Die Mongolen

This is a highly entertaining Italian epic -- provided that you watch it for fun and not as a history lesson. The real Genghis Khan, historians tell us, was responsible for the deaths of some 20 million people, roughly a tenth of the known world, but in this version Roldano Lupi, bewhiskered and benign, comes across as a sort of Mongolian Father Christmas. As his evil son, Ogotai, Jack Palance has the time of his life dispensing cruelties and whippings with his usual leering relish, but he also imbues his role with a certain depth of character. Palance, carrying on where his maniac charioteer in Barabbas left off, is easily the best actor on show and more than anyone else holds the film together. By contrast, his leading lady is simply hilarious. "We Mongols..." says Anita Ekberg, looking exactly like Anita Ekberg and soon to go for a nude swim in the local river – shamelessly cashing in on her popular performance in La Dolce Vita where she waded into the Trevi Fountain. Her incongruous appearance is explained away by the fact that the Mongols abducted her from her homeland, but one wonders whether they acquired her from modern-day Sweden. Star Trek fans will be pleased to see Lawrence Montaigne, alias Spock's love rival Stonn, in an early role as an ally of Prince Stefan. (Italian references wrongly credit him as the King of Poland, but he's actually the one who changes clothes with Stefan to fool the Mongols). The remarkable score – not too well transferred in the American prints – is by film music legend Mario Nascimbene who has evidently tried to repeat the barbaric qualities of The Vikings. In his autobiography Nascimbene explains that the harsh percussion for The Mongols was achieved using ordinary household utensils. He even toured the Rome shops asking if they had a casserole dish in F-sharp or a frying pan in D-flat, and he was perhaps lucky to get out before they rang for the white coats. Back at the recording studio, conductor and friend Franco Ferrara was well accustomed to these musical eccentricities and asked if the RAI Sinfonica was always going to have a kitchens department? However, one must admit that the final score is both magnificent and ingenious. Dino Solari's choreography for the Mongol court is surprisingly erotic for its day, but disappointingly the US version has some clumsy cuts to exclude the bit where one of the male dancers gets astride and rolls round the floor with a scantily clad girl dancer. Adult ballet fans can see the uncut version on the French video release from Film Office Peplum. The battle scenes, where the Mongols are outwitted into entering a swamp where they all drown, were obviously filmed in two places. We begin in Yugoslavia where the location scenes were shot, then minutes later cut to the studio tank in Rome. Only the Italian epics can get away with this, of course, and all in all, this is a movie full of rich pickings. As long as you aren't expecting to see Henry V, it's a diverting way to spend a couple of hours.

I've wanted to watch this movie for a long time based on the performance of Jack Palance in a previous role as Atilla in "Sign of the Pagan". I wasn't disappointed in Palance's performance as Ogatai but as a whole this film was very inconsistent and horribly incorrect historically. To say the writers of this movie took liberties with history is an understatement. The great battle between the Mongols and the combined armies of Europe did take place, but not with the results described in the movie. In fact, the Mongols did have the opportunity to move much further westward into Europe, except by chance were diverted back home due to the death of the emperor and than later resumed their campaign toward the south/west and the Middle East, considered more attractive at this time in history. The movie does have some lavish costumes and epic battles, but it also often repeats the same footage over and over again. This movie actually had some potential with the amount of money it seemed to have in its production, but somebody dropped the ball in terms of editing, music and story. Blond haired Anita Ekberg as Ogatai's lover at first glance seems absurd, but plausible when you consider that the Mongols conquered all of Asia and most of Eastern Europe. Her acting is actually fairly good. The movie is worth seeing if your a fan of Jack Palance, his character of Ogatai is a unique one.

As many other American directors, Andre De Toth finished his career in Europe; this movie seems to be a response to Richard Thorpe's THE TARTARS, produced the same year, and starring Victor Mature and Orson Welles. Rudolph Maté, Hugo Fregonese, Vincent Sherman, Edgar G Ulmer, and many other film makers finished their filmographies in Italy or Spain. This one is a pretty good one, offering splendid settings, good pace, good scenes, a gorgeous Anita Ekberg as a villainess whom you won't forget. I saw it for the first time when I was just thirteen and have never forgotten it. I like this Andre De Toth's movie.

Historical adventure flick, but average epic movie, with known actors and a lot of extras, in fact it packs a cast of hundreds, if not of thousands. Genghis Khan: Roldano Lupi, lustful of territory and power invades Poland along with his encroaching army , sweeping in blood and fire the European countries. Then the Polish prince attempts to make peace but Attila's son, Ogotai : Jack Palance, rejects it , being supported by his lover, the Swedish/Italian model-actress Anita Ekberg who portrays Hulina, an action woman perfectly capable matching him in badness and brutality, both of whom wish wage war. Along the way they try to conquer the Polish stronghold of Cracow. While the Poles, wary of the approaching Mongols send Stefan of Cracow : Franco Silva, to negotiate a peace arrangement with Genghis Khan and his another son Temujin : Gabriele Antonini. By the way Stefan of Cracow enters into a love/hate relationship with a Polish village girl who finishes falsely believing that Stefan klled her would-be betrothed.

This spectacular sword and sandal film shot in Yugoslavia packs noisy action, large frames of men on horseback ready to fight, breathtaking battles , a scorning love story, thrills , hokey historical happenings and a cast of thousands. The picture is partially based on historic events about the Mongol encroachment over North and Central Europe. Weak screenplay by Luciano Martino, Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra, blending various facts with no much sense. Overacting by Jack Palance, as usual, as the violent and cruel Ogotai, he is at his menacing here . Palance dominates this historical adventure with his hysterical acting as a relentless warrior with only one thrist : bloody revenge and annihilation. Palance played several exotic/historical roles featuring plenty of treachery and deviousness, such as as The Silver Chalice, Attila, Revak the rebel, Rosmunda and Alboino, The horsemen, Barrabas, among others. He is well accompanied by a good support cast, such as : Antonella Lualdi, Franco Silva, Roldano Lupi, Montaigne, Pierre Cressoy, Gabriella Pallotta, Gabriele Antonini, George Wang and Gianni Garco : Sartana.

It contains colorful cinematography by Aldo Giordani and epic in score, shot on location in habitual Yugoslavia outdoors . And rousing and moving musical score by Mario Nascimbene. This costumer motion picture was regularly directed by Andre De Toth (Carson City, House of wax, Springfield rifle, Passport to Suez, Man in the saddle, Riding shotgun, Pitfall, Tanganika, Hidden fear), Leopoldo Savona (Two little orphans, Apocalypse Joe, Killer kid, Byleth, Fra Diavolo, Texas the Red) and Riccardo Freda (Il vampiri, Teodora, Horrible Dr Hitchcock, Beatriz Cenci, Benbenutto Cellini, Spartaco, Maciste in court of the great Khan), this latter uncredited. Rating 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable but mediocre.

The story of this movie takes place in the middle ages at a time when Genghis Khan's Mongolian army was threatening Europe. It centers around the adventures of a Polish knight who wants to save the town Kraków from being taken by the cruel enemy.

The creators of the movie put much effort into the scenery and even more effort into the costumes. But they did not put any effort at all into the script or into acting. The plot is as simple-minded as if it had been invented by some twelve year old boys, playing cops and robbers. The dialog consists of stupid, hollow phrases. This alone would already make the movie a bad movie.

However its weaknesses go beyond that. The background music is not only unbearable symphonic rubbish. It is also inappropriately matched to the atmosphere of the individual scenes. Even the optical aspects that seem to have been the film maker's only focus are flawed. I do not have sufficient historical knowledge to judge about the historical correctness of costumes, weapons and other equipment. But I am quite sure that ordinary Polish women in the middle ages did not possess a hairstyle, makeup, and manicure like models in the early 1960's, especially if they were hiding from the Mongolian army in the marshland.

This having been said, it is almost unnecessary to mention that even the main story line is far from telling a true story about Genghis Khan's time.

There is no reason to watch this film, as long as you do not want to see how much can go wrong simultaneously with a single movie.