A Masterpiece!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Robe starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, and Victor Mature. It was a biblical epic about a Roman soldier who felt guilty condemning Jesus to death. The film was such a success, Hollywood spawned a sequel, without the two leads, but starring Victor Mature in a reprise of his role as Demetrius, a Christian slave.Susan Hayward joins him in the film, as does Michael Rennie, Deborah Paget, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Egan, and Anne Bancroft. Without Richard Burton's acting, the movie turns into a corny, over-the-top Ben-Hur wannabe. I've only seen Victor Mature in two good performances: one was After the Fox, in which he basically spoofed himself, and the other was Kiss of Death, which was more famous for Richard Widmark's breakthrough performance than Mature's dramatics. In Demetrius and the Gladiators, he gives a typical "Victor Immature" performance, and it turns into a B-picture. But if you're nuts about gladiator or biblical movies, it's not the worst one in the world. Trust me, I've seen that one.

Talk about guilty pleasures. I saw this film for the first time when I was about 8-years old. Back in those days you really only saw movies once - with mum and dad at the local cinema on Friday night. But my memory wrapped around this film almost as if I had a rewind button inside my head. It was one of those big-screen epics that made an impression on me.With your Roman Empire movies, your best bet is to set the story in the reign of one of the three mad emperors - Nero is tops, but Caligula and Commodus are the next best thing. Someone like Augustus with his stable, 40-year reign is just a little too sedate when it comes to drama - a bit like the Eisenhower era.Set in Rome during the reign of Caligula, all Demetrius (Victor Mature) wants to do is hand over the robe of Jesus to Peter (Michael Rennie), and lead a quiet life as a potter. Instead he has his faith shaken, and ends up in the arena where he dispatches many opponents and a streak of tigers. Along the way his most dangerous enemy turns out to be Messalina (Susan Hayward), the wife of Caligula's uncle Claudius. It takes Peter and a good buddy from the arena, Glycon (William Marshall), to guide him back to the light.Well that's the story; the script is there to keep the spectacular arena scenes apart, and clear the set for Jay Robinson's viperish and eye-poppingly campy interpretation of Caligula. Despite tigers, dancing girls, oiled muscles, nets, tridents and short swords, the movie would have been pretty heavy going without Jay.Victor Mature is on screen for just about the whole movie and for the most part is either angry or anguished. I've always thought he was pretty good for a guy who once told a club, which did not accept actors as members, that he wasn't an actor and he had the reviews to prove it.One actor who was perfect in his role was Richard Egan. He plays Dardanius, a gladiator with attitude, and he looks the part with more muscles and teeth than Burt Lancaster.Susan Hayward gave Messalina some of the same medicine Jay Robinson gave Caligula; together they keep the movie from getting too serious. I love the way Messalina does a complete turnaround right at the end to wrap the whole thing up in about two minutes flat.Debra Paget is beautiful. Michael Rennie has gravitas and William Marshall is imposing - two great voices in the one movie.Although technical aspects weren't things I noticed much back in the 50's, I can now appreciate how Franz Waxman's score gave the film spirituality and depth. Waxman was a composer who contributed intelligent scores to every film he did without repeating himself.I must admit I still have a soft spot for this film; the arena scenes alone are worth the price of admission.

A worthy, though rushed, follow-up to "The Robe" has a fun cast, a tired looking Victor Mature (from all his work on the previous film, no doubt). Susan is a bit 50s looking for ancient Rome, with her bushy hairdos. Jay Robinson again goes way over the top as Caligula but really has some delicious mad scenes. One oddity: while watching the trailer on the DVD, scene 17 with Debra Paget on the trailer has her saying a line about "seeing Jesus". This line was NOT in the finished film. Wonder why. All in all, fun to watch, a good cast, and a fine score by Franz Waxman, who wisely gives credit to Newman for the themes used.

Demetrius and the Gladiators is a sequel to The Robe. It's directed by Delmer Daves and stars Victor Mature as Demetrius, a Christian slave made to fight in the Roman arena as a gladiator ( and ultimately entering into a bigger fight, that of faith), and Susan Hayward as Messalina. Filling out the support cast are Ernest Borgnine, William Marshall, Michael Rennie, and Jay Robinson as the maniacal emperor Caligula. The screenplay is from Philip Dunne (How Green Was My Valley/ The Agony and the Ecstasy} and cinematography comes courtesy of Milton R. Krasner (Academy Award winner Best Color Cinematography for Three Coins in the Fountain 1955).Following straight on from The Robe, Demetrius and the Gladiators is a safe and enjoyable Biblical picture that doesn't outstay its welcome. Running at just over 100 minutes, the film is far from being epic in its telling. However, and without cramming in, it does contain all the necessary ingredients to make up a sweaty sword and sandals pie. Filmed in CinemaScope, persecuted hero, bonkers villain, sexy babe, huge sets, colourful costumes, and fights, lots of fights. Thankfully the serious dialogue is mostly kept brief, there a few things worse in this genre of film than bloated discourse on religious beliefs and political dalliances. Get in there, let us know what is going on, and move on to the next chapter of the story. This is something that Daves' film does real well, it has an eagerness to entertain with dots of gusto and sexual swagger. The acting is mixed, Mature is solid without ever really convincing as the heroic figure of Demetrius, Hayward and Robinson are camping it up and thus entertain royally, while Borgnine and Rennie earn there pay.Very much like another Phillip Dunne screenplay genre piece, David And Bathsheba, this one is often overlooked or forgotten in discussion about the sword & sandals genre. That both film's are not in the same league as the likes of Ben-Hur and Spartacus is a given, but both have much to offer the discerning cinephile. Recommended Sunday afternoon fare with a flagon of claret and a roast ox dinner. 7/10