Die Legionen des Cäsaren

The problem with this movie for English speaking viewers is that the English Language version was cut and then dubbed in an appallingly slipshod way. If you refer to the original Italian or French versions, you find that the dialogue is much more profound and intentionally comedic in places. Most of this was steamrollered over with bland lip-fitting inanities in the US version. At one point, Curridius stuffs a bunch of grapes into a slave-trader's face to shut him up, and in the original version, comments to his friends that people will just think he's drunk. The US dialogue has Curridius saying "Did you see his face when I offered him the two talents?" Don't blame Cottafavi for that, please.

The reason the French and Italians love Cottafavi is that they are seeing his movies as intended, not butchered to fit a TV screen, and dubbed with nonsensical dialogue.

Also, don't forget that this was the movie that 20th Century Fox bought for a million from its producers, so they could put it on the shelf, and make sure it wouldn't interfere with the blockbuster release of its own Elizabeth-Taylor-starring CLEOPATRA. Maybe when they eventually put it out on Television, they intentionally had it badly dubbed just so you wouldn't like it.

This film takes place during the time when "Octavian" (Alfredo Mayo) ruled the western part of the Roman Empire in Rome while "Marc Antony" (Georges Marchal) and "Cleopatra" (Linda Crystal) ruled the eastern half of the empire from the city of Alexandria in Egypt. It's during this time that Cleopatra dons a disguise and happens to meet a Greek gladiator named "Curridio" (Ettore Manni) with whom she falls in love with. Yet even though Cleopatra doesn't initially reveal her identity to him it soon becomes apparent that Curridio isn't necessarily who he pretends to be either. To further complicate things, an Egyptian slave girl by the name of "Marianne" (Maria Mahor) also falls in love with Curridio which changes the overall dynamic in more ways than one. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I enjoyed the presence of Linda Crystal who performed in an excellent manner. Unfortunately, the director (Vittorio Cottafavi) seemed confused on whether he was making a drama or an action film which eventually resulted in a rather uneven final product. That being said, I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

Legions Of The Nile casts Linda Cristal a year before she made her mark in John Wayne's The Alamo as Cleopatra in this low budget saga of Antony And Cleopatra. The story is told from the perspective of Ettore Manni a young centurion who Octavian has sent to Mark Antony played by Georges Marechal into surrendering peacefully. This of course is after the Battle of Actium.

In this story Cleo has a double life. Someone in Italian cinema might have read the story of Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid known to go out among his people incognito at night to get a feeling for public opinion in Bagdad. Cristal gets tired of all the worship by day, she wants a little fun so she goes out at night. On one of her romps she meets Manni, but of course for better or worse her fate is tied to Marechal.

This ain't Liz Taylor's or Claudette Colbert's Cleo, but not too bad.

This superior Epic rendition of the 'Antony and Cleopatra' affair, helmed by one of the undisputed Italian masters of the genre, is nevertheless a conceptually flawed effort: incidentally, it seems to have taken a leaf from two recently-viewed and almost identically-titled movies i.e. SERPENT OF THE NILE (1953), which deals with much the same events, and PRINCESS OF THE NILE (1954) – the former in view of the Egyptian Queen's more prominent secondary liaison (not to mention, its love/hate nature) and the latter by way of her leading a double-life as an exotic dancer (for no historically valid reason in this case)!

Even so, Linda Cristal's beguiling Cleopatra here is among the more sober, thus notable (if completely unsung), portrayals; interestingly, this would be bookended by her appearances in two films which also featured Maltese character actor Joseph Calleia, including John Wayne's pet project THE ALAMO (1960)! However, the female protagonist's relationship with Antony (an otherwise well-cast Georges Marchal) is vastly underwritten – as they barely share a scene throughout the proceedings! In fact, Ettore Manni (who had co-starred with the latter in Cottafavi's earlier THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL {1958}) is the nominal lead: he falls for Cleopatra when incognito, but then renounces her when he misconstrues her actions to have been politically-motivated and not genuine! To counter this, Manni is involved with a girl whom he buys (along with her brother) at a market place; the boy becomes devoted to him but perishes during a skirmish inside a cave! Both women also get to interact (chiefly so as to intercede for the hero), but Cleopatra then can do nothing to prevent the other woman from being tortured – via the intriguing ruse of premature burial! Also on hand are a dwarf (mute this time around) and Manni's Roman henchman (who constantly makes eyes at a middle-aged but feisty tavern-keeper), both of whom had also featured in that earlier Cottafavi film in practically the self-same roles!

Despite my reservations vis-a'-vis the script (one final quibble concerns the fact that neither of the two potentates' famous deaths are shown and, disappointingly, they are forsaken even during the conventional final shot: ironically, I had commended the director for going against the grain at just this moment in my review of THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL!), the technical side of production really cannot be faulted – indeed, Cottafavi's sense of composition (particularly in the handling of action sequences) has virtually no peers within the mini-budgeted arena (no pun intended)!

Mankiewicz's movie,even if it's unfairly looked upon by pretty much as a failure is a great director's /writer's work.It's not only a question of money;give the same big budget to Vittorio Cottafavi and he will not do what Mankiewicz does.Definitely not.

"Some French critics ,much to the Italians' surprise,called Cottafavi "an auteur" who transcends the peplum genre".(Jean Tulard;dictionnaire du cinéma,T1).It's wishful thinking.The cock and bull screenplay cannot be taken seriously one single minute.Unlike Mankiewicz's work,which encompasses the whole story,beginning with the rivalry Cleopatra/Ptolemy,"legioni" begins after Actium (maybe it was too expensive to direct a naval battle.So we have Cleo and Mark-Anthony back in Egypt,waiting for Octavius' armies. History is given a rough ride as ever:the plot focuses on a Marc-Anthony's friend,Carridius ,who tries to reconciliate the two former triumvirs.A spate of clichés waits for the audience:taverns where everybody's drunk and fighting,gladiators scenes,tortures aplenty -one of these nice pastimes might indicate that the wicked cruel Egyptians (we do not see the Romans do such a thing)invented the ancestor of the Nuremberg virgin-, and exotic dances,some of them in a low dive,by Cleopatra herself incognito.

The plot loses itself in an uninteresting supporting cast which includes a gladiator who becomes friend with the hero Carridius and whose laugh will get on your nerves:a comic relief,this is definitely not;a young and gorgeous slave girl who falls in love with.. well you guess;a courageous slave boy;a very sadistic gladiator.

Because of these pointless subplots,we lose sight of the essential,and Georges Marchal,the best actor of the cast,who plays Marc-Anthony ,takes a back seat to the secondary characters.He tries to do the best he can with the lines he gets ,but what can an actor who used to work in "la comédie française" theater do in such a company?