Most Hollywood films only deal with the Roman Emperors around the Julio-Claudian era, so its wonderful to find one set so late in the piece, with the Empire split in half and Attila the Hun running riot. It's reasonably historically accurate too - there really was a Roman centurion called Marcian who ended up as Emperor, marrying Pulcheria; a cowardly eunuch who encouraged Emperor Theodosius to bribe Attila to stay away, Pope Leo who persuaded Attila to steer clear of Rome.
Jeff Chandler was born to play a Roman, with his sculpted hair and physique - but although the film starts off about Marcian it's really more about Attila, and him grappling with this new thing called Christianity. His daughter converts, one of his "seers" is killed by a bolt of lightning. And it's also about Pulcheria... actually this film is a little all over the shop. Chandler disappears for slabs, I was unsure what it was about sometimes, and there are a lot of scenes of Palance looking upwards.
Palance gives a good performance though - but the girls, Ludmilla Tcherina and Rita Gam are weak. Leggy Allison Hayes pops up as a captive forced to marry Attila. There's colour, action and some good production design - it was directed by Douglas Sirk. No classic but interesting, especially to fans of Roman history.
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