Before
Sergio Leone made the immortal Dollars trilogy, he cut his teeth directing this
handsomely mounted, but painfully dull sword and sandal epic. Rory Calhoun stars as a vacationing Greek
warrior in Rhodes who is torn between two opposing factions who want to
overthrow the corrupt king. He really
has no time for battles and revolutions as he’d rather just spend his time
batting his eyes at Lea Massari.
Eventually, Calhoun gets mistaken as a rebel and is tortured, causing
him to choose a side pretty darn quickly.
If
you come to the party expecting to see Leone’s over the top style on display,
you’ll be sorely disappointed by The Colossus of Rhodes. Although the film looks like a million bucks,
it’s shot, assembled, and presented in a very matter of fact way. Leone does show a knack for corralling hundreds
of extras, but the fireworks are an awful long time coming.
While
The Colossus of Rhodes looks better than your average Italian peplum adventure,
the tension is nominal, the running time is bloated, and the pacing is
sluggish. Cowboy star Calhoun is sorely
miscast as a square-jawed hero, which also doesn’t help. It’s mostly boring and useless until the third
act, when things liven up during the big coliseum action sequence, but by then,
it’s too little too late.
Leone
fared much better with six guns and cowboy boots than with swords and sandals,
that’s for damned sure.
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