La cortigiana di Babilonia

A friend of mine – who, apart from being a well-known local film-buff, occasionally invites me (and three like-minded others) to his old-fashioned home theater to watch 16mm prints of vintage Hollywood movies – had, during our periodical meetings, often voiced his wish to revisit the movie under review. Therefore, when I was later contacted by an enthusiastic American film collector that happened to have a vast amount of titles in this vein at his disposal, I naturally acceded to his earnest request. Now that the Easter season is just around the corner, I was curious to learn what the fuss was all about and, naturally, I immediately got around to watching it as part of my annual Epic movie marathon.

I would be lying if I said that I was expecting to be overwhelmed by an Italian peplum whose only capsule review I was aware of (Leonard Maltin's) merely awarded it a *1/2 rating. But I was not really prepared for what I eventually got either: if this film were any campier, Indian chieftains would have convened in it to hold their war councils! Right from the outset, I was in for a laugh-out-loud moment when one of two horsemen is seen having trouble descending from his steed (ostensibly to cut off two corpses hung from a tree and give them a decent burial)…by which time soldiers from the opposing army reach them and kill hero Ricardo Montalban's elderly lieutenant (which, naturally, sets the revenge plot in motion). Besides, we are supposed to believe that a stunning redhead like Rhonda Fleming is an abandoned child of nature that lives blissfully with her animals in a cave (and yet her first appearance has her stretched out on a rock soaking in the sun and splashing in the water!); when the Assyrians attack the village in search of Montalban and in retaliation for Fleming's harboring of him, the soldiers leave just one woman alive (having been spared for being too old)!; a brutish Assyrian thug rapes Fleming when he traps her in the cave; the captured girls dim-wittedly display their dancing skills when they are offered a chance of survival by performing before the King (but, obviously, they are able to learn the intricate choreography overnight!); Montalban proves remarkably resilient throughout – when pierced with an arrow early on, he promptly removes this to impale a soldier on it and, again, during a particularly animated tavern brawl!; in an obvious attempt to out-do the man-eating lions from QUO VADIS (1951), here we get victims being fed to alligators…only these appear much smaller (being clearly younger) when the protagonist grapples with them in a pool for the King's amusement – naturally, while they get to kill their fair share of people, the stout Montalban effortlessly defeats one reptile after another!; the final confrontation, then, between Montalban and chief villain Carlo Ninchi is carelessly handled in a silent, hurried fashion!

In the past, I have checked out a quartet of Bragaglia (who died at the venerable age of 103!)'s genre efforts – notably HANNIBAL (1959; co-directed with Edgar G. Ulmer) and AMAZONS OF ROME (1961; co-directed with Vittorio Cottafavi); however, during my ongoing schedule, I should also be getting to his THE SWORD AND THE CROSS (1958) and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1963), while I might also be able to acquire the well-regarded THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS (1958). Similarly, renowned scribe Ennio De Concini contributed to innumerable such entries from 1948-63. As for the two leads, I recently watched Fleming (whose career seemingly lost its momentum after 1960) in YANKEE PASHA and have William Castle's SERPENT OF THE NILE – THE LOVES OF CLEOPATRA (both 1954) set up for the near-future; with respect to her co-star, I have MARK OF THE RENEGADE (1951) and THE SARACEN BLADE (1954; also by Castle) lined up. Supporting them here are Roldano Lupi (a Pedro Armendariz look-alike playing the historical figure of King Assur) and Tamara Lees (wife of actor Bonar Colleano in real-life). Finally, and for the record, other films to be found within this Mesopotamian subgenre are SLAVES OF BABYLON (1953; yet another William Castle entry) and THE HERO OF BABYLON (1963; which I have just acquired) – both of which are upcoming viewings – as well as WAR GODS OF BABYLON (1962; which I watched not too long ago) and I AM SEMIRAMIS (1963; one I foolishly missed out on Italian TV).

Yes, it's a feast of campy nonsense, but it's also better than the reviews would indicate and a clear notch or two above most of the "Hercules" movies which would be coming along just a few years later. The sets may be a stylistic mishmash but some of them are surprisingly impressive and most of the action scenes -- particularly a brawl inside a watering hole -- are well handled. The dialog's on the level of -- "I will wait for you in the old tavern by the marketplace" -- but it fits the overall tone of the proceedings. One complaint, however: a bit of editing would be welcome since the movie runs a few minutes longer than necessary. (The tape under review came in at 107 minutes.)

Rhonda Fleming may be utterly implausible as a Babylonian goat-herder but she, as usual, looks great in color. Ricardo Montalban plays most of his scenes in mini-skirt and earrings but to prove his masculinity, he repeatedly displays his chest which looks much hairier than it does in some of his other movies. Curiously, his dialog seems to have been dubbed in by another English-speaking actor.

Midway through the movie we see Montalban spreadeagled against the wall of a dungeon and whipped across his bare chest. In "The Saracen Blade," he was whipped across his bare back. This makes him, along with Steve Reeves, just about the only leading man in the movies to suffer both a chest whipping and a back whipping. (His flogging in "Babylon" ranks 65th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies," whereas his flogging in "Saracen" ranks 94th.)

Now then, this is really pretty poor. The plot, insofar as that remotely matters, involves a young man "Amal" (Ricardo Montalban) who is badly injured after a fight and who is nursed back to health by pretty young thing "Semiramis" (Rhonda Fleming). The king's guard are none too impressed with her helping this rebel and so she is imprisoned, then paraded before the king "Assur" (Roldani Lupi) where he takes a shine to her. She becomes his concubine but when he is poisoned, she is the prime suspect and it falls to "Amal" to rescue her and restore order to the Kingdom. To be fair to director Carlo Bragaglia, there is plenty of action here but he is really let down by some sloppy production standards, bad continuity and fight scenes that are just too badly choreographed. Montalban is not anywhere near good enough to hold this up on his own, and it really does feel like a very long 100 minutes before an ending you could predict from the tea leaves. Pity, the story isn't bad, but the rest of it... Nope, sorry!

I AM AN ethusiastic fan of the fabulous movie star ricardo montalban and my comment refers to his performance in this movie. I recommend this movie to all ricardo's fans as well to all viewers who are into this genere swords& sandals adventures action movies. I think RICARDO is just great in this movie. Handsome virile and most convincing. He impressed me as a fighter and as a lover and he features the difficult role in a very impressing way. in several scenes he made me most excited. IT was in the dangeon where he is tortured by lashes on his bare chest and in the scene in the arena where he voluntarily fights sharks in order to save the lives of his innocent followers. in front of the eyes of his cruel enemies as well as in front of terrified presence of his lover now THE QUEEN OF BABYLON,he shows courage strength and high physical ability. i find him attracting and fascinating in every form. this is a personal point of view of an admirer of RICARDO montalban for more than 50 years. for those who are looking for a copy i have a poor one.

Wow. Saw this one the other night on TCM. Ricardo Montalban's name in the credits was the main draw, and he didn't disappoint. Montalban sports one of the most ridiculous mullets you'll ever see, short Ceasar-style bangs in front and Shirley Temple-style ringlets in back. Bad. The whole thing is laughably poor. The dubbing is out of sync, the costumes are a mish-mash of every known genre, the sets look like they're leftovers from some Egyptian epic. That said, if you're an aficionado of bad movies, this one will keep you busily making fun of it from start to finish. Who knew that the ancient Babylonians were such a braless and breasty bunch?