Italian director Umberto Lenzi carved something of a cult niche for himself with a series of psychological, "bloodless" '60s gialli and a number of '80s horror movies devoted to demons and cannibals but he was nothing if not diverse and also put his peculiar genre-friendly talents to good use in crime films (poliziotteschi), war epics, spaghetti westerns, and even some pepulm. Two of them star Steve Reeves, no less. Another early one, THE LAST GLADIATOR, may not have much directorial flair outside a widescreen battle scene or two but there's lots of plot to help disguise that and although it's not exactly a "thinking man's sword & sandal" (is that an oxymoron?), the mixture of myth and history make it a cut above most peplum pap. Glaucus may have been a "Son of Hercules" (the film's part of a series) but he's also a Celtic prince captured by Caligula during a military campaign in Britain and brought back to Rome to fight in the arena. There he makes a public spectacle of himself wielding a wicked battle ax but when Caligula gives a thumbs down to a prone opponent, Glaucus hurls his ax at the Emporer's head instead and makes a daring escape. Caligula is later stabbed to death by his own kind and Glaucus must match wits with the depraved, ambitious Messalina before winning over the populace and returning to his homeland as King of the Britons, an ally of Rome.
Historical events such as Caligula making his horse a senator and Messalina's orgies figure into the story and the beefcake heroics of a chastely-clad Richard Harrison take a back seat whenever Caligula & Co. are on screen, especially Messalina. Beautiful auburn-haired Lisa Gastoni was appropriately imperious and didn't disappoint as the sadistic wife of Emperor Claudius who delights in whipping Glaucus' girlfriend and complains when she can't see the lovers roast because of all the smoke in the drastically scaled down Coliseum arena. The movie's letterboxed and although dubbed, there's some court intrigue in Italian with English subtitles, meaning the movie was cut for U.S. distribution and, hence, dumbed-down. Whitebread Richard Harrison's no Ed Fury (sigh) and his next one, TWO GLADIATORS, shows him off to even less advantage.
Historical events such as Caligula making his horse a senator and Messalina's orgies figure into the story and the beefcake heroics of a chastely-clad Richard Harrison take a back seat whenever Caligula & Co. are on screen, especially Messalina. Beautiful auburn-haired Lisa Gastoni was appropriately imperious and didn't disappoint as the sadistic wife of Emperor Claudius who delights in whipping Glaucus' girlfriend and complains when she can't see the lovers roast because of all the smoke in the drastically scaled down Coliseum arena. The movie's letterboxed and although dubbed, there's some court intrigue in Italian with English subtitles, meaning the movie was cut for U.S. distribution and, hence, dumbed-down. Whitebread Richard Harrison's no Ed Fury (sigh) and his next one, TWO GLADIATORS, shows him off to even less advantage.