Claudius decides to take a new wife, the Vestal Virgin Messalina, the niece of Augustus Caesar.

[2] FilmInk called the film "The most fun of Lee’s European movies", "a silly sword and sandal epic with Lee having a high old time as the notorious empress, taking milk baths and seducing gladiators.

"[7] Film critic Gary Smith wrote that: Of the many screen interpretations of Messalina this is probably the most satisfying due to the casting of Belinda Lee in the title role.

This is not to suggest that Messalina is the most historically accurate or even the best produced version, but Belinda Lee’s pagan beauty seems to exude wantonness, and this is just the right quality needed for a successful portrayal of Rome’s most dissolute em- press.

Lee, who played a number of memorable screen temptresses in her brief film career, including Lucretia Borgia in The Nights of Lucretia Borgia and Potiphar’s wife in Joseph and His Brethren, had beauty and charisma.