Duel of Champions

Roma and Alba are at war, s they have been for a while. The king of Rome,Tullio Hostillo aka Robert Keith, dreams of Roman glory, despite all the mothers crying about their dead sons. Finally, the gods speak, saying that each side must choose three brothers and the last survivor will be the winner for his side. This includes Alan Ladd, but he is thought to have abandoned his troops and died. So the woman he loves is married to his brother. When he shows up, he denies both charges, but refuses to fight. Like Achilles, he will sulk in his tent on a nearby hill top.

Well, we can be assured that eventually he will fight, and will be victorious, because he's top billed. This peplum movie merges the usual thwarted love story with the other elements, including men showing off their legs. It's decent enough, but it doesn't appear to offer much in the way of any subtext. But that's not what people look at this sort of movie for, is it?

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.

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.

Having read about but not seen I bought this movie on DVD and as the previous reviewer said the transfer is terrible, that is a real shame as this is one of the more enjoyable sword and sandal epics. The great movie writer Steven Shuerer said that Alan Ladd appeared rather foolish in this movie, I disagree, Ladd put's in a nice performance here as one of three Roman brothers who must fight a rival three to try and put an end to years of fighting with the Albans, I think how the film works is that most of the cast are speaking in English, not badly dubbed from Italian as most of these films are, agreed Ladd looks rather tired and the effects of his long term alcoholism are evident, but I don't think he got a good deal from reviewers who concentrated more on his size and his personal problems. I do wish the makers of these films would take more time to try and restore the movie to a better print on DVD, some of these Italian epics are highly regarded by their fans, myself included so in this day and age of digital restoration these things should be brought in by them.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Yeah Alan Ladd wasn't quite the handsome dashing hero of a few years earlier but I would imagine commanders in the Roman Legions back then weren't exactly Justin Beiber lookalikes so he fits the role pretty well. The plot has some interesting twists and the women were beautiful. The action scenes were better than average for an Italian epic...I've seen much worse. To be honest, these sword and sandal affairs are growing on me. They have a special charm all their own that's hard to define so I won't try. My advice, gird your loins, adjust your breastplate, and saddle up pardners for a good old Italian style western with a couple of familiar American faces thrown in for good measure!!! And remember, a sword is always loaded so be careful out there in weird movie land.