It's one of those Italian Peplum productions, for once without any Steve Reeves, but Edmund Purdom as Herod is convincing enough, although maybe slightly too handsome for a Herod, like Massimo Girotti also is a bit too dashing for Augustus. The story is the grim drama of Herod killing off his own family - Augustus observed on one occasion that no one needed to threat Herod's family as he would soon have killed them all himself. It has the character of a melodrama, there is very little action and mainly only theatrical acting, but the actors are all good and attractive - like in all Peplum films the set designs are perfectly stylish. But that's all - no cinematography, nothing special, only drama and tears and paranoia, which Herod drives to extremes - which he also did in reality.
Review of Herod the Great
