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Arund 750 BC, Rome is still incredibly young, & inhabited by a mere 1000
souls, all male because founding father Romolus (Roger Moore) has figured that
women only mean trouble ... but soon he has to figure no women mean even more
trouble, when during a raid suddenly his soldiers run off after a woman &
leaving the raiding business to him alone ... not that Romolus would be any
better, as he soon stumbles over the young lady, Dionyra, whom his men chased
(but she got away) & tries every trick in the book to get into her pants
... & successfully too. Soon he persuades her to stay in an old shed near
Rome so he can sneak off to her every night when he feels like it ... Persuaded
by his sexual encounters that his men might want/need women too, he tells them
all to wash to appear more attractive to women (really !!!), then he sends a
group of emmissaries off to Sabinia to acquire enough unwed women for every
citizen of Rome. Naturally, the emmissaries return emptyhanded, as King Titus
(Folco Lulli) of Sabinia says he needs his women for his own men (makes sense,
actually). So Romolus decides to arrive in Sabinia the next thanksgiving with
all his men & vast quantities of wine, to make all the Sabines drunk &
steal their women ... & for himself he has picked a very special sabine
girl, Rea (Mylène Demongeot), not only the daughter of King Titus but also a
Vestal Priestess (meaning pretty much she mustn't be touched). Back in Rome,
Romolus has to encounter his men fighting over the women, while the women have
armed themselves & force Romolus to let them choose their men. Romolus
gives in, & before long everything seems to turn out well ... but then
Dionyra helps Rea - who has fallen in love with Romolus (naturally) but doesn't
want to give up being a Vestal Priestess - escape, & suddenly Romolus finds
himself amidst his copulating subjects without a woman ... as he has grown
tired of Dionyra. Meanwhile the people of Sabinia arm themselves for war,
against the will of their King, & even though Rea who has just returned
pleads them to not attack Rome ... to no avail. The big battle of Rome sees
the Sabine women having taken the side of their Roman husbands & repeatedly
keep the Sabine soldiers from killing their Roman counterparts ... & when
the Sabines set eyes on the first Sabine-Roman baby, they are deeply touched
& throw away their arms ... & Dionyra ... she is killed by an arrow
intended for Romolus but rediredcted by Rea ... serves her right, that bitch ! In
a weird dreamsequence, Jean Marais plays Mars, the god of war & possibly
Romolus' father. Italian sword & sandal movies (or peplums) were
never films to be taken too seriously ... or staying to faithful to the myth
they are based on for that matter, but Il Ratto delle Sabine has to be
one of the hokiest peplums of its time:even if it stays comparatively true to
its source: The film is full of funny characters, nonsense plottwists &
inappropriate &/or inane dialogue, & Roger Moore, playing the lead in
his very own ironic, very British style, does not really seem at home in the
genre ... but somehow this all works for the movie (even if it was probably not
intended), which is pure (weird) enjoyment.
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amazon.com
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find Romolus and the Sabines at adultvideouniverse.com
