Year of Release: 1954Country of Origin: USA
Director: Delmer Daves
Cast: Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie, Jay Robinson, Barry Jones, Ernest Borgnine
Plot outline: The story picks up at the point where The Robe ends, following the martyrdom of Marcellus and Diana (IMDb).
The matter of Christian devotion versus pagan tyranny, which became quite a subject for conversation through most of the two hours of The Robe, underlies the dramatic action in this sequel, but the conflict between the two forces is expressed in more direct and muscular terms. The producer and the writer obviously figured that religion may get the people to church, but it takes something more in the way of action to get them into the theatre. So they have millinered this saga along straight Cecil B. Devotional lines, which means stitching on equal cuttings of spectacle, action, sex and reverence. They have got our old friend, Demetrius, still played by Victor Mature, as a prisoner of the Romans and a conscript at the gladiator school. This place is presided over (of all people!) by Ernest Borgnine, the fellow who played Fatso in From Here to Eternity. And it isn't long before Demetrius is not only taking brutality but also finding pious reasons to dish it out, handsomely. Likewise, his sacrosanct resistance to Susan Hayward, who plays the wife of Barry Jones' toddling Claudius, crumbles eventually before the snorting passion of Hayward and a few strokes of circumstance. And it isn't until Michael Rennie, as Peter, comes around like a stern bill collector and taps him that he gets back upon the straight-and-narrow. Meanwhile, director Delmer Daves has dropped in a vast lot of slamming and banging of gladiators, dancing by gauzy handmaidens, rolling around on the floor by assorted female entertainers and general raising of hob. Every so often, Jay Robinson, who didn't quite split his lungs playing the role of Caligula, makes a heroic effort to complete the job in the same role. If we never again see Robinson, we'll be neither sorry nor surprised. This one is no more like The Robe than either of them is like nature or Roman history. (NYT)
My judgement: ** out of 4 stars
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