Gold for the Caesars

Not Worth Its Weight
Warner Archive has released Director Andre De Toth's 'GOLD FOR THE CAESARS' aka 'ORO PER I CESARI'- 1964, a film which hit theaters on the downward spiral of the sword and sandal genre or pepla as they were known in Europe. An Italian American co-production, it stars two actors Jeffrey Hunter and Ron Randall who were involved in another Epic lensed in Spain from Producer Samuel Bronston, Director Nicholas Ray's 'KING OF KINGS'- 1961 and has some good action sequences but fails to hold up its 90 minute running time due to its lacklustre script by Arnold Perl. Based on the a prizewinning historical novel by Florence A. Seward, it has Hunter playing a slave who happens to be a genius at architecture who is hired to oversee a Roman construction site and is promised his freedom if he can successfully deliver a gold mining operation. Unfortunately, he has hanky panky with the mistress of a senator played gloriously evil by Massimo Girotti who, needless to say, doesn't appreciate the lack...

An enjoyable watch
An interesting DVD. I enjoyed watching the movie and would recommend it to people who enjoy period movies about the Roman Empire

Enjoyable without greatness
Gold for the Caesars is enjoyable without showing signs of great movie making. It follows a most interesting historical novel loosely, and gets at least one historical event wrong. The Roma emperor who immediately follows evil Diocletion is old Nervii. Trajan comes later. However, I would watch it again for entertainment value.

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