brett Hasley and Conrado San Martin . This one belongs to an adventure sub-genre set in Venice and similar period , such as ¨The Lion of St. Mark" and ¨The executioner of Venice¨ and also ¨Mask of the musketeers¨ . Sympathetic performances by main star cast and enjoyable secondary cast , as the acceptable main actors are completed by stellar support cast , full of classical and veteran players . Starred by Brett Halsey who was a beefcake who emigrated Italy and played a lot of B films , often billed as "Montgomery Ford" . Brett starred as several sword-and-sandal type heroes in including the spectacles ¨The Seventh Sword¨ and ¨The Magnificent Adventurer¨ . He also settled comfortably into the fashionable international spy , "spaghetti" western and Giallo genres with a slew of work including ¨Berlín , Spy in Your Eye¨ , ¨Espionage in Lisbon¨ , ¨The Hour of Truth¨, and ¨Kill Johnny Ringo¨ . And it's great to see Conrado San Martin as a pure manipulative villain with no redeeming values or tragic backstory . Conrado began playing small roles until his character in "Apartado Correos 1001" was an immediate success , he subsequently starred all kinds of genres , including Spaghetti : "Long Days of Vengeance" , ¨Winchester Bill¨ and Terror : "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , ¨Vampyres¨ .Being an Italian/Spanish co-production , here appears a lot of Spanish players as José Marco Davó , José Nieto , Perla Cristal and Italian ones as Gian Maria Cannale , Paolo Gozlino , Andrea Bosic and Nello Pazzafini . Atmospheric cinematography by Rafael Pacheco , though a perfect remastering being extremely necessary . Imaginative as well as thrilling soundtrack by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . Lush production design is well showed on the luxurious interiors and exteriors filmed on location in Venice . And other interiors filmed in Ballesteros studios , Madrid and De Paolis studios , Rome .
This colorful adventure picture was professionally directed by two craftsmen Carlo Campogalliani and Piero Pierotti . They were professional filmmakers who directed all kind of genres , and especially adventure and Peplum movie . As Carlo directed ¨Rosmunda e Alboino¨ , ¨Ursus¨ , ¨Maciste in valley of kings¨, ¨Capitan Fuoco¨ , "The Hero of Venice" . Pierotti wrote/directed : ¨Zorro¨, ¨Hércules against Rome¨ , "Giant of the Evil Island" , ¨Rome against Rome¨, ¨Sansone Contro Il Corsaro Nero¨, ¨Erik the conqueror¨, ¨Pedro El Cruel¨, ¨Golia e Il Cavaliere Mascherato¨ , ¨Marco Polo¨ and many others .
