Il ladro di Damasco

Two charming thieves get into trouble in Syria, which is under Roman rule, and take refuge in a Jew's house. His daughter falls in love with one of them, and they all end up in prison, condemned to death, but they are saved when the Roman Consul recognizes one of the thieves as his long lost son.

Sword of Damascus is an amusing mix of sword/Arabian romp and comedy - I found the one liners -in the English dubbed version - quite funny. There's an air of joviality and it's like a non-stop farce. It comes across like those Universal Studio adventures of the '50's. Tony Russel shows some comic flair and energy as the thief fallen for the heroine and Lucianna Gilli plays the heroine. Good fun.

I recall a childhood viewing on Italian TV of a film entitled IL LADRO DI DAMASCO (which, officially, translates to THE THIEF OF DAMASCUS); over the years, having completely forgotten it, I was under the impression that the movie I’d watched was the 1952 Sam Katzman-produced effort (which actually drops the article) co-starring Lon Chaney Jr. – but, all of a sudden, this Italian peplum turns up on TV and it turned out to be the film I’d come across eons ago…

Given the ultra-modest credentials, I wasn’t really expecting anything here but was merely curious to re-acquaint myself with it, if anything for purposes of nostalgia. However, the film emerged to be a harmless enough outing and, all in all, quite a pleasant romp: in essence, the plot transposes the roguish hero of many an Arabian Nights tale to Ancient Rome – typically, he (played by bland but affable Tony Russel) gets into all kind of scrapes but is always able to get out of them unscathed with cunning and the help of his devoted pal (Ferruccio Amendola once again, who also happened to be the nephew of the film’s writer/director!)

The main villain is a treacherous Syrian merchant who, in cahoots with the Roman governor, seeks to be made the first local potentate in return for revealing the identity of the patriotic rebels. As usual for such juvenile fare, this slimy individual has also set his eyes and heart on the local beauty whose true love, it goes without saying, is our thieving hero. Predictably, she is abducted to the former’s palace and is ingeniously saved by the comically black-faced and acrobatic intervention of Russel and Amendola (who, in making up their gibberish Negrospeak, contrive to include contemporary Italian musical fads like “Ully Gully” and “Dadaumpa”)!! The elaborate climax involves a free-for-all confrontation between Romans and Syrians and, when all seems lost (including Russel’s head to the executioner), a tell-tale bodily scar reveals the thief’s true patrician lineage!

This is a peplum /sword and sandal movie which does not take it seriously;this thief of Damascos did not meet St Paul (Saul) but he did meet the Romans who occupied his country :the governor's long speech is tongue-in-chick demagogy and his final generous promises will remind you of these of your own local or national politicians ; you can guess the final "unexpected twist " as soon as the governor tells he lost his dearest five-year-old child a long time ago: and it spawns ,in the last pictures, a true spoof on classic melodramas (it's not moving ,it's riotously funny).

This thief is pretty smart and his tricks are much fun to watch; his African mumbo -jumbo proves that coded messages existed in antiquity ( Caesar used them long before the RSA cryptography) .

In Damas town , the Romans divide and rule : to become a Roman citizen is the greatest honor and the villain would hand all his compatriots over to them to be king of Syria (he's already a Roman citizen)

Tony Russel has plenty of go ; the Syrian/Roman confrontations are badly directed ,but it does not matter for it's essentially a farce.