If I had seen this as a pre-teenager back in the mid 1970's, I might have giggled a bit, but chances are I'd be bored after half an hour of the Pappy Yokum like character running around fourth century Rome searching for the beard that someone shaved off of him against his will. He's quickly tiresome, distracting from the strong main storyline of gladiator Mark Forrest protecting new queen Scilla Gabel who has announces her plan to continue the humane treatment of the peasant population started by her late father. This puts her in jeopardy from the upperclass who decides that they need a nefarious duke as their ruler who will keep them in power over a do-gooder female.
First of all, Rome still had emperors in the 300's, and dukes weren't around until centuries later. In addition to the irritating old man, there's also a chimpanzee whose sound effects are obviously dubbed by a human. The chimp even knows how to use a sword and participates in collosieum games. The silly humor didn't need to dominate the film, and turned the dramatic lead story into a secondary distraction. Easy for a sophisticated viewer to get pretty annoyed really quickly. I'll go back a few centuries for "The Colossus of Rhodes" rather than suffer torture watching this again even though it started off fine, quickly going down the seven hills of Rome and landing in quicksand.
First of all, Rome still had emperors in the 300's, and dukes weren't around until centuries later. In addition to the irritating old man, there's also a chimpanzee whose sound effects are obviously dubbed by a human. The chimp even knows how to use a sword and participates in collosieum games. The silly humor didn't need to dominate the film, and turned the dramatic lead story into a secondary distraction. Easy for a sophisticated viewer to get pretty annoyed really quickly. I'll go back a few centuries for "The Colossus of Rhodes" rather than suffer torture watching this again even though it started off fine, quickly going down the seven hills of Rome and landing in quicksand.