Wonderful character development!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ursus (Samson Burke) fights evil King Zagro (Livio Lorenzon) who wants to enlarge his kingdom considerably by killing another king and marrying a princess.Okayish sword & sandals movie with the usual heroic scenes (Ursus is breaking chains, makes an elephant walk backwards and wins fights against any number of opponents). Samson Burke, it must be said though, isn't much of an actor. Also we get the typical annoying little boy brother he needs to rescue every now and then. On the other hand, Gianni Rizzo plays a twisted greedy character very effectively again - ready to change from the losing to the winning side. And Livio Lorenzon gets the best line in the script, replying when begged not to harm Ursus: 'I'm not going to harm him. I'm going to kill him!'

I have never done this before, but I am writing a review specifically to tell you not to try to watch "La Vendetta di Ursus" (or "Vengeance of Ursus") from a particular DVD producer. That's because I found the DVD to be completely unwatchable and of such unacceptable quality I just gave up trying to see it.Not surprisingly, the film I tried to see was from Alpha Video. Alpha is known for producing films that are in the public domain. And, since they are such a cut-rate producer, they do absolutely nothing to clean up the prints, nor do they provide any DVD extras or captioning. The only way I'd ever recommend them is if no other company has released the film--and unfortunately, this is often the case. The films they do bring us are wonderful to lovers of B-movies and silents...provided the prints are watchable.The film was scratchy, completely bleached (you could barely tell it had even once been a color film it was so bad) and the film repeatedly jumped--with missing bits and pieces throughout the film. While I can ignore the scratchiness and washed out print, because often portions of sentences were omitted and the scenes jumped about due to missing frames, I just gave up and recommend you find another version if possible or just skip it entirely. After all, there must have been 29123491324 different Italian muscle-dramas from the era starring the likes of Hercules, Maciste, Ursus or Samson.

Despite a meaningless title and a lead (Samson Burke!) who gives new meaning to the word "wooden", this is not too bad for what is essentially a formulaic muscleman effort. The plot is typically chockful of court intrigues within Ursus' camp – by way of the King's deceitful rotund consultant who contrives to have his own master killed, Ursus convicted of the crime and appointing bald-headed Livio Lorenzon (an above-average village who keeps a leopard for a pet) as his people's new ruler; a couple of attractive ladies: one good (Ursus' fiancée', of course) and one evil (who, clad in an iron mask, even disguises herself as the latter at the King's wedding ceremony!); and, to up the suspense factor somewhat, an independent-minded kid brother for the hero (from whom he tries to keep his superhuman past by posing as an indefatigable farmer)! For what it is worth, at one point the action once again requires Ursus to engage in a tug-of-war with a number of elephants…although here he needs their impending threat to his little sibling for him to eventually manage in suppressing them!

Samson Burke (he of "Hercules Meets the 3 Stooges" fame), lantern-jawed and broad of back, plays the mythological Ursus, a man with a past, which is only hinted at in the beginning. He now farms with his puckish little brother, Durias, until called upon to confront the evil and scheming King Zagro and his toady, Lycurgas who are plotting to take over the neighboring kingdom of Leecha, through a marriage with King Altheus' lovely (in a 1960's Italian kind-of-way) daughter, Sirah (whew). The plot has lots of action, moves along swiftly, and as these things go, is "not bad", aided by the hero's skillful execution of flying drop kicks, airplane spins, and other impressive TV wrestling moves, and ending up with an early version of an Ironman Event, to test the truthfulness of Ursus' version of events (the schemers beg to differ). One small disconcerting note: the princess' voice sounds remarkably like it is dubbed by Kathy Lee Gifford.