Cléopâtre une reine pour César

I wonder if Elizabeth Taylor watched this before she took on the role played here by Pascale Petit one year later? I can't think she would have gained much from the rather wooden effort presented of this most enigmatic of women from history. Sharing the throne with her brother "Ptolemy" (an enthusiastic Corrado Pani) has proved just too awkward for all and so the scheming Theodotus (Ennio Balbo) plots a regime change. This forces our heroine and her protector Apollodorus (Franco Volpi) to take urgent action that sees her end up in the camp of Pompeii (Akim Tamiroff) who has some scheming of his own to do to outwit Caesar (Gordon Scott). Were the acting just a bit more natural and better, this wouldn't be half bad. Effort has been made on the look of the film. The sets and the costumes are effective and the combat scenes are pretty entertaining fayre. It's just that Petit and the even more static "Lucius" (Rik Battaglia) drive the fun and chemistry from the thing quickly and permanently. You don't expect Pulitzer prize writing but again, just a little more application with the typewriter could have made a big difference. Still, I did actually quite enjoy it and I like the genre. If you do, too, then it's certainly worth a gander.

Pascale Petit did never become a big star in her native France although the late fifties provide her with her best part in Marcel Carné ' s" Les Tricheurs".

Her Cleopatra is more comic strip stuff than historical drama (although unfairly underrated ,Mankiewicz' s magnum opus has no contenders ) ,but as pure entertainment , not to be taken seriously , it's not worse than the average sword-and -sandal flick :muscle man Gordon Scott (later a secret agent) is completely miscast ,being too young (and Cesar was bald!),but as he only appears late in the movie ,it does not matter ;It's actually George Ardisson (himself a sword and sandal habitué ,later a secret agent too) who plays Cleo's attentive escort and whose character was invented from start to finish ).

The screenplay often verges on tongue in chick ,probably the best way to deal with such a far-fetched story.

While the long filming of the Hollywood epic CLEOPATRA with Elizabeth TAYLOR was still underway, the film UNA REGINA PER CESARE with Pascale PETIT as the Egyptian queen was being shot at CINECITTA. The German distribution title CLEOPATRA, THE NAKED QUEEN OF THE NILE is once again incredibly stupid. Pascale PETIT is not seen naked once in the film.

The backstory is told before Cleopatra and Gaius Julius Caesar (Gordon SCOTT) meet for the first time. That is why Hollywood star Gordon SCOTT, who has moved to CINECITTA, only has a small appearance at the end. Before that, Cleopatra has to fight with her brother Ptolemy for the succession to the throne. She gets help from a bodyguard (Giorgio ARDISSON), who also becomes her lover. The Italian actor Rik BATTAGLIA also gets involved as the scheming general Lucius. A few years later, BATTAGLIA played the villain in WINNETOU III (1965) who was responsible for the death of the Apache chief Winnetou from the Karl May novels, a character so popular in German-speaking countries. Before Cleopatra finally decides on Caesar, she also tries her luck with his adversary Pompey (Akim TAMIROFF, who received an OSCAR nomination for his role in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS). We know how that ends from history lessons.

Filming with Elizabeth TAYLOR dragged on for three years, no lie. It's no wonder that the resourceful Italians were able to quickly bring this quite acceptable production to the cinemas. However, the major Hollywood studio 20TH CENTURY FOX didn't like that at all, so they made sure that the film disappeared into obscurity for the time being.

Pascale Petit plays the young Cleopatra who challenges her brother for the throne of Egypt. They both seek Roman allies to further their cause. Cleopatra "seduces" Julius Caesar, (Gordon Scott) by appearing nude in front of him. She is rolled up in a carpet and rolls out of it at Gordon Scott's feet. There were 2 endings filmed for this final scene, one with clothes on and one naked. Most versions show the clothed version but there are copies of the nude one floating around and on Y/T. The distributor in the UK released the movie in 1962 and didn't realize that they had sent out the nude version to video stores. They then had to rush around and replace those copies with the fully clothed version. You can only see the bare back of the gorgeous Pascale Petit but it is well worth looking for. (There is a photo of her nude in the IMDB gallery attached to this posting). Geogio Ardisson does most of the action throughout the movie and Gordon Scott is only in that one final scene.

A QUEEN FOR CAESAR is a plodding peplum adventure charting the early life and times of one Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, forever caught up in the power struggles of her bother, her courtiers, the Roman Empire, and the various soldiers and generals in her employ. What should be a lavish and spectacle-filled adventure turns out to be a low-budget effort that consists of various characters jawing in the most yawn-worthy way.

Pascale Petit makes for an attractive and distinctive-looking Cleopatra, but even Amanda Barrie did a better job in CARRY ON CLEO. The story never seems to get beyond having Cleopatra at the mercy of various guys, some of them good, some of them bad, and being imprisoned. The power struggles are dealt with in the most rote way imaginable and the presence of genre regulars like Rik Battaglia and George Ardisson does nothing to lift the spirits. Watch out for Gordon Scott who appears late in the story as a miscast Caesar.