Sergio Leone is known for making awesome westerns. A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. He didn’t direct a lot of movies but his last few are consider to be classics. Leone’s first full credited feature film though (he had co-directed a couple things) was this sword and sandals epic The Colossus of Rhodes.
Set in 280 BC on the island of Rhodes where the kingdom has just finished building a giant statue, a colossal statue if you will to Apollo in the harbour to help protect against invasions. A Greek military soldier named Darios (Rory Calhoun) is visiting his uncle on the island and gets caught up in several plots.
It seems there are rebels on the island are planning on overthrowing the king Serse (Roberto Camardiel). The king’s second in command Thar (Conrado San Martín) is planning on overthrowing the king too but with the help of the Phoenicians. He’s smuggled an army onto the island and is trying to have men reading to take over the statue in order to let a large Phoenician fleet of ships in.
Meanwhile Darios is helping the rebels and the they plan on attack the statue to free the prisoners who are kept in a dungeon below the statue. Lots of fighting and getting captured ensue. The movie is pretty good for a swords and sandals flick. It isn’t classic Leone but it gave him a big break and let go on to direct A Fistful of Dollars.