The Colossus of Rhodes

Rory Calhoun (who director Sergio Leone later described as a “proletarian Cary Grant”), as Greek soldier and visitor Dario, has pursued sexy, connected local dignitary Diala (Lea Massari) from a big banquet to a quieter temple, but she’s planning tricks, in the Spanish-made Italian-financed MGM release The Colossus Of Rhodes, 1961.

Leave it to Sergio Leone, in his first feature, a cold-open no less, with a Hellenistic commando raid on unspecified villains, the blonde guy being rescued is the French actor Georges Marchal, whom we’ll learn is a rebel Phoenecian slave, in the Italian-financed, shot in Spain, released by MGM The Colossus Of Rhodes, 1961, starring Rory Calhoun.

This plays rather like a Sergio Leone scene, and comes from his first feature, at a banquet on Rhodes celebrating the new (titular) statue, rakish Greek visitor Dario (Rory Calhoun) flirts with local socialite Diala (Lea Massari), while the king (Roberto Camardiel) susses out a rebel slave (an un-credited actor!), in The Colossus Of Rhodes, 1961.

Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) solo directed for the first time on The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), a sword-and-sandal epic.