O Filho do Sheik

KERIM, SON OF THE SHIEK is a barely-remembered peplum outing with a twist: it's set in the Middle East, so instead of tunics and togas we get characters swathed in Arabic robes and the horses are replaced with camels. Seriously, though, the change in setting makes this stand out a little more from all the rest, which it needs to do seeing as the story is so familiar.

The film begins with an evil character, Omar, cutting his way through the desert tribes and planning to marry a beautiful young princess. Unfortunately for him, one of his victims is the sister of a proud and upstanding hero, Kerim, who becomes a Robin Hood-style avenger to bring Omar to justice.

There's little more to it than that, and KERIM, SON OF THE SHIEK offers a predictable mix of romance, action, treachery, and battle sequences. It's well handled on a small budget and the location filming in Egypt adds a lot to the fun of the thing. Gordon Scott is a dependable hero and ends up stripping to the waist for the rousing climax, and fellow peplum star Gordon Mitchell has a cameo role. Director Mario Costa made plenty of sword and sandal adventures during his time behind the camera and this is another string to his bow.

Largely filmed in Egypt, this Saturday-matinée adventure has an expansive quality not often found in sword-and-sandal movies. Unfortunately, some of this quality will be lost when shrunk onto a TV screen, but an efficient script, replete with sure-fire ingredients, and an enthusiastic cast make up for any visual disappointments. Heading the cast is ex-Tarzan Gordon Scott who takes awhile to enter the scene and who then wears a headdress which often obscures the lower part of his face. By the end of the movie, however, the headdress is gone along with Scott's shirt and finally being able to see his sweaty, sun-bronzed torso is well worth the wait. Along the way he suffers a flogging inside his enemy's dungeon and this may be the only time you'll see Scott writhing under the whip. (The flogging, alas, isn't included in the book: "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.") Clocking in at little more than a brisk 80 minutes, this minor but worthy effort has the good sense to give the audience what it wants, and then to quit while it's ahead.

This has obviously no relation to Rudolph Valentino's 1926 swan-song nor, for that matter, the 1977 modern-day comedy starring Tomas Milian. The peplum under review marks the momentous (but curiously unexploited) teaming of two genre stalwarts: Gordon Scott as the titular figure (later assuming the Robin Hood-like guise of "The Black Sheik"!) and Gordon Mitchell as a mercenary employed by the villain but who expires after just one brief skirmish! Also on hand is Moira Orfei (who similarly flourished during the form's heyday) as, typically, an evil mistress of the obligatory usurping potentate.

The result is an unassuming film with no outstanding merit…except that it is perhaps the most impersonally-directed such effort I have ever watched: in fact, there is barely any close-up throughout and, what is worse, an awful lot of the running-time is taken up by repetitive footage of riders traveling aimlessly across the desert (and which, for all I know, may have been stock footage anyway)!! Just as amusingly, the chief baddie turns up with his men at the camp of a neighboring tribe (led by Scott's father and currently being entertained by his own daughter's dancing!) – where the initial greeting and any thoughts of an amicable visit are instantly dispelled by the order to assault and decimate the gathering…and himself unceremoniously making off with the hero's sister, unwisely incurring the latter's inevitable wrath in the process (with the two ultimately facing-off in single combat on the sand dunes)!

Emir Omar (who looks like Alan Steel) is a brutal thug of a leader--stealing any young lady he finds attractive, shaking down local tribes and killing anyone who dares resist, etc. We see about ten-fifteen minutes of his barbarism when Gordon Scott--Kerim, son of the ruler of a small tribe threatened by the Emir AND someone whose sister was captured and killed by him--arrives on the scene to take on the evil Emir and unite the various tribes who have been crushed under his iron heel. Gordon Scott might not be the first actor who comes to mind when casting a middle-eastern role, but he does fine (in full beard) in the role. At first, he wears a full costume and head-dress, but he gradually wears less and less until he is bare-chested, and one remembers why this former Tarzan and peplum star was so popular at the time. Scott, who resembles his friend Steve Reeves in this film, was able to work well in a number of genres--jungle, peplum, costume adventure, western, and spy--and he has the charisma to carry a film on his own. There's a lot of attractive second-unit photography from Egypt, although since the Tigris River is mentioned, one presumes this is set in southern Iraq or Syria. The photography is quite colorful and the set design, while low budget, is complements the color scheme of the landscape. Gordon Mitchell is billed, but he's not much in evidence. I'm guessing that he is playing a mercenary leader who is hired by the Emir to get Scott and his followers, but that character's face is mostly hidden under a scarf and not much face is shown...and in any event the character's role is about four minutes long. It could be Mitchell--I'm not sure (I saw this on a small-screen TV, which didn't help). As a devoted fan of Italian sword and sandal cinema, I found this obscure film to be a pleasant surprise and I would recommend it to any fan of the genre. KERIM--SON OF THE SHEIK is certainly "above average," and it's always nice to see Gordon Scott again. Good luck in finding a copy!

This film is rarely listed in reference books or Movie guides, but is an excellent example of the sword and sandal genre & an interesting entry in Scott's filmography.

Even the IMDb does not list this title in an English version, but a dubbed and anglicized version is in circulation, if you hunt around long enough.

For those of you who are interested in seeing this film, a copy is available @ Movieflix.com (membership required), although the print available (listed on the site as "Son of the Sheik", with no mention of Gordon Scott as its star) is smeary, with poor sound and super-imposed foreign subtitles.

Its availability on MOVIEFLIX is a slightly better option than never seeing it, but not much.