AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Dalbert Pringle I can't help it. I can't.In spite of all of its many flaws and inadequacies, I quite enjoyed Ursus In The Valley Of The Lions (UITVOL). Of course, muscle-man Ed Fury, as Ursus, was this film's main attraction. Without Fury UITVOL (with its inferior "everything") wouldn't have amounted to very much as worthwhile entertainment.UITVOL's story has a lot more in common with that of Tarzan rather than it does with Hercules.Though he doesn't know it (until much later), Ursus is of noble blood. As a wee baby both his parents (the King and Queen of Atlea) were savagely murdered when evil King Simud ordered his ruthless army to conquer their tiny kingdom.Shortly after this tragedy occurs Ursus is taken under the care of a pride of lions, who, instead of eating him up for a snack, raise him to adulthood as though he were one of their own.Years later, now fully-grown, the brutally handsome and powerfully strong, (prince) Ursus soon ventures out to discover the great, big world beyond his home of the lion pride.At this point evil King Simud plots to eliminate our hero Ursus, thus preventing him from reclaiming his royal birthright.Released in 1961 - UITVOL, featuring a mighty impressive Ed Fury, is a fairly entertaining "Sword And Sandal" Epic-Adventure. But, with that all said, I sure am curious to know which one of those absolutely darling lions it was who cut Ursus' hair, regularly shaved him, taught him to speak perfect English and picked out his footwear for him.

MARIO GAUCI Though featuring many an unlikely plot point (starting off with Ursus as a baby – even if it was the third of his adventures to be released within the same year!), this emerges as a slightly above-average peplum in which the muscular hero is once again played by the affable Ed Fury. He is the heir to some throne, obviously coveted by the villain of the piece – Alberto Lupo – and thus the target of assassination; amazingly, he not only survives this but is also brought up, Tarzan-like, by a bunch of lions (hence the title). Amusingly, though he seems to have effortlessly mastered the faculty of speech regardless, Ursus is blissfully ignorant of etiquette since he sees nothing wrong in taking a dip into a stream while the protesting (and obviously annoyed) heroine – a girl, intended for a slave market, whom he helps – is bathing! Special mention, then, is given in the credits to the animal wrangler involved, Orlando Orfei, presumably a relative of the film's villainess Moira Orfei (who was actually a staple of such fare: as was the case with the first URSUS, she has to contend with another girl over the love of a man, even if the object of her affection here is Lupo). Surprisingly, the film maintains a fairly sober tone throughout – with little concessions to the genre's usual pitfalls (there is no insufferable comic relief, for instance)…but we still get the villain's unconvincing demise at the hands of Simba, Ursus' favorite lioness (elsewhere it also bonds with the heroine's snowy-white mutt), and some unintentionally hilarious action scenes: Gerard Herter, Lupo's henchman, is hit squarely on the head with a stone-block the hero has dislodged from his prison-cell and lives (at least long enough to be devoured by a creepy pack of hungry hyenas); a soldier is thrown into a fire during a scuffle, rises up blazing, trips and falls flat on his face; a number of soldiers are commissioned to demolish a cave, the meeting-place of rebels, only to end up buried within it themselves, etc. In the end, the film provides standard excitements but proves mildly entertaining nevertheless (if hardly essential); again like URSUS, we find some notable names among the credits – not just director Bragaglia but composer Riz Ortolani and assistant director Ruggero Deodato(!).

zardoz-13 "Ursus nella valle dei leoni" (1961) cannot compete with some of the better known muscle man movies starring Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Scott, Alan Steel, and Reg Park. Nevertheless, this tyrant-versus-a-strongman saga with Ed Fury in the title role ranks a notch above the usual run-of-the-mill peplum potboilers. At best an uneven but entertaining epic, this first part of this adventure opus opens with an expository prelude with a kingdom being overrun by barbarians, then relies on comedy in its first half before it reverts during its second half to the standard he-man heroics about the lost son of a ruler who topples the murderous miscreant (Albert Lupo of "Herod the Great") who ran Ursus' unarmed father through with a sword, ascended the throne, and then enslaved the population. Invaders attack the kingdom but baby Ursus survives the sword after his mother packs him off to safety in a basket on horseback. Soldiers attack the queen and her minions and she skewers herself with a sword before they can take her. The safety proves to be short-lived for Ursus, and the basket containing future warrior falls off the horse during flight. Ursus winds up alone in the wilderness surrounded by a den of lions that nurse him. Sound far-fetched? Of course, it is! However, "Ursus in the Valley of the Lions" is no more outlandish than the actual legend about the brothers Romulus (Steve Reeves) and Remus (Gordon Scott) who founded Rome in director Sergio Corbucci's classic "Duel of the Titans" (1961), where wolves supposedly nursed the brothers to maturity. Wisely, seasoned Italian director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, who also helmed a lesser Hercules movie "The Loves of Hercules" (1960) and the Victor Mature ancient military yarn "Hannibal," dwells only momentarily on Ursus' unusual childhood. Imagine a lioness changing diapers, much less nursing a squalling infant, and you can understand why Bragaglia leaps forward to Ursus as an adult. In a sense, Ursus has more in common with Tarzan of the Apes than Hercules, Samson, or Ulysses. Whatever the case, Ursus' idyllic life among the big cats changes for the worst when a wagon transporting a load of female slaves blunders into one of the strongman's animal traps and loses a wheel. The strongman has to push their vehicle single-handedly out of the pit. Ursus takes a shine to one of the maidens and she stays behind while the rest head off to the kingdom. The tyrant who sits on the throne learns about Ursus from a medallion that one of the slave girls has and realizes the threat that he poses to him if the public should learn about him. The ruler dispatches his bow & arrow toting soldiers to the lions' den, and they poison all the lions with tainted meat and capture Ursus with a net. Indeed, the villain here is a dastard! Mind you, Ursus knows nothing of all this intrigue and would have preferred to have lived out his life in blissful ignorance until the evil king intruded into his affairs. The action shifts gears from comedy to adventure after the villains put Ursus into chains and imprison in a dark cell. The ruler doesn't want anybody to get wind of who Ursus really is and even offers to free him if the strongman will keep silent about his heritage. Eventually, Ursus manages to escape with the help of a palace insider and finds his way out of a den of hyenas. In the execrable, full-frame, Sinister Cinema black & white print that I own of this movie, you cannot tell the difference between Ed Fury and the animal trainer and that is a plus. Ed Fury or the animal wrangler--when either shares scenes with the beasts--doesn't battle with a stuffed lion's head like Mark Forest did in "Son of Samson." The hyena scenes in the prison are pretty creepy, too. Ed Fury's Ursus doesn't go around hurling giant rocks, battling mythical entities, or collapsing architecture, but he is splendidly dubbed with a loud voice that never leaves you in doubt about what he says. The villains are worthy enough to make Ursus' struggle a challenge. Incidentally, this was Ed Fury's second film as a muscle bound hero after "Colossus and the Amazon Queen" (1960). Ruggero Deodato, who later helmed such exploitation classics such as "Jungle Holocaust" and "Cannibal Holocaust," handled second unit directing duties on this movie, too.

django-1 This was Ed Fury's second film in the Ursus character, and in this one we learn that Ursus, of noble blood, was raised among lions. When he enters the "human" world, he is wide-eyed and naive, but gradually adapts to the ways of the world, saves a beautiful woman who loves him, and overthrows an evil dictator. Fury plays the various phases of the character's evolution (from naivete to a kind of disgusted smirking to a regal heroic bearing) well. The scenes among the lions and the wolves will be an easy mark for those who want to nit-pick, but the techniques used here will be familiar to any fan of low budget films and won't bother anyone familiar with the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief." As is common among budget-conscious Italian "spectacle" films, the art direction and production design are quite imaginative and suggest a lot for a few lira. I've got to give some credit to a film that takes a lot of chances, and this film is, like an old serial, so over-the-top in its entertainment value that anyone looking to have some fun and set aside any critical questions should have an enjoyable 90 minutes with Ed Fury and crew. I've been digging out the old Ed Fury films recently, and I must say that he brings a special charm to the peplum genre--it was nice to see him honored with a retrospective at UCLA last year. Director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia has credits dating back to the 1930s, but his 1960s credits tend to be costume adventures and comedies. With this film, he's created a unique mix of peplum heroics, fantasy, and wit that I found quite entertaining.