Sergio Corbucci directed The Slave (Italian: ‘The Son of Spartacus’), a popular Italian peplum film, starring Steve Reeves, in one of his best known performances.
The movie is sort of an unofficial sequel to Kubrick’s 1960 Spartacus–it mentions the character Varinia, who was created for that film.
Se in 48 B.C., twenty-five years after the Spartacus’ revolt, the slave leader’s son Randus (ignorant of his heritage) has become a soldier in the Roman army.
Stationed in Alexandria, Randus is now a centurion, tasked with traveling to the city of Zeugma in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and learn the secret plots planned out by the Roman governor Marcus Licinius Crassus.
Randus leaves Egypt accompanied by his decurion friend Lumonius, his Germanic servant Beroz, an ambitious Gallic officer named Vetius, and Vetius’ sister Claudia.
In the symbolic ending, Randus returns his father’s sword to Spartacus’ grave so that a future hero may use it to rise against oppression.
The film was the last sword-and-sandal film for actor Steve Reeves.
Cast
Steve Reeves as Randus
Gianna Maria Canale as Claudia
Claudio Gora as Crassus
Jacques Sernas as Vetius
Ombretta Colli as Saida
Ivo Garrani as Julius Caesar
Enzo Fiermonte as Gulbar
Ahmed Ramzy as Murdok
Franco Balducci as Beroz
Roland Bartrop as Lumonius
Renato Baldini as Verulus
Giovanni Cianfriglia as Soldier
Note:
TCM showed the movie on June 8, 2020.
