MESSALINA VENUS EMPRESS (1960)

Yesterday I reviewed one Italian version of the life of Roman empress Messalina; this version, made nine years later in color and widescreen, is much closer to the peplum genre. The tone is frivolous at times, more liberties are taken with the historical record, and there is more sex and violence. Yet it is the lesser movie of the two. This begins with Valeria Messalina, as a candidate to be a vestal virgin, and Praetorian guard soldier Lucius Maximus meeting cute (or sexy-cute) in the gardens of Vesta. They sex it up in the woods and he leaves for a two year assignment in Armenia. Meanwhile after the murder of Caligula, Caio Silio approaches Messalina to become the wife of the new emperor Claudius as a way to appease the aristocrats who oppose him. A nobleman instrumental to the plot tries to have sex with Messalina on her wedding night, but she kills him. Later, young Marcello is dispatched by her enemies to kill her, but she seduces him, kills him, and has his head sent to the plotters. Years later, Lucius returns and when he sees her, not knowing that she is the empress, she immediately strips for him and they have sex (again). He's a bit disoriented later when he is introduced to her as Messalina. Her reputation among the people is high, but he finds out that she is behind a plot to evacuate a group of poor people (and, it develops, mostly Christians) and is torn between his conscience and his lustful urges. Believe it or not, his conscience eventually wins. This certainly has its moments, including a free-for-all bar fight (marred by some phony looking fisticuffs), some sexy dancing, and a finale capped by an impressive shot of a slaughter scene. I'm assuming that most of the characters are fictional; aside from Messalina and Claudius, the only other character from the earlier film is the gay Narcissus. Here, our hero gets a happy ending, riding off into the sunset with his Christian teenage groupie Sylvia. British actress Belinda Lee is good as Messalina—sadly, she was killed in a car accident just a year later. Spiros Focas (Lucius) is fine. Ida Galli makes for a perky Sylvia (she'd be at home in a 60s beach movie) and Giuliano Gemma (pictured) is a handsome twinkish Marcello. The print I saw was in fine shape visually but had poor subtitles, no better than those you'd find on YouTube. It didn't get a theatrical release in the States but was shown on television in the 1960s as Messalina. I may have had my fill of Messalina movies, though there are others, including one that pits her against a son of Hercules which I may have to dig up. [Amazon Prime]