Les légions de Cléopâtre

The problem with this movie for English speaking viewers is that the English Language version was cut and then dubbed in an appallingly slipshod way. If you refer to the original Italian or French versions, you find that the dialogue is much more profound and intentionally comedic in places. Most of this was steamrollered over with bland lip-fitting inanities in the US version. At one point, Curridius stuffs a bunch of grapes into a slave-trader's face to shut him up, and in the original version, comments to his friends that people will just think he's drunk. The US dialogue has Curridius saying "Did you see his face when I offered him the two talents?" Don't blame Cottafavi for that, please.

The reason the French and Italians love Cottafavi is that they are seeing his movies as intended, not butchered to fit a TV screen, and dubbed with nonsensical dialogue.

Also, don't forget that this was the movie that 20th Century Fox bought for a million from its producers, so they could put it on the shelf, and make sure it wouldn't interfere with the blockbuster release of its own Elizabeth-Taylor-starring CLEOPATRA. Maybe when they eventually put it out on Television, they intentionally had it badly dubbed just so you wouldn't like it.

This film takes place during the time when "Octavian" (Alfredo Mayo) ruled the western part of the Roman Empire in Rome while "Marc Antony" (Georges Marchal) and "Cleopatra" (Linda Crystal) ruled the eastern half of the empire from the city of Alexandria in Egypt. It's during this time that Cleopatra dons a disguise and happens to meet a Greek gladiator named "Curridio" (Ettore Manni) with whom she falls in love with. Yet even though Cleopatra doesn't initially reveal her identity to him it soon becomes apparent that Curridio isn't necessarily who he pretends to be either. To further complicate things, an Egyptian slave girl by the name of "Marianne" (Maria Mahor) also falls in love with Curridio which changes the overall dynamic in more ways than one. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I enjoyed the presence of Linda Crystal who performed in an excellent manner. Unfortunately, the director (Vittorio Cottafavi) seemed confused on whether he was making a drama or an action film which eventually resulted in a rather uneven final product. That being said, I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

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.

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.

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