Demetrius And The Gladiators

Starring: Susan Hayward, Victor Mature Director: Delmer Daves Original UK Premiere: 1954 Dvd Release: 4th March, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding

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This sequel to THE ROBE is a first rate Roman epic with plenty of violent action & spectacular sequences set in the arena. Seen to its best advantage in this widescreen video, it makes for a good hour & three quarters entertainment, with Victor Mature in fine, brawny form as Demetrius. Splendid.over-the-top performances from Jay Robinson as the evil Caligula, & beautiful Susan Hayward as the nymphomaniac empress, Messalina. They make the Christians seem very dull dogs by comparison. The widescreen tigers in the arena sequences are mightily impressive.

Susan Hayward was an American actress. Born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, New York, she began her career as a photographers model. She went to Hollywood in 1939, aiming to become the unknown who won the role of Scarlett OHara in Gone With the Wind. Although she didnt get that role, she won the role of the female lead in Beau Geste. She played a dramatic role in Among the Living & a Southern belle in Reap the Wild Wind. In 1947 Hayward received the first of her five Academy Award nominations for Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman. Other major films included Ill Cry Tomorrow & I Want to Live!, for which she won the Oscar. The brain cancer which took her life is traced by some back to her work in The Conqueror, filmed about 100 miles downwind of active Nevadan nuclear-weapon test sites & in sets dressed with truckloads of dirt from the area. 1959 - Won Best Actress in a Leading Role - I Want to Live!. 1956 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - Ill Cry Tomorrow. 1953 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - With a Song in My Heart.

Editors Choice: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro, The Conqueror, Demetrius And The Gladiators, Garden Of Evil, Tulsa, Smash Up, The Fighting Seabees, View DVDology

Victor Mature was an American film actor. He was most commonly associated with the term beefcake due to his muscular physique & stolid onscreen manner. His first leading role was as a fur-clad caveman in One Million B,C., after which he joined 20th Century Fox to star opposite actresses such as Betty Grable & Rita Hayworth. However, with the US entry into World War II, Mature entered military service. After the war, Mature was cast by John Ford in My Darling Clementine, playing Doc Holliday opposite Henry Fonda s Wyatt Earp. For the next decade, Mature settled into playing hard-boiled characters in a range of genres such as westerns & Biblical films, such as The Robe & the popular sequel to The Robe, Demetrius & the Gladiators. Both films deal with the fate of the robe worn by Jesus before the crucifixion. Victor also starred with Hedy Lamarr in Cecil B Demille s Bible epic, Samson & Delilah. Additional films by Victor Mature include The Egyptian & Chief Crazy Horse.

Editors Choice: After The Fox, Demetrius And The Gladiators, Hannibal, View DVDology

Delmer Daves was an American screenwriter, director & producer. Born in San Francisco two years before the 1906 earthquake, Delmer Daves first pursued a career as a lawyer. While attending Stanford University he became interested in the burgeoning film industry, first working as a prop boy on the 1923 western The Covered Wagon & serving as a technical advisor on a number of films. After finishing his education in law, he continued his career in Hollywood. After moving to Hollywood in 1928, he began his career as a screenwriter, his first credit being the talkie comedy So This Is College released by MGM. Through the 1930s he made a name as a successful screenplay & story writer, while moonlighting as an actor in bit parts & uncredited roles. He penned the successful Dick Powell musicals Dames, Flirtation Walk & Page Miss Glory between 1934 & 1935. Daves largest successes of the period, however, came with 1936 s The Petrified Forest & Love Affair. Posters Of Humphrey Bogart

Editors Choice: Cowboy, Kings Go Forth, Demetrius And The Gladiators, Humphrey Bogart, Red House, Casablanca, Dark Passage, High Sierra, View DVDology

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