Les légions de Cléopâtre

This movie popped up recently on FOX movie channel with the opening credits letter-boxed to 2:35 and the rest full frame. It's a shame it's cropped but you don't feel like you're missing image most of the time. There aren't any obvious "talking noses" on each side of the full frame cropping at least. The opening ten minutes are pretty poor with bar room brawls and other unfunny comedy. But once Marc Anthony appears it all gets much better. It's nicely produced and well acted and portrays Cleopatra as, well frankly, as kind of a slut that men don't notice until after they have fallen in love with her. The production design is well done there aren't a lot of huge cities portrayed but what is shown is well done, including a brief nicely done shot of the famous lighthouse at Alexandra. Unlike some Italian films of this genre there are no supernatural elements. There are some impressive "thousands of men on horses" scenes and Cleopatra rides around in a chariot pulled by at least 10 horses. But one let down in that when the actual battle scenes arrive they are done on a pretty small scale and end very quickly. Blame the second unit director for this I suppose. It tends to be large scale set ups to a battle that then shows 5 or 10 guys and lasts a minute and a half. There is however some good smaller scale fight scenes so maybe budget prevented more large scale, either way it's disappointing. It also must be said that what I saws, the Full frame American version, has a number of fast fade outs some of which pretty obviously seem to reveal material edited out of the film. Again though it's well acted and has a few surprises, you can complain there should be more "real" character action rather than one that basically focuses on fiction buddies who happen to be part of large events. But there are many other films that take the same sort of approach to real events and characters. Cameron's TITANIC takes this same approach. So fans of this genre check it out but be a little prepared to be let down in the action department.

A hockey and extravagant retelling of the infamous Queen Cleopatra who becomes infatuated with a Roman centurion , while going on her love for Marc Anthony . Medium budget version of the famous Queen of Egypt and Roman lovers, as her lust for Marc Anthony after Caesar's death . Set 44 BC later Julius Caesar's murder by Brutus and Casius , governing the second triumvirate formed by Lepido who governs Africa , Octavius Augustus ruling over Hispania and Marc Anthony over Egypt and Orient. Then the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (Linda Cristal) rules Egypt along with Caesar's possible successor , Marc Anthony (Georges Marchal) , but things do not turn out as well . Along the way , Octavian Augustus (Alfredo Mayo) intends to regain his empire by landing his army at Alexandria, besieging the city and attempting to capture Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius . Then Octavius sends a young centurion (Ettore Manni) to deal with Cleopatra into surrendering peacefully, and , of course , they fall in love. As there starts a tragic love story with fateful consequences . Later on , Octavian forms a huge army that's bigger than Cleopatra's forces , getting some allies from various Egyptian tribes who can come to her aid . Both sides prepare for a final showdown in the sunny desert . And Augustus eventually defeat them in Actium . Her Passion Ruled Rome! A Columbia Hit !. Cleopatra and the Emperor. He came her conqueror - He became her slave! The Loves of Cleopatra !

This "sword-and-sandal" epic concerning the known history about the famous Queen , the popular Egypt temptress who pins her hopes on rash Marc Anthony , resulting to be an extravaganza in budget enough , financed by Robert de Nesle and Italo Zingarelli , the latter a producer expert in making Peplums and Spaghetti Westerns . It is a multi-colored sleeping tablet with historical characters giving plain and simple recreation . It contains abundant matte painting , carton/stone settings , well-staged battles , some opulent grotesque interiors and a few actors hopelessly wooden . Passable starring quartet : Linda Cristal , Ettore Manni , Georges Marchal and Conrado San Martín. They are accompanied by an acceptable support cast , being an European co-production , here appears actors from various countries such as , Spain : María Mahor , Alfredo Mayo , Mary Carrillo ,Rafael Durán , Rafael Luis Calvo , Tomás Blanco ; Italy : Andrea Aureli ,Daniela Rocca Mino Doro, Salvatore Furnari and France : Jany Clair .

Enjoyable Sword and sandals flick , being professionally directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (1914-1998) ; he was a complete artist , painter and Peplum expert , as he directed : ¨Conquest of Atlántida¨, ¨Goliath and the Dragon¨(1961) with Mark Forest , Broderick Crawford , Bruce Cabot , ¨Hércules and the captive woman¨(1963) with Reg Park and the ordinary Ettore Manni , ¨Legions of Cleopatra¨, ¨Mesallina¨ and this ¨rebellion of gladiators¨. Vittorio began his professional career in the film industry as a clapper boy . After progressing to write motion picture screenplays and working as assistant director under Alessandro Blasetti and Vittorio De Sica, he became a director in his own right in 1943. Many of his films have been lavishly-produced, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, "sword-and sandal" or ¨Muscleman¨ epics, dealing with mythological subjects involving the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt . From the mid-60's, Cottafavi concentrated exclusively on directing TV series and mini-series, under contract to RAI , many of them dealing with historic events or known characters , such as Oliver Cromwell , Don Giovanni , Napoleone a Sant'Elena , Vita Di Dante and Cristóbal Colon .

Others films concerning this historic figure Cleopatra are as follows : Silent version¨Cleopatra¨ (1917) by Gordon Edwards with Theda Bara. ¨Cleopatra¨ (1934) by Cecil B. DeMille with Claudette Colbert, Henry Wilconson, Warren William, C Aubrey Smith. ¨Serpent of the Nile¨ (1953) by William Castle with Rhonda Fleming , William Lundigan, Raymond Burr , Michael Ansara . ¨Two nights with Cleopatra¨ (1954) by Mario Mattioli with Sofia Loren, Alberto Sordi, Paul Muller. ¨Cleopatra's legions¨ (1959) by Vittorio Cottafavi with Linda Cristal, Ettore Manni, Georges Marchal, Conrado San Martin. ¨A Queen for Caesar¨ (1962) by Piero Pierotti with Pascale Petit, George Ardisson, Akin Tamiroff, Gordon Scott, Corrado Pani . The mamouth version is ¨Cleopatra¨ (1963) by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall, Hume Cronyn, Andrew Keir, being produced by 20th Century-Fox that bought Le legioni di Cleopatra (1959) for $1 million and shelved it so it wouldn't draw potential customers away from its own upcoming Elizabeth Taylor rendition. And ¨Cleopatra miniseries¨ (1999) by Franc Roddan with Leonor Varela, Timothy Dalton, Billy Zane, Rupert Graves.

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?

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)!

On late fifties and all sixties Italian filmmakers made a whole bunch of peplum & sandals pictures, Hercules, Maciste and relatives from Greek mythology also on Roma Empire as well, Cleopatra quite often is portraited due her strong influence over Julius Cesar and Mark Anthony's affairs, thus the Italian cinema always want capitalize on this profitable niche due Cleopatra was labeled as hoochie sexy woman, then Vittorio Cottafavi whose basically starts in this genre and being a expert was called to direct this project.

The famous story of Mark Anthony & Cleopatra were told many times by cinema industry whereof the audience knows it by heart, as Liz Taylor's Cleopatra, Fleming's Serpent of the Nile, Colbert's Cleopatra, then Cotafavi alludes a Cleopatra on double life, a daytime a Queen of Egypt and at night Berenice a tavern's dancer, actually a true sexy performance by Linda Cristal, falling in love with a stranger Curridius (Ettore Manni) in fact a roman soldier an old acquaintance of Mark Anthony (George Marchal) in Roman Legions.

Curridious drove at Alexandria disguised as civilian aiming for warning Mark Anthony concerning a truce with Cesar August already in Africa and he was ready to crush Mark Anthony's Roman Legions loyal to him, Corridius urges to Mark Anthony gives up of Cleopatra and make a peace of Cesar Augustus, well seemingly instead Cotafavi focuses on political issues, he turns on Curridious story on Egyptian ground, interacting on lowest lung of local society as the gladiators and saving a slave boy helping his teenager sister, also on secret Cleopatra's affair, it somehow leaves aside the political aspect on Mark Anthony, who sparsely appears.

Technically aspects of the picture is an average sets, ravish wardrobe and fabulous Egyptian garments mainly on Cleopatra's look, the battles aside the numerous armies is a slight unconvincing, Cottafavi also displayed some humor oriented on the mute midge and some sequences as well, in compliance with the Italian standard in this specific genre, no bad at all.

Thanks for reading

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.