La spada e la croce

There are many interesting aspects on this, and I would suggest that they are all favourable. Even the music, which is rather disturbing at first, completely changes character in the middle of the film as the presence of Jesus enters the stage. Like in "Ben Hur" a few years later, you never see his face, and maybe the makers of that film got the idea from here. No matter what you may think about the liberties taken here with the gospels, Yvonne de Carlo as always makes a terrific performance, both as actress and dancer - and there are several invigorating ballet scenes here, in whicvh Yvonne de Carlo even almost outshines Rita Hayworth - actually, Yvonne da Carlo made something of a continuation of Rita Hayworth's career after Rita left Hollywood after her divorce from Orson Welles. The story is good, it is a well composed script, which also puts some quality to the entire film. There is no theology here, Barabbas and his thieves and criminals with the Romans and their generals are treated with the same human interest as the Hebrews, and it does not include Mary Magdalene's later encounter with Jesus after the supposed resurrection - there is no resurrection here. In brief, nothing bad could be said about it, only appreciative observations of excellent details, - but Yvonne de Carlo is the jewel in the crown of this film.

Except for Yvonne DeCarlo this Italian made story of Jesus's last days will have no one in the cast you might remember. DeCarlo looks sultry and beautiful but this is a deadly dull interpretation of the most universally told story ever.

DeCarlo is Mary Magdalene and this interpretation is borrowed from DeMille's King Of Kings which had her as one rich courtesan in old Jerusalem. Supporting said lifestyle is the nephew of Caiaphas who has got a working relationship with Barabbas a Hebrew freedom fighter and rebel. Other than that the story follows along biblical lines except that Lazarus is Mary Magdalene's brother. His awakening really makes a believer out of her.

Other than when DeCarlo does her little dance and shakes some booty which also in the DeMille tradition of a bit of sex in the most reverent of stories, The Sword And The Cross is one deadly dull affair.

No one will confuse this with the King Of Kings, silent or sound.

The Passion Play gets the peplum treatment from director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, a genre-friendly "auteur" responsible for such sword & sandal "classics" as QUEEN OF BABYLON, HANNIBAL, AMAZONS OF ROME, URSUS IN THE VALLEY OF THE LIONS and THE LOVES OF HERCULES in a 30-year career that thrived under Mussolini's reign. This one stars a slightly over-the-hill Yvonne De Carlo as Mary Magdalene, the Hebrew harlot everyone's crazy about -from swashbuckling Roman centurion Gaius Marcellus (handsome Jorge Mistral) to that rabble-rouser Barrabas- but for the love of God, she's only got eyes for the Nazarine after suddenly seeing the light one night. During a banquet orgy, the raven-tressed Yvonne did a seductive dance wearing a gold half-mask and a sea of red chiffon in an attempt to arouse a holy man but she got religion right in the middle of it, blanching like something got lodged in her throat before running out of the room to become a goody two-shoes.

As was the custom at the time in most movies, Christ's visage is never shown and when He's on screen, events are seen from His POV. He also appears as a distant, ghostly figure in Mary's garden after her disastrous, disrupted dance whereupon the jezebel of Magdala immediately gives up her wanton ways much to the displeasure of her scheming benefactor, the Jew Hannan (the always hissable Massimo Serato, a genre favorite), who happens to be an old friend of Gaius (a la Ben Hur), the Roman dispatched to quell a rebellion against Pontius Pilate. Mary's miraculous conversion very nearly gets her stoned to death when she attempts to attend Temple and, of course, it also puts the kabosh on the blossoming romance between the courtesan and the centurion. In this fanciful, Cliff's Notes version of the Magdalene's involvement in the life of Jesus, Lazarus (future "spaghetti western" star Terence Hill) is Mary's brother-in-law and the thankless role of her virtuous sister Martha is played by lovely Rossana Podestà who was Hollywood's HELEN OF TROY only a few short years before. Sexy guest star Rossana Rory is also wasted as Pilate's covertly Christian wife but, in all fairness, Miss De Carlo is the star of the picture (and, most likely, its raison d'etre) although the deluded conceit that anything in pants (or, in this case, toga & tunic) would fall head-over-heels for the somewhat past-her-prime glamour girl doesn't exactly aid in the suspension of disbelief.

Yvonne, no stranger to the Bible after her turn as Moses' wife in Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, still can't act but, no matter -she's gorgeous and, as a reviewer noted back in '52, "the lady has an airy self-assurance that suggests, bless her heart, the public can either take it or leave it." Her real-life husband, stuntman Bob Morgan, has a small role billed as Roberto Morgani and would later be crippled during the making of HOW THE WEST WAS WON. The prerequisite battle scene towards the end which culminates in a sword fight between Barrabus & Gaius and the wind & rain after the Crucifixion are also amusing but, as one of the few Yvonne De Carlo movies I hadn't seen, this was something of a holy grail and I was pleasantly surprised to discover it wasn't as godawful as I'd imagined. That's not to say the movie was any good but this Italian "spectacle" (in more ways than one) was lots of fun, nonetheless, and made for some great alternative holiday viewing.

Miss De Carlo is always a feast for the eyes ;this is a pleasant sword and sandal extravaganza,but only if you forget the gospels .Because her Mary Magdalene is made of bits of characters featured in the Holy Writ and her adventures which include a Barraba attack and an affair with a Roman officer are rather unreliable,to put it mildly.

She's Lazarus' (played by Mario Girotti aka Terence Hill) and Martha's sister (sic) ,which allows the director to film the young man rise from the dead;she is also the adulteress,complete with "let him who has never sinned.....";she's also the sinner who washes Jesus ' feet ,but without Judas Iscariot's nasty intervention;it's too much for the same woman :the gospels only say that Jesus cast seven demons out of her ,if my memory serves me well.

That said,there 's never a dull moment and Yvonne De Carlo is really as gorgeous as ever.

Though I had at least a couple more vintage Christ-related films lined up for Holy Week viewing, I ended up watching only this one…and the fact that it did not amount to much makes the restriction doubly disappointing! Anyway, this peplum looked promising enough on paper: director Bragaglia was an expert at this sort of fare, Yvonne De Carlo was equally seasoned at playing historical figures, and her supporting cast was headed by Victor Mature-lookalike Jorge Mistral (who had been Heathcliff in Luis Bunuel's remarkably idiosyncratic 1954 version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS!) and Massimo Serato, yet another genre stalwart.

However, as was the norm back then, a number of flourishes (read: inaccuracies or, simply, inventions) were incorporated into the plot that rendered it not just unpalatable but downright mediocre! These included having Mary Magdalene turn out to be Lazarus' sister (he, then, is played – believe it or not – by a pre-stardom Terence Hill, still acting under his original name of Mario Girotti!), her being involved with the insurrectionist schemes of arch-criminal Barabbas (depicted as a rather scurrilous individual!) and also De Carlo's alternating relationships between ambitious/unscrupulous Jew Serato (Barabbas' own contact-man!) and centurion Mistral (who also happens to be Serato's old buddy!) newly-arrived to steer Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea, towards accomplishing the will of Rome!

Incidentally, while the Jew exploits Mary's profession of courtesan (needless to say, frowned upon but basically tolerated – because her religion dictates as much – by sister Rossana Podesta': she had already fallen to supporting-role status after the misfire that was Robert Wise's HELEN OF TROY {1955}!), the Roman is shocked by her shameless behavior (especially when he discovers she had been the masked performer of a sultry dance at a party given by Serato: apparently, he clean forgot De Carlo had already made a demonstration of her dubious 'artistic' abilities in his tent when left behind during an attack by Barabbas and his fanatics!)...WTF?! – should it not be a Christian's prerogative to try and reform a Pagan?

And what of Jesus' own appearance: being from the time where it was not deemed fit to show His features (the remake of KING OF KINGS was still 3 years away), His presence is so fleeting throughout that He might as well have been a ghost...which Christ almost is when unhistorically turning up in Mary Magdalene's garden beseeching that she mend her wicked ways! Naturally, this eventually occurs after He famously intervenes at her impromptu stoning; she ultimately repays Him by an equally fictitious – and unbelievable – visit to His prison cell (thanks to Mistral's clout apparently), where His redeeming spirit is unabated. Following which, we fast-forward to the Crucifixion scene and, by extension, the film's end – a sure sign, if one were needed, that Religion was the last thing on the film-makers' minds!