Gladiators 7

1962 film

Sandro Continenza
Bruno Corbucci
Alberto De Martino
Giovanni Grimaldi^[2]

Story by

Alberto De Martino
Italo Zingarelli^[2]

Produced by

Anacleto Fontini
Italo Zingarelli^[2]

Starring

Richard Harrison
Loredana Nusciak
Livio Lorenzon
Gérard Tichy

Cinematography

Bitto Albertini
Eloy Mella^[2]

Edited byOtello Colangeli^[2]Distributed byMetro Goldwyn Mayer

Release dates

11 October 1962 (1962-10-11) (Italy)
7 May 1964 (1964-05-07) (United States)

Running time

105 minutesCountries

Spain
Italy^[1]

Gladiators 7 is a 1962 film directed by Pedro Lazaga. The film has several elements from Akira Kurosawa's film The Seven Samurai.

Plot

A Greek gladiator seeks revenge for the murder of his father and finds his lover captured by an evil tyrant.

Cast

Richard Harrison as Darius
Loredana Nusciak as Aglaia
Livio Lorenzon as Panurgus
Gérard Tichy as Hiarba
Edoardo Toniolo as Milon
José Marco as Xeno
Barta Barri as Flaccus
Nazzareno Zamperla as Vargas (credited as Tony Zamperla)
Franca Badeschi as Licia
Enrique Ávila as Livius
Antonio Molino Rojo as Macrobius
Antonio Rubio as Mados
Emilia Wolkowicz as Ismere

Production

The film was partially shot on some of the locations where El Cid was filmed.^[3] Parts of the film were shot in Spain.^[4]

Release

Gladiators 7 was released theatrically in Italy on 11 October 1962 with a 105 minute running time and in the United States on 6 May 1964 with a 92 minute running time.^[3]

Reception

In contemporary reviews, "Tube." of Variety found the film to have a cliche screenplay with "stiff acting" and "mechanical dubbing".^[5] "Tube." noted that among the action sequences, the best involved a bout between a bull and a bare-handed gladiator but that the film was "erratic in tempo and dramatically heavyhanded [sic]."^[5] A review in the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "the customary ingredients of colour, passion, and swordplay, here lavishly applied, add up to a lighthearted and lusty swashbuckling film."^[6]

References

Footnotes

^ Bowker 1983.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 65.
^ ^a ^b Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 67.
^ Labanyi & Pavlović 2015, p. 249.
^ ^a ^b Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. Vol. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "April 29, 1964". ISBN 0-8352-2790-1.
^ "Sette Gladiatori, I (Gladiators 7), Italy/Spain, 1962". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 31, no. 364. British Film Institute. May 1964. pp. 77–78.

Sources

Variety's Film Reviews: 1964-1967. Rr Bowker Llc. 1983. ISBN 0835227901.
Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017). Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476662916.
Labanyi, Jo; Pavlović, Tatjana (2015). A Companion to Spanish Cinema. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0835227902.