Tue 4 Jun 2019
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: GOLD FOR THE CAESARS (1963).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[4] Comments
GOLD FOR THE CAESARS. Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica / Films Borderie, Italy, 1963, as Oro per i Cesari. MGM, US, 1964. Jeffrey Hunter, Mylène Demongeot, Ron Randell, Massimo Girotti, Giulio Bosetti, Ettore Manni. Directors: André De Toth, Sabatino Ciuffini (Italy), Riccardo Freda (uncredited).
Peplum par excellence. An Italian production with Andre De Toth credited as its director (there’s some dispute as to how much actual work he did on the film), Gold for the Caesars isn’t exactly the type of film that is rich in character development. Instead, it relies upon costumes, sword fights, and campiness to get its point across. And that point is celluloid escapism, pure and simple.
Jeffrey Hunter, a long way from the set of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), portrays Lacer, a slave in the hands of Rome. He’s also an architect, responsible for aiding in the construction of a bridge in Spain. Enlisted by a local Roman leader to aid in the search for gold in hill country occupied by the Celts, he is forced to choose between a life of enslavement versus a chance to risk it all for freedom. Along the way, he falls for a Roman slave girl.
That’s about it, to be honest. That’s the essence of the plot. But you know what? In an era of overwrought CGI productions, there’s something slightly charming about being able to watch an admittedly mediocre sword-and-sandal film that actually has a large cast of extras portraying soldiers and slaves alike.
Make no mistake about it: if this movie was remade today – a highly dubious proposition to be sure – both the Roman and Celt warriors would likely be “made†of CGI imagery rather than a cast of hundreds all dressed in traditional costumes. And a lot of it would probably have been filmed on green screens rather than outside. I can’t overly recommend anyone going out of his way to see Gold for the Caesars, but I’m not going to be unduly harsh on it either.
June 5th, 2019 at 6:03 am
I know what you mean, Jonathan. I loved these movies as a kid at Saturday Matinees, and more than a half-century later they seem to have acquired a patina of old-world charm.
June 5th, 2019 at 9:37 am
I don’t know about anyone else, but I learned a new word today. According to Wikipedia, peplum means “a genre of Greco-Roman era costume adventure films, mostly made in Italy, also known as ‘Sword and Sandal’.”
And here I thought Jonathan mistyped the word “pablum.” Not so!
June 5th, 2019 at 7:21 pm
Peplum, despite Wikipedia, is a type of women’s clothing, consisting of a belted or tight wasted jacket that flairs around the hips. That flare, reminiscent of the clothes worn in so many of these films, is where the term came from.
Back in the day we called them Sword and Sandal epics.
June 6th, 2019 at 7:39 am
My parents called these movies “Casts of thousands” films. Because of the numerous extras that played in these Italian spectaculars.
My father was a fan. So we would go see these movies at the local drive-ins.
The word “peplum” is being used more and more today to categorize these films. Film historians have a need for a label, to talk about these movies. Just as “pre-code”, “film noir” and “melodrama” are useful film category names.
Sony tried to popularize the term “martini movies” for 1960’s films. Unfortunately it never caught on…