La scimitarra del saraceno

Strange historical drama, mixing adventure, political intrigue and lustful subplots, "The Scimitar of the Saracen" is too convoluted and overlong, not helped much by the lack of characters to "root for" or "identify with". Each man has a nasty plan of his own, the women are either bland or wicked, and our only option is to follow them in ships and through the desert to the final act. Massimo Serato is in reality the leading character, and not a likable one: Roberto de Diego is a chic thug, a womanizer and an opportunistic adventurer who goes after a Saracen pirate to help the Governor of Rhodes. The pirate has assaulted a ship and robbed a document addressed to the Governor, concerning a pact between Venice, Rhodes and Pisa. He has also kidnapped the women travelling aboard the ship to be sold as slaves, without knowing that one of them is the Governor's daughter Bianca. So Diego, who has been convicted in Rhodes, goes to rescue document and daughter for his freedom, but in the way he changes his mind and decides to sell the document to a sultan somewhere in Africa. Things get more complicated when he finally meets Drakut, the Saracen (Lex Barker, in an impressive entrance), who takes him aboard his ship; he finds Bianca (poor Graziella Granata, who spends most of the film crying), who falls for him, and finally he is helped by wicked Miriam (Chelo Alonso, who has a previous introduction in a beautiful flashback). Drakut desires Miriam, Miriam lusts after Diego, Diego feels redemption in Bianca's sudden love for him, and so on… There are other characters that come and go through desert and sea: a Catalan guitar-playing painter called Francisco; servant Candela who provides some comic relief, girls in sexy clothes, pirates, sailors, slaves, dervishes, eunuchs, whipping, sword fights, battles, and of course a dance performed by Chelo in the middle of the desert. Be assured that you will be entertained. But a little trimming would have helped.

The former Tarzan (Lex Baker) left America toward Italy and Germany looking for best roles, here an Italian-French co-production he plays a Mediterranean Saracen pirate Drakut, fearsome by his ruthlessness, meanwhile at Rhodes a Catalan Captain Roberto Diego (Massimo Serato) is going in the trial by spent a night with a married woman, the old husband appeals to the court for a robust indemnity for relief his honor to withdraw the charge, without a penny the Captain Roberto is sentenced to services in Galleys by the own Governor of Rhodes (Michele Malaspina) in the meantime arrives the news that the Pirate Drakut attacked a Rhodes Galleon on the way to Venice kidnaping his daughter Bianca (Graziella Granada) and an encrypted message to Venice's ruler, thus the cunning Captain offers to Governor his aid to recover his daughter and the message in exchange of his release.

Upon this sad news the Governor accepts, then the Captain Robert and his sidekick Nikopoulos (Gianni Rizzo) sailing to a port where Drakut's hideout aiming for get info about Bianca and try out rescue her having in mind sell her to Selim the Sultan (Bruno Corelli) got the money from himself, however meeting Drakut, the things going wrong, Capt. Roberto has a fight with Drakut's second in command Gamal (Danielle Vargas) for a duel ends up accept to travel with Drakut's sailors heading to an African port, in the middle of the long voyage Capt. Roberto is caught at cargo hold delving into slaves girls looking for Bianca, Drakut demands a harsh punishment with the spy with thirty lashes for such misdemeanor, reaching on the port Drakut settles a caravan to crossing a desert area taken all slaves girls, leaving in the middle of way Captain Diego that is wounded to die there.

Drakut continues his journey to deliver the slaves girls to Princess Myrian (Chielo Alonso) territory, adrift a middle of desert finally Capt. Roberto randomly meets a lushly landscape oasis lead by the gorgeous Princess Myrian and so many beautiful slaves where she trained to sell them to all Muslins people around, soon appears the evil Drakut with his cargo slaves to trade with Princess Myrian in order to ensure his love, Captain now under the protection of Princess Myrian already change your mind concerning betrayal of his early deal with Governor of Rhodes due he falling in love by the so crying Bianca, in other hand Myrian has a romantic interest for him, in this point Drakut envisages a marriage with Myrian to empowered himself all Saracen area, remaining to Robert rescue Bianca and the documents before the slaves be delivered to powerful Sultan Selim ere it is too late.

Nothing righteous movie having the braggart Lex Baker as the villain and Massimo Serato a sort of philandering men actually playing the hero, taking himself cross-body his joyful sidekick Gianni Rizzo to relief a lit bit with his frog, side by side with stunning girls, some sexy Spanish dance and choreography also with a awful plot and rough production, however far away to be bad.

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First Watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

A Spanish nobleman (Serato) runs afoul of the cruel and bloodthirsty Saracen pirate Drakut (Barker)after being provoked into swordplay. The Spaniard is allowed to become a prisoner rather then being put to death, because he is an artist. As a captive he is one among many, the others being a bevy of beautiful young women who are to be sold as slaves at the pirate's stronghold. How the longsuffering captive frees the girls, wins the love of the pirate's dangerous mistress, and faces him in a final duel to the death makes an exciting adventure film. The unusual casting of Barker as the vicious, brutal pirate along with Serato as the valiant, noble hero is a switch in roles that adds a filip to what otherwise would have been a standard entry in the pirate genre.

This is an entertaining swashbuckling, full of action, naval battles, desert fights, thrills , romance, and of course , a lot of sword-play. Bianca (Graciella Granata) , the beautiful daughter of Rhodes military governor, travels in the San Luca from the Venice Republic to her home in Rhodes, and without her knowledge, the ship also brings secret orders for her father to attack the Mediterranean ports dominated by the Sultan Selim. Roberto Diego (Massimo Serato) is going in the trial by spent a night with a married woman. When a ship carrying the daughter of Rhodes' governor and secret documents is captured by Mediterranean pirate Dragut (Lex Barker) , the governor tasks captain Diego with their recovery before they can be sold to Sultan Selim. The sad knews reach the Governor of Rhodes when he was expelling Diego, and free the girl. Without alternatives, the Governor accepts, and Diego enlists as a pirate under the service of Dragut. In his devious mind, once he gets his hands on the plans, he will sell them for good price to Suliman, whom he knows to pay in gold, rather than a polite thank you, as the Governor would do. After a number of adventures, escaping the wooing of beautiful and mean Arab Princess Miriam (Chelo Alonso) who falls for Diego, they are captured. He Took By Force... what he could have had for love!

The film is a nice pirate-adventure movie , being produced in limited budget. The picture contains rousing action, romantic adventure , mayhem and a fine cast doing a fine job. Lex Barker is cool as Dragut, the terrific Mediterranean pirate hero who attacks and conquers the Sun Luca and encounters dangerous situations along the way. This is one of Lex Barker's many Italian adventures, after his exile from the United States to Europe where he starred in all kinds of genres, excelling in Westerns such as the Karl May films: The highbrow Lex Barker played the most part of series : ¨Apache gold (1963)¨ by Harald Reinl , ¨Apaches last Battle (1964)¨ by Hugo Fregonese, ¨Last of renegades (1964)¨, ¨The desperate trail¨, ¨Old Surehand¨ (1965) directed by Alfred Vohrer, ¨Old Shatterland(1966)¨ by Harald Philipp , ¨In the valley of death (1968)¨ by Harald Reinl . And being the starring of adventure films, such as: ¨Robin Hood and the Pirates¨, ¨The Secret of the Blue Men¨, ¨The Executioner of Venice¨, ¨Tales of the Vikings¨, ¨El capitán Fuego¨, ¨La scimitarra del saraceno¨, ¨Il figlio del corsaro rosso¨. Barker married 5 times, his fifth wife, Carmen Cervera, (who later married Baron Tyssen), a former Miss Spain. Barker was very known for his role as Tarzan, normally quite hairy-chested, Barker was forced to submit to a full body wax in order to play the buffed version of Tarzan demanded by the producers. This entertaining adventure film has Lex Barker as its absolute protagonist. However, the real protagonist turns out to be Massimo Serato, since the latter spends more time on the screen, he plays an unscrupulous captain, who immediately offers his services to retake the ship, to recover his daughter and the message in exchange of his release. This classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor cinematography in charge of cameraman Augusto Tiezzi adapted magnificently to screen .Therea are battle ships and sword-play and full of villainy , romance , swashbuckler, heroism and a decisive sword duel to the death. Usual dancing scenes in charge of a gorgeous and always erotic Chelo Alonso. And accompanying some secondaries usuals in B-Italian films , such as: Daniele Vargas, Gianni Rizzo, Luigi Tosi, Michele Malaspina and Graziella Granata's film debut.

The motion picture was middlingly but professionally directed by Piero Pierotti . He was an artisan who wrote and directed a lot of adventure movies , Peplum and Historical films , such as : The Black Archer ,Marco Polo , Fury of the Vikings , Rome versus Rome , Pedro El Cruel, Hercules against Corsaire Noir , Hercules versus Rome, Robin Hood , Maciste in Hell , Hercules and the Masked Rider .

A disjointed screenplay ,a muddled story , and a cast against type Lex Barker (whose career was almost exclusively European in the sixties ) : a curious adventures movie ,with never a dull moment , plenty of sadism (flogging ,Myriam handing the pure governor's daughter to her riffraff pirates, Drakut leaving his injured enemy in the desert) and many implausibilities :a woman (Chela Alonso ,an habituée of the genre) ruling over a muslims ' tribe? A governor's daughter is refined and educated :how can she passed unnoticed among these probably illiterate enslaved women?

A great director could have enhanced Barker/Alonso's final scene which had a great potential ; as usual,it's the villains who provide the movie with its most exciting moments.