''Rome Against Rome'' ( it, Roma contro Roma) is a 1964 Italian ''peplum'' film directed by

Giuseppe Vari Giuseppe Vari (9 March 1924 – 1 October 1993) was an Italian film director, editor and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Segni, Rome, Vari started his career as an editor of films and documentaries, collaborating among others with Fed ...

Cast

John Drew Barrymore John Drew Barrymore (born John Blyth Barrymore Jr.; June 4, 1932 – November 29, 2004) was an American film actor and member of the Barrymore family of actors, which included his father, John Barrymore, and his father's siblings, Lionel and E ...

as Aderbad *

Susy Andersen Susy Andersen (born Maria Antonietta Golgi; 20 April 1940 in Pola) is an Italian actress. Filmography External links * Italian actresses 1940 births Living people People from Pula {{italy-actor-stub ...

as Tullio *

Ettore Manni Ettore Manni (6 May 1927 – 27 July 1979) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1952 and 1979. Life and career Born in Rome, Manni debuted as an actor in 1952, when in spite of his acting inexperience he wa ...

as Gaius *

Ida Galli Ida Galli is an Italian film actress best known for her roles in Spaghetti Western and giallo films in the 1960s and 1970s. Galli has appeared under several pseudonyms, including Arianna, Evelyn Stewart and Isli Oberon. Extremely prolific, som ...

as Rhama *

Mino Doro Mino Doro (6 May 1903 – 13 April 1992) was an Italian actor who appeared in more than a hundred films between 1932 and 1970. Doro generally played supporting and character roles. He appeared as a blackshirt in the 1934 Fascist propaganda fi ...

as Lutetius *

Ivano Staccioli Ivano Staccioli (3 January 1927 – 15 July 1995) was an Italian film actor. Staccioli made 70 appearances between 1960 and 1991, mostly in film. He is best known for his appearances in historical adventures and action or western films in the 1 ...

as Sirion *

Philippe Hersent Philippe Hersent (26 July 1912 – 30 December 1982) was a French actor. He appeared in more than eighty films from 1930 to 1978. Filmography References External links * 1912 births 1982 deaths French male film actors {{Franc ...

as Azer *

Andrea Checchi Andrea Checchi (21 October 1916 – 29 March 1974) was a prolific Italian film actor. Biography Born in Florence, Checchi appeared in over 150 films in his lengthy career, which spanned from 1934 to his death in 1974. The son of a painter, ...

Production

Director Vari filmed at CSC Studios. ''Rome Against Rome'' was the second last film by the production company Galatea studio and the film historian

Tim Lucas Tim Lucas (born May 30, 1956) is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher and editor of the video review magazine ''Video Watchdog''. Biography and early career Lucas, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, was the only ...

described as representing the end of the '' peplum'' cycle as it was a "victim of the burgeoning "

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

" movement".

Release

''Rome Against Rome'' was distributed theatrically in Italy by

Cineriz ''Cineriz'' was an Italian media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films, founded in the early 1950s by the businessman Angelo Rizzoli. The company catalogue counts also many films directed by Federico Fellini, Gil ...

on February 13, 1964. Lucas noted that the original English export print titled ''Rome Against Rome'' was dubbed under the direction of

Tony Russel Tony Russel (born Antonio Pietro Russo, and sometimes credited as Tony Russo or Tony Russell; November 23, 1925 – March 18, 2017) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He was noted for having worked extensively in the Italian film ...

and that its soundtrack was "a chaotic mess". The film was cut for foreign release with its original 110 minute running cut to 97 minutes for its British release as ''Rome Against Rome'' and cut further on its American release for

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

as ''War of the Zombies''.

Reception

In his book ''Italian Horror Film Directors'', Louis Paul described the film as " a visually arresting and colorful but minor contribution to both the horror film genre and the heroic adventure sagas from which its origins sprung."

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * *

External links

* 1964 films 1960s fantasy films Italian fantasy films Peplum films Films directed by Giuseppe Vari Films set in the Roman Empire Italian zombie films Sword and sandal films 1960s Italian-language films 1960s Italian films {{1960s-Italy-film-stub