Duel of the Titans (1961)

Let's be realistic.

Just perfect...

Better Late Then Never

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Well..this not the best of Steve Reeves or Gordon Scott movies, but definitely not the worse! There are plenty of worse movies outside there, so please do not judge the Italian movies in a bad way...TROY (Brad Pitt) is 1000 times much much much more worse compared to the Italian movies! Duel Of Titans is simply one of the better movies, and please check out for this one. The acting is good, the dubbed English audio is not very bad and moreover i've got a good dubbed audio for this movie! I don't know whether this movie originally use the Italian or English language..or maybe both??? No matter what kind of language they use in this movie, this is still a good movie. Good acting from both Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott, and fine storyline and plot. Not the best, but still a pretty good one. Buy it, surely you won't regret! 8/10 stars

From the 60's up to the 80's Italian Movie Producers made money with Horror Pictures, Comedies, Spaghetti Western, Giallo, Poliziotteschi and other Genres. But there was another unique Subgenre before: Sword n' Sandal Movies. Many of later well known Directors like Mario Bava, Sergio Leone, Enzo Barboni, Duccio Tessari and many more worked and learned in this Sub-Genre. Sergio Corbucci was one of them either. He should later become famous for directing Spaghetti-Western like Django, Navajo Joe, Il Mercenario, Companeros and many more. Romulus and Remo was one of his first directing jobs and IMO he did it very well. But Corbucci wasn't the Highlight in 1961. People went to cinema to watch the clash of two Action Heroes of that time: Steve Reeve (Hercules) as Romulus against Gordon Scott (Tarzan) as Remo.Both Actors were allowed to show their muscles and they have some pretty good fights. Next to them there are two attractive women Virna Lisi as blonde Princess of the Sabina Tribe and Laura Solari as an Amazon Warrior. The Story is about the mythology of the founding of Rome "The Eternal City". Romulus (or Romolo) and Remo (or Remus) are twin brothers who were wet-nursed by a female wolf. Surprisingly the Movie follows more and the less the mythology with few inventions. In the storyline there are some flaws but IMO not as terrible as in other Sword n' Sandals. The Action and the Fights are all well shot. There is a high body count but don't worry no blood. During watching it I got the feeling to watch a Spaghetti-Western with a lot of Horse riding and swords instead of guns. Most of the scenes are typically for this genre: a fight in a gladiator arena, a pagan scene, a torture scene and many more. "Romolo e Remo" is a fine entertaining Example for this Subgenre with a nice music too.Up to the mid 60's the Sword n' Sandal Movies weren't produced any more in Italy. The audience wanted to see something new. Gordon Scott and Steve Reeve disappeared from the screen. Musclemen weren't popular any more. In the 80's a new Muscleman conquered Hollywood: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

One of these days, I hope, we'll see a serious re-evaluation of the so-called sword & sandal genre of historical/mythic epics produced in Italy in the 1950s and '60s. When seen in ideal circumstances—excellent prints in the original widescreen formats—the best examples of the genre are quite impressive. DUEL OF THE TITANS (ROMOLO E REMO) is one of the best, and it's magnificent.This is not a muscleman fantasy with superhuman feats of strength, like HERCULES, but a serious retelling of the foundation myth of Rome. Various elements of the Romulus and Remus story are freely but intelligently reinterpreted, the sets and costumes have a convincing Iron Age look, and the larger-than-life characters of the legendary Twins are strongly portrayed by Gordon Scott and Steve Reeves. Both actors are at the peak of their considerable cinematic charisma. (Virna Lisi as Julia and Ornella Vanoni as the pants-wearing Tarpeia are also impressive!)As I write (2006), the movie is virtually impossible to find except as a bootleg. It deserves a DVD release of a quality widescreen print.

Steve Reeves was the "god" of these sandal-and-spear movies and Gordon Scott the "demi-god," and here you have them together playing brothers in one of the best examples of the genre. Plus Virna Lisi! In telling the tale of Romulus and Remus, this manages to include one of filmdom's odder whipping sequences. Steve Reeves is spreadeagled to a vertical frame which is rapidly rotated by one man while another man goes at Steve's chest with a whip. Curiously, though the whipper goes at his work with a vengeance, at the end of the sequence, Steve only has about 4 welts on his skin!