My review was written in October 1986 after watching the movie on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.
This exploitation film, made in 1981 in Rome for Helen Sarlui by the director of the "Ator" epics, delivers the same basic goods as the Giovanni Tinto Brass hit, but without the hardcore porn inserts Bob Cuccione added to "Caligula". Surprisingly serious in tone, pic is an adequate home video entry for strong stomachs.
David Cain Haughton has a tour de force in the title role, resembling French star Pierre Clementi, as he revels in power, decadence and general craziness until coming to his senses in an ironic finale. Much of the incidental material here is reminiscent of the Tinto Brass version, but without the lavish sets.
Main storyline has Miriam (sex superstar Laura Gemser) on a mission to kill Caligula after he rapes her girlriend, who kills herself. In dreamily romantic footage (at odds with the yucky violence of the rest of the film), Miriam gradually falls in love with the evil emperor and even gets him t o change his ways, just before he is assassinated in the final reel.
Sex is strong stuff here, but just inexplicit enough to escape the hardcore porn tag that was "Caligula"'s selling point Violence is extremely rough, especially in an impaling scene in which senator Marcellus at odds with Caligula (and played by Gemser's real-life husband as inevitable co-starf Gabriele TInti) gets caught from behind.
Haughton's acting carries the show.
