Duel of the Titans (1961)

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Starring: Steve "Hercules" Reeves, Gordon "Tarzan" Scott, Virna Lisi, Franco Volpi, Laura Solari, Piero Lulli

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Legendary Conflict of Mankind's Mightiest Mortals!

Plot: Twin brothers revolt against tyranny in pre-Roman Italy and then come to a parting of the ways as they lead their people toward the founding of a new city.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yup.

#5 from SWORD & SANDAL TRAILERS VOL. 1. (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)


Written by Sergio Leone, with music by Piero Piccioni, directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Steve "Hercules" Reeves and Gordon "Tarzan" Scott, you know you're in for a good picture. With a pedigree like that, there's no doubt. Usually these Sword & Sandal pictures are good for a few action scenes, lush Italian countryside, beautiful women and muscled-up dudes killing folks with swords and egos. This has got all of that and then some.

Is it possible that the Mardi Gras tradition of "show me your tits" started more than 2,000 years ago?

This picture could've used a nice cat fight. My money's on the hottie on the right.
She's a real scrapper and needs to have my ancient Roman babies!

One thing that struck me is how violent this is. It's brutal. I mean, it's brutal by today's standards, let alone FIFTY years ago. Having Hercules and Tarzan as brothers was pretty badass. It was pretty weird seeing Reeves take the less actiony of the two roles, playing Romulus, the pacifist of the two.

Let's play, "Spin the Romulus!"

Man, the shit they did with horses was fucked up. It's kind of painful to watch how some of them wiped out. Yikes! And then there's the race through fire that lasts for a couple of minutes.



Naturally, Hercules beats out Tarzan in the end and plows the line around what is to be the new, great city...of Rome. That was cool. I need to brush up on my ancient Roman history. DUEL OF THE TITANS is a must-see for anyone interested in the genre or any of the film makers, actors. It's a really good movie and it's rarely slow and it's one of the most violent films of the genre I've seen.