A Masterpiece!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

At some point in ancient history Generic Power Mad Usurper conquered Generic Greek CityVilleopolis and King Rightful Ruler was slaughtered. But not before Lil' Prince Trouble-Waiting-To-Happen...er I mean Ursus was spirited away by his mom and a couple ladies-in-waiting. Mom and the gang made it about as far as the parking lot behind the studio before they were fallen upon by the Usurper's men. Since they were escaping during a siege neither mom nor her guards thought to bring any weapons and are quickly butchered, except young Ursus, whose horse runs away with him attached. Eventually he is found by a pride of lions. Instead of turning him into a mid-day snack, they decide to raise him as one of their own. This is shown by a wipe type effect where a shot of a lion licking an infant's face (did they actually let a real lion lick a real infant's face!!??) is replaced by a shot of a lion licking a grown and strapping Ursus' face.Ursus spends most of his time frolicking with his lion friends, yanking their tails and shouting" HO SO YOU THINK YOU'RE STRONGER THAN URSUS? HAHA!" Yet the lions let him live. This would have never gone over in my family, not that seeing this movie as a kid influenced me to behave in any like manner. No way. Not me.So Ursus lives a simple life which he really seems to enjoy until one day while out hunting he finds in his pit trap, not dinner, but a slavers wagon, loaded down with some sweet looking slave girls and their slave trader.Ursus hauls the wagon out of the pit and exchanges googly eyes with one of the slave girls. They have a real Hubba Hubba moment and Ursus decides to throw her over his shoulder and haul her off to his cave. The slave trader doesn't want to lose good product do he follows Ursus to the Cave of Lions, where he is scared spitless by a Cave full of lions. He demands payment and Ursus, not knowing what money is, offers one of his lions as a trade for the girl. The slaver is less than enthused until he sees an amulet, an amulet that was given to Ursus by his father right before he died, an amulet that is in reality...THE ROYAL SEAL! The slaver knows he can get a pretty denari for that, so he offers to take it off Ursus' hands. Ursus agrees and off the slave trader goes to sell the Seal in the Big City.The slave girl is charmed by Ursus' simple honesty, massive physique and inexplicably well groomed hair and teeth and decides to stay with him, despite the fact that the only furniture in her new house is a rock, some elk bones and some lion poop.But their rustic happiness can't last forever. Eventually the Royal Seal falls into the hands of the Usurper, who fears Ursus will one day visit some poetic justice on his behind, and sends his soldiers out to kill our hero. They fail of course, probably because ancient despots didn't have access to modern human resource-style motivation and training techniques. They do manage however to kidnap Ursus' lady and kill most of his lion friends with poison meat. (Because lions are immune to arrows) I'll leave the rest of the movie a surprise, although I will say Ursus spends it rescuing his honey and avenging the death of his father, mother and lion friends. He fights tons of soldiers, a pack of trained killer hyenas and a herd of elephants among other things. Although it would have been really funny if the writers added a little more "fish out of water" humor when Ursus was learning about civilization, overall this was a very entertaining peplum. It's absolutely worth your time and shekels

"Ursus nella valle dei leoni" (1961) cannot compete with some of the better known muscle man movies starring Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Scott, Alan Steel, and Reg Park. Nevertheless, this tyrant-versus-a-strongman saga with Ed Fury in the title role ranks a notch above the usual run-of-the-mill peplum potboilers. At best an uneven but entertaining epic, this first part of this adventure opus opens with an expository prelude with a kingdom being overrun by barbarians, then relies on comedy in its first half before it reverts during its second half to the standard he-man heroics about the lost son of a ruler who topples the murderous miscreant (Albert Lupo of "Herod the Great") who ran Ursus' unarmed father through with a sword, ascended the throne, and then enslaved the population. Invaders attack the kingdom but baby Ursus survives the sword after his mother packs him off to safety in a basket on horseback. Soldiers attack the queen and her minions and she skewers herself with a sword before they can take her. The safety proves to be short-lived for Ursus, and the basket containing future warrior falls off the horse during flight. Ursus winds up alone in the wilderness surrounded by a den of lions that nurse him. Sound far-fetched? Of course, it is! However, "Ursus in the Valley of the Lions" is no more outlandish than the actual legend about the brothers Romulus (Steve Reeves) and Remus (Gordon Scott) who founded Rome in director Sergio Corbucci's classic "Duel of the Titans" (1961), where wolves supposedly nursed the brothers to maturity. Wisely, seasoned Italian director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, who also helmed a lesser Hercules movie "The Loves of Hercules" (1960) and the Victor Mature ancient military yarn "Hannibal," dwells only momentarily on Ursus' unusual childhood. Imagine a lioness changing diapers, much less nursing a squalling infant, and you can understand why Bragaglia leaps forward to Ursus as an adult. In a sense, Ursus has more in common with Tarzan of the Apes than Hercules, Samson, or Ulysses. Whatever the case, Ursus' idyllic life among the big cats changes for the worst when a wagon transporting a load of female slaves blunders into one of the strongman's animal traps and loses a wheel. The strongman has to push their vehicle single-handedly out of the pit. Ursus takes a shine to one of the maidens and she stays behind while the rest head off to the kingdom. The tyrant who sits on the throne learns about Ursus from a medallion that one of the slave girls has and realizes the threat that he poses to him if the public should learn about him. The ruler dispatches his bow & arrow toting soldiers to the lions' den, and they poison all the lions with tainted meat and capture Ursus with a net. Indeed, the villain here is a dastard! Mind you, Ursus knows nothing of all this intrigue and would have preferred to have lived out his life in blissful ignorance until the evil king intruded into his affairs. The action shifts gears from comedy to adventure after the villains put Ursus into chains and imprison in a dark cell. The ruler doesn't want anybody to get wind of who Ursus really is and even offers to free him if the strongman will keep silent about his heritage. Eventually, Ursus manages to escape with the help of a palace insider and finds his way out of a den of hyenas. In the execrable, full-frame, Sinister Cinema black & white print that I own of this movie, you cannot tell the difference between Ed Fury and the animal trainer and that is a plus. Ed Fury or the animal wrangler--when either shares scenes with the beasts--doesn't battle with a stuffed lion's head like Mark Forest did in "Son of Samson." The hyena scenes in the prison are pretty creepy, too. Ed Fury's Ursus doesn't go around hurling giant rocks, battling mythical entities, or collapsing architecture, but he is splendidly dubbed with a loud voice that never leaves you in doubt about what he says. The villains are worthy enough to make Ursus' struggle a challenge. Incidentally, this was Ed Fury's second film as a muscle bound hero after "Colossus and the Amazon Queen" (1960). Ruggero Deodato, who later helmed such exploitation classics such as "Jungle Holocaust" and "Cannibal Holocaust," handled second unit directing duties on this movie, too.

The print I saw was a very worn black and white one from Sinister Cinema and as the film went on it rapidly became clear that the print's lack of quality and color work against real enjoyment of the film.The good king and queen of some far off kingdom are brought down by an evil invader, however the queen escapes with their infant son. She soon commits suicide rather than be taken prisoner, but does so only after getting the baby away. The baby ends up being raised by lions. Years later the adult Ursus ends up captured by the evil king who killed his parents and moves to prevent him from ever taking the throne. There's more to it than that but it at least gives you the basic idea of the plot.The movie is a step or two above the normal sword and sandal film thanks to a largely knowing translation that has Ursus speaking of wanting to become the special friend of a slave girl he's carried off. I know you're saying why would Ursus carry off a slave girl, simple he was raised by lions. The acting isn't bad and the translation seems to match the lip movements.Is this a movie your going to watch over and over again? Probably not but should you run across it on TV late one night you'll find yourself entertained.

This was Ed Fury's second film in the Ursus character, and in this one we learn that Ursus, of noble blood, was raised among lions. When he enters the "human" world, he is wide-eyed and naive, but gradually adapts to the ways of the world, saves a beautiful woman who loves him, and overthrows an evil dictator. Fury plays the various phases of the character's evolution (from naivete to a kind of disgusted smirking to a regal heroic bearing) well. The scenes among the lions and the wolves will be an easy mark for those who want to nit-pick, but the techniques used here will be familiar to any fan of low budget films and won't bother anyone familiar with the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief." As is common among budget-conscious Italian "spectacle" films, the art direction and production design are quite imaginative and suggest a lot for a few lira. I've got to give some credit to a film that takes a lot of chances, and this film is, like an old serial, so over-the-top in its entertainment value that anyone looking to have some fun and set aside any critical questions should have an enjoyable 90 minutes with Ed Fury and crew. I've been digging out the old Ed Fury films recently, and I must say that he brings a special charm to the peplum genre--it was nice to see him honored with a retrospective at UCLA last year. Director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia has credits dating back to the 1930s, but his 1960s credits tend to be costume adventures and comedies. With this film, he's created a unique mix of peplum heroics, fantasy, and wit that I found quite entertaining.