Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
dbdumonteil
Like in many sword and sandals films ,it's the villains who walk away with the honors;Moira Orfei is a sadistic vicious concubine,fond of jewels with a wide selection of wigs.Piero Lulli is a paranoiac Domitian ,who trusts nobody and who "would kill all the Romans if he had to".A tyrant who wants to be considered a living god (check the first sequence),and ,except for a few sycophants ,is hated by the patricians AND the plebeians.One of his courtiers -or two if we include the dwarf ,the court jester- is none other than the red wolf ,some kind of Zorro in Roman times ,adored by the nobles and the people ,just like Don Diego De la Vega.His faithful pal is played by Giuliano Gemma ,future spaghetti cowboy and earnest actor ("Delitto D'Amore" "Il Deserto Dei Tartari")Forget history and you have an entertaining comic book;Amnesty International should condemn such sentences as the immersion in a cauldron of molten lead.
MARIO GAUCI
Considering the sheer amount of cast and crew members that were ported over here from THE TWO GLADIATORS (1964), it appears the two films were made back-to-back; for this one, however, co-scriptwriter Alfonso Brescia was elevated to the director's chair (it proved to be his debut) and, likewise, a silver-haired(!) Piero Lulli rose the ranks to take on chief villain duties as Emperor Domitian!! Unsurprisingly, the plot was very similar as well – as centurion Richard Harrison and close friend Giuliano Gemma (a senator this time around, so that he eventually ends up in charge of righting the wrongs done to the people) lead the revolt against the tyrannical ruler and his ambitious Egyptian god-worshipping High Priestess consort Moira Orfei. Amusingly, added camp value comes by way of Harrison having to hide his identity literally under wolf's clothing and, since he still sports his red undergarments, gets dubbed "Red Wolf" by the enemy – thankfully, he did not take the example of Batman and become Wolfman…seeing how he was already Roman (get it?)! Incidentally, the title has little bearing on the narrative as well, because when the Praetorians join the insurrection, it is in the very last stages of the climax and, soon after this, the oppressor's forces lay down their weapons in submission! Typically, too, Harrison's girl is coveted by the Emperor and hated by the latter's neglected (if over-dressed!) wife; Orfei does get kidnapped at one point in order to root out the rebels and locate their hide-out (ingeniously, a slave camp – but, then, when the legionnaires arrive to ambush the group, the prisoners keep tilling the land as if nothing at all was happening around them!). By the way, Lulli has a dwarfish (and, reportedly, virile!) jester who first learns of Harrison's ruse but, surprisingly, is sympathetic to his cause; that said, when he turns up for a couple of secret meetings – thus endangering his personal safety and that of his comrades – he never contributes much to the table! Though the copy I acquired off "You Tube" was in the original Italian language, the credits were all in French and, for what it is worth, cuts off rather too abruptly at the end (barely giving the obligatory cheering crowd a chance to register!). All things considered, the movie – colourful and action-packed (with a few athletic stunts for the two male leads a' la Gemma's star-making MY SON, THE HERO {1962}) as it is – emerges as no more than routinely enjoyable…but, for ardent fans of the genre, that is all one asks for from such undemanding fare (except that the format was well able to rise above the norm when its makers put their mind to it)! Finally, it is worth noting just how many peplums were made with the word revolt in their titles: in short order, we had gladiators, slaves, mercenaries, barbarians, etc.
unbrokenmetal
The brave soldier Valerius (Richard Harrison) is unhappy with his emperor Domitian (Piero Lulli) who behaves like a tyrant and has 5 people executed before breakfast on a normal day. His Egyptian wife Artamne (Moira Orfei) supports not only all the evil ideas he has, but even adds a few of her own. Valerius secretly meets Nerva (Giuliano Gemma), and they start to make plans to overthrow the tyrant.A really good, action-packed, typical genre movie - the only thing you could accuse it of is being a little bit "too typical", i.e. everything goes by the book of unwritten rules. Which is on the other hand guaranteed to please if you like this kind of stuff. Use of colors was a bit overdone here: Artamne wears different wigs - blue, green, any imaginable hair color as long as it looks false - whereas the costume of the Red Wolf makes him look like a pink wolf. Nice to see young Gemma in one of his early roles before he became a western star.
django-1
This was the first film directed by the infamous Alfonso Brescia, aka Al Bradley. He directed some awful films, yet he also scored a bullseye now and then, such as with CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS or with TURN...I'LL KILL YOU. This film is a solid Italian costume adventure, starring the great Richard Harrison as Valerius, a member of the Pretorian guard who has had enough of the excesses of dictatorial emperor Domitian, so he adopts the guise of the "Red Wolf" and secretly fights against the ruler and brings others together in a struggle for freedom. Harrison is joined in his effort by Giuliano Gemma, a actor popular with both peplum and eurowestern fans. This film has a different look from many peplums and costume spectacles, and contains some interesting camera angles and creatively framed shots. Brescia/Bradley clearly could be inventive when he wanted to be. REVOLT OF THE PRETORIANS seems to be little-known among American peplum fans and Richard Harrison fans--it deserves to be better-known and should satisfy fans of the genre.
