The Two Gladiators

Once upon a time there were born two twin boys to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and for reasons of dynasty the birth of twins was kept secret. One of the twins was supposed to be drowned at birth but fate intervenes and the kid is brought up in a good household and enters Rome's legions. He is unaware of his Lineage, until the person, who was meant to drown him but couldn't, tells him the truth. The reason - the brother in charge of Rome is no good.

Two Gladiators stars Richard Harrison, who starred in quite a few peplums, and Mimmo Palmara as Emperor Commodo - they are brothers, one good - Richard Harrison as Lucius Crassus - and Palmara is the bad guy who runs Rome cruelly. He steals the scene, playing his character as an unbalanced and cruel individual. Moira Orfei - Marzia - is his mistress who he treats badly.

The Two Gladiators is a pulpy version of the Fall of the Roman Empire with good production values and the actors seems to be enjoying themselves. It's really entertaining, engaging and it's quite spirited - it has more in common with 1940's swashbucklers than blood-drenched gladiator films. The fight scenes range from well choreographed to clumsy, but liveliness is always apparent. Plus Moira Orfei is a sight for sore eyes - what a beauty.

Whatever you think of his films, Samuel Bronston did spend a lot of money on them, gave them lavish sets, a topflight cast, good direction and script. So when his The Fall Of The Roman Empire came out in March of 1964 I'm sure Bronston was waiting for the inevitable imitations to come out.

He didn't wait long. In June of 1964 probably using a lot of his abandoned sets and also those of Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur, came Two Gladiators which told the same story. Only the plot was reworked to have incorporated Alexander Dumas's The Man In The Iron Mask into the Roman Empire.

Once upon a time there were born two twin boys to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and for reasons of dynasty the birth of twins was kept secret. One of the twins was supposed to be drowned at birth, but fate intervenes and the kid is brought up in a good household and enters Rome's legions and becomes a centurion. He's played by American expatriate Richard Harrison who stars here.

The other grows up to be Commodus the emperor who for pleasure would compete in the gladiatorial games. He's too busy to be running the Empire so corrupt favorites do it for him. Some folks in the know feel it's time to bring out the lost twin.

Just think of Two Gladiators as The Fall Of The Roman Empire done by Ed Wood with an Ed Wood budget.

This sandal film is a copycat production based on the Hollywood success THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE with ACADEMY AWARD winner Sophia LOREN. Almost 40 years later, both films provide the blueprint for the mega-success GLADIATOR from 2000.

A gladiator (Richard HARRISON) fights with his buddies (Giuliano GEMMA and Alvaro De LUNA) against the evil Emperor Commodus (Mimmo PALMARA can really play it big ;-) There is a scheming beauty (Moira ORFEI) and a blonde beauty (enchanting : Ivy HOLZER). There's a lot of fighting, but the fun isn't neglected either.

Quite a passable sword and sandal film from Italy!

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has died. Marcus' son Commodus, who is a thug and amateur fighter, is now on the throne and is ruining Rome with his ways. There is a secret that only the Roman Senator knows the truth and tells the respected Roman Solider, Lucius Crassus, the story. Marcus Aurelius has twin sons. Marcus kept Commodus but ordered the other child's death. Tarruntius was given the task to kill the child but he could not do it and gave the child to a foster family. The foster family named the child Lucius Crassus. Lucius has just as much right to the throne as his twin brother Commodus. Commodus finds out that Lucius is his brother and is angry, he wants Lucius dead. The populace will not challenge and rid Rome of the evil, childish Commodus even though he is bring Rome down. There is now a Gladiatorial battle between the two twin brothers, the better fighter will win and take the throne of Rome.

Richard Harrison plays the heroic Roman solider Lucius Crassus. And there are a bunch of others with names I do not recognize but are fine Italian actors.

This is not a big budget film but looks like quite a bit of money was put into it (just not BIG money). It's an okay film, not great but watchable.

The copy I have is rather faded and poor, it is from one of those cheap Mill Creek 50-packs, Warriors. I cannot expect them to take the time to clean up each of the 50 films for a bargain price. Besides, most of the films are not worth the time to restore anyway.

4.5/10

Anyone else think this was more an hybrid of "The Man in the Iron Mask" meets "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"? Well with the death of Marcus Aurelius, his errant son Commodus (Mimmo Palmara) accedes the throne and launches straight into a reign of gladiatorial games and equally grand state sponsored larceny and brutality. Unbeknown to him, though, there is a twin brother who was secreted away at birth by senator "Tarrunio" (Gianni Solaro) and adopted with the name "Lucius" (Richard Harrison). In Rome, with his Praetorian prefect "Leto" (Alberto Farnese) running amok it seems that only his lover "Marcia" (Moria Orfei) might be able to rein in the new emperor, but when he cruelly gives her to his enforcer it falls to the ageing senator to send for the sibling in the hope that they can remove the tyrant before revolution brings the city to chaos and ruin. There is loads going on here with plenty of gladiatorial bouts, sword fights and action scenes to keep the pace fairly frenetic for most of the last hour of the drama. Twins they are, but there's barely even a passing resemblance between Palmara and Harrison which is a bit of a stretch later in the film, but I don't suppose that really mattered as this gathers an then sustains quite an entertaining swagger.