Simply A Masterpiece

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

1966...where was this shot? It looks like Spain, and the sets look like those from The Fall of the Roman Empire. The big interior set is probably one of the 33 entire finished interior spaces built for that massive Anthony Mann film that were never used in the production. Otherwise, this movie stinks, with awful dramatic scenes and absurd battles - the people who made this movie apparently never heard of the Roman legion, as the fights all involve a bunch of extras just running at each other in chaotic scrimmages.

This 1966 movie is Ferdinando Baldi's follow-up to the previous year's ARMINIUS THE TERRIBLE, also starring Cameron Mitchell in a very similar role to the one he has here. This time, however, the Black Forest is swapped for more typical locations like a Roman castle, a quarry, and a spooky grotto although the action is generally the same. Despite a low budget, Baldi - who also wrote the story and screenplay - creates a well-paced and always interesting movie with more fleshed-out characters than usual, with in particular some meaty supporting roles for the female members of his cast who are more just than romantic interests here.The film deals with the uprising of a tribe from Pannonia, which has not one but two leaders. The first is the elder Magdo (played with skill by Vladimir Medar, returning from ARMINIUS THE TERRIBLE with Mitchell) who is a peace-loving leader who only wants to ally his army with Rome. Unfortunately, his rival, Bertone, is a hot-headed warrior only out for Roman blood who has other ideas and goes around massacring Roman soldiers at will. Matters are complicated when Mitchell's character Fentidius finds himself falling in love with Magdo's beautiful blonde-haired daughter after she finds herself captured, and you can guarantee that there'll be plenty of swordplay and bloodshed before the credits roll.Baldi's film is a movie never lacking in action, apart from one instance when the old padding of an extended dance routine is brought into play. The all-out action ending tops what is a predictable if enjoyable movie, which has one sequence which stands out in which Mitchell, captured by the enemy, is forced to run three times over a bare bridge in his bare feet. Unfortunately, Mitchell doesn't give one of his very best performances here, but that may be because his character of Marcus Fentidius isn't really fleshed out until the second half of the film, where he gets to show his human side and also have a great one-on-one sword fight with the villain. IN THE SHADOW OF THE EAGLES is a visually pleasing film to watch, with themes of honour and jealousy to keep it interesting, and indeed in the end it is the human characters rather than the action-orientated plot which make it worthwhile.

you won't miss much if you turn the sound off. The score is a bizarre mix of uninspired marches and weird chords that sound more appropriate to a bad Euro sexploitation flick. The characters are one-dimensional and the script makes little sense. The romantic scenes are about as passionate and believable as watching paint dry. On the positive side, the sets (mostly borrowed from better productions), and costumes are quite good, as was common to many of the Italian B epics. The Yugoslavian locations are at least accurate to the story, and in late winter/early spring, they lend a properly bleak and lonely look to the borderlands of civilization. Despite the care and striving for authenticity put into those elements, the director cared little for how the Romans waged war. They charge willy-nilly at the enemy to fight man to man, rather in proper formations.As another reviewer mentioned, this is a sort of companion piece to 'Massacre in the Black Forest'. If you have a choice, go for that one instead.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE EAGLES is an extremely rare peplum directed by Ferdinando Baldi, apparently shot back-to-back with his MASSACRE IN THB BLACK FOREST. Cameron Mitchell more or less repeats his role from that film, staring as a Roman general matching wits with a rebellious tribe of barbarians at the border of the Empire. Recommended.