Maciste à la cour du Cheik

Ed Fury already had two "Ursus" films under his peplum and still had one more to go when he tossed off this entry in the sword-and-sandal field which moved the action to the Spanish-Moorish world of the late 1500s. Despite the change in sets and costumes, the story is the usual mishmash of kidnapped princesses, evil tyrants, feats of strength, duplicitous noblemen, etc. It's passably diverting for fans of this genre but no one really seems to have his heart in the proceedings.

Fury doesn't make his appearance until the second reel and it takes him a bit longer to get his shirt off. After that, he's frequently bare-chested. There's no background or depth to his character which gives him a vaguely "cartoony" quality but, as one might expect, he's subjected to a dose of beefcake-bondage. In one scene he's chained to the wall of a dungeon and threatened with two sharpened points about to be rammed into his eyes. In a later scene he has to fight off six hulking warriors. The last of these warriors gives Fury seventeen lashes with a whip as Fury writhes on the ground but the whip is obviously just a piece of rope and so this torment has little impact. Finally Fury has to lift back into place a fallen stone obelisk. This isn't very plausible, even for a "Maciste," but it is a unique moment in films.

Fury performs with his usual off-hand charm but he seems out-of-place, somewhat uncomfortable, and occasionally bored. For those trying to follow the overly-tangled story, "Ramiro" is the Spanish plotter who's trying to take over the Dukedom of Malaga and "Zuleima" is the beautiful Arab girl who helps Maciste at a key moment.

This review is based on, alas, a black-and-white VHS tape which seemed to be missing bits and pieces of footage.

Standard Peplum by Domenico Paolella with plenty of combats , thrills , fights and noisy action . Exciting Peplum odyssey , regularly-plotted , with a likeable acting from Ed Fury as Maciste . Sword and Sandals film centers Maciste (Ed Fury or Edmund Holovchik) , he is the typical bouncing hunk man who fights against evil people . This time happens many centuries after his ordinary feats , in the late 1500s , Arabs invasion on Spain force to Duke of Malaga (John McDouglas or Giuseppe Addobbati) topple the Sacred Obelisk in the North African city of Melida before they're defeated by the local Sheik (Erno Crisa) and then the Duke is taken prisoner . The Shiek's hoodlums then sail to Spain and abduct the Duke's daughter , Isabella (Gisella Arden) . A lower-class adventurer called Antonio (Carocci) , who loves the aristocratic Isabella , now travels to Melida with his pal , Maciste (Ed Fury) , to free her as well as her imprisoned father. They're soon captured but Isabella and Antonio make their getaway . Along the way , Maciste fights a herd of lions and group of hunks (Nazzareno Zamperla, Fortunato Arena , among others) and he carries out a column hoist .

This moving Peplum set in XVI Century, Spain and Morocco , contains emotion , noisy action , sequences incorporating classic elements , spectacular fights against lions and lots of sword-wielding warriors , court intrigue , stirring ending in which Maciste is forced to single-handedly re-erect the sacred fallen obelisk and many other things . This mythological movie stars Maciste/Ed Fury who seeks to finish rescuing the Duke's daughter and restoring her father to his dukedom , it is plenty of adventures , atmospheric settings , evocative soundtrack by Carlo Savina and colorful scenarios well photographed by Tino Santoni . This is a regular spaghetti, myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious landscapes , but there are a few editing goofs . In addition to the muscular lead , here there are the always appealing sword and sandal elements ; however , this movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . The corpulent Ed Fury was a hunk man who made some roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ . He was one of a number of bodybuilder and physique model types who followed muscleman Steve Reeves out to Italy in the early 60s and won campy notice playing Herculean characters in those campy Italian sand-and-spear epics . Ursus ("Ursus" is Latin for "bear"), Maciste, Goliath, Samson , Hércules , Atlas..., those Italian muscle man producers must have had a hard time figuring out what to call the musclebound actors who played all these legendary muscleman heroes . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest , Gordon Mitchell , Alan Steel , Dan Vadis , Reg Park , Brad Harris , Samson Burke , Richard Harrison , Rock Stevens , Kirk Morris and 'Gordon Scott' and , of course , the great Steve Reeves , as nobody , nevertheless, topped Steve in popularity . Ed Fury started off his beefcake run off as a body double . Ed was the subject of legendary photographer Robert Mizer and appeared on the cover of Mizer's infamous magazine "Physique Pictorial" ostensibly promoting Fury's role in Ursus (1961), billed as "The Mighty Ursus". Ed was posing front-and-center as Herk himself and entering in the star-system based on pumped-up heroes playing ¨Sansone¨ or ¨Samson¨ or ¨Ursus¨ . On numerous occasions Ed was asked to play the legendary Greek hero , as well as the equally well-built demigods Samson and Ursus , even though the film titles often fused (or confused) them in their titles . In fact , he starred various Ursus movies , such as : ¨Ursus¨ (1961) by Carlo Campollani with similar actors as Ed Fury , Maria Luisa Merlo and Moira Orfei , ¨Ursus in the Valley of Lions¨(1962) by Carlo Ludovico and "The Son of Hercules in the Land of Fire" (1963) by Giorgio Simonelli with Ed Fury , Luciana Gilli and Claudia Mori . Some other familiar faces show up in this Maciste contro lo sceicco (1962) , such as : Erno Crisa , Giuseppe Addobbati or John MacDouglas , Nazzareno Zamperla , Fortunato Arena, and Spaghetti Western regular baddie : Piero Lulli . And including three gorgeous women : Gisella Arden , Mara Berni and Anna Ranalli as Maciste's girlfriend .

The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Domenico Paolella . He was a director and writer, known for filming all kind of genres such as Nunexploitation : ¨The nun and the devil¨, ¨Unholy Convent¨ , Peplum : ¨Maciste Nell'inferno Di Gengis Khan¨, ¨Il Gladiatore Che Sfidò L'Impero¨ , ¨Golia Conquista Di Bagdad¨ , ¨Ercole Contro Tiranni , ¨Maciste against Mongols¨, among others . Rating : 4.5/10 . Only for hardcore enthusiasts of the Peplum genre .

Billed as a Maciste film he doesn't appear for 20 minutes and then only fleetingly until the last half hour. The film is more concerned with court intrigue in the Middle East instead of the actions of the titled hero. Its all the bad guy with the good guy coming in a distant third or fourth in importance. You'll forgive the lack of details but this is so dull and so lifeless it was a struggle to stay awake. Besides if I gave you any hint of the plot it might sound good and you might want to watch it. I would have shut it off except that I was waiting for Maciste to do something, and what little he did do in the final reel was so laughable I was wondering where the other three stooges were. On the plus side its well produced and looks good, but other wise its one of the most awful movies ever made.