Sword of the Empire (1964)

Historically, this is all over the place. It's a sort of "Decline and Fall..." (also 1964) meets "Quo Vadis" (1951) with the handsome, but really hammy, Lang Jeffries in the lead role of "Quintus" trying to hold together a really weakly scripted and directed muddle. To be fair, the production looks quite good and there is plenty of swordplay and colourful action, it's just that acting is as stiff as a board. The supposedly megalomanic emperor "Commodus" (Enzo Tarascio" has nothing whatsoever by way of menace and the love interest from the glamorous but totally out of her depth José Greci as the slave girl "Nissia" really don't do anything at all to enliven this join-the-dots sword and sandals effort. I like this genre and they are usually quite watchable, but this is more of a chore than most. Perhaps Lionel would have been a better choice?