"They don't make 'em like this any more!" and one is tempted to say "Thank Heavens!" A typical 1950s Hollywood sword and sandals caper with one eye on the folks in the Bible Belt so references to "the Cross" and this strange new force coming from Gallilee while, on the other hand, lots of scenes of young ladies, (all of whom seem to have disconcertingly easy access to 1950s hair salons or lip-stick stores), either splashing about in Roman baths or being leered at by nasty barbarians, led by the worst of them all, Jack Palance in the guise of Attila the Hun. The more the 90 minutes dragged by, the more you came to appreciate Palance's appearances as virtually the ONLY saving grace for this family-sized slice of ham. For a start, he seems the only person in the entire cast who can actually ACT, the rest being so wooden that they could easily have auditioned for the lead role in 'Pinnochio' instead. Secondly, the production values are a complete laugh. The 'numerous wild hordes of barbarians' in reality were probably 30 extras on horseback, (and I lost count of the number of times the SAME scene of these horsemen riding by was used throughout the film!), while what seems to have been the producer's weekend country retreat outside Los Angeles was apparently used as another sacked city on a number of occasions. There is some good work in background projection to suggest Rome and other vistas, but, on the whole, it is very amateurish stuff. Conclusion: OKish if you have a wet afternoon to spend but, beyond Palance's screen presence, do not expect a lot and you will not be disappointed. Having seen it once, the next time you come across it, get out the video or DVD of "Gladiator" instead and thank your lucky stars we have moved on so much in fifty years!
Review of Sign of the Pagan
