I due gladiatori

Whatever you think of his films, Samuel Bronston did spend a lot of money on them, gave them lavish sets, a topflight cast, good direction and script. So when his The Fall Of The Roman Empire came out in March of 1964 I'm sure Bronston was waiting for the inevitable imitations to come out.

He didn't wait long. In June of 1964 probably using a lot of his abandoned sets and also those of Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur, came Two Gladiators which told the same story. Only the plot was reworked to have incorporated Alexander Dumas's The Man In The Iron Mask into the Roman Empire.

Once upon a time there were born two twin boys to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and for reasons of dynasty the birth of twins was kept secret. One of the twins was supposed to be drowned at birth, but fate intervenes and the kid is brought up in a good household and enters Rome's legions and becomes a centurion. He's played by American expatriate Richard Harrison who stars here.

The other grows up to be Commodus the emperor who for pleasure would compete in the gladiatorial games. He's too busy to be running the Empire so corrupt favorites do it for him. Some folks in the know feel it's time to bring out the lost twin.

Just think of Two Gladiators as The Fall Of The Roman Empire done by Ed Wood with an Ed Wood budget.