O Filho de César e Cleópatra

THE SON OF CLEOPATRA is a desert-set peplum starring Mark Damon, later a standby both in Italy and America. It's less a follow-up to CLEOPATRA and more inspired by LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, I feel, with a lot of desert-set feuding and battles between the tribes. The plot is quite workmanlike and there's none of the grandeur you'd expect given our hero's parents. If you're looking for action you can forget it too as aside from a few half-hearted moments there's little on display here.

I was also pleasantly surprised with this meticulously staged production, made in the wake of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra", the legendary Fox historical spectacle for which no money was spared to bring a visually rich motion picture to the screen. This tale of El Kebir (or Cesarion, the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar) leading rebel Egyptian tribes against a tyrannical Roman governor is mostly an outdoors action drama, and whatever is set in interiors does not require lavishly rich sets and decoration since the scenes take place in desert tents and public officers' houses. Add location shooting in Egypt, hundreds of extras and you have a typical 1960s wide-screen and color adventure drama. Against what I have read about Mark Damon's performance he is equally fit as a handsome action leader (not precisely a mythological demigod, but a freedom fighter) and as a more complex character than the usual muscle-man fighting evil queens and emperors. There are also more interesting characters (even if they fit the usual stereotypes of right and wrong doers), played by an excellent cast of Italian and Egyptian actors; and firm and straight direction by Ferdinando Baldi. What is unfortunately lacking is chemistry between Damon and leading lady Scilla Gabel, as Livia, the Roman governor's daughter who falls for the dark-haired and green-eyed prince of the desert: their interaction is simply another element of the plot, since there is no passion or romantic energy in their scenes. Carlo Rustichelli's score is a plus, providing the romantic touch lacking in their performances, and adding a dimension reminiscent of the European westerns, with a melancholic trumpet leading the main theme. Watch it, it is quite enjoyable.

Mark Damon plays the leader of a desert tribe in 1st-century-B.C. Egypt. Angered by the corrupt rule of the Roman governor, he leads a revolt against this governor, even though he's become romantically involved with the governor's daughter whom he holds hostage.

Damon played in a few of these "Sword & Sandal" movies but his good looks had a softness to them which kept him from becoming a truly-persuasive action hero. His upper teeth also seemed a bit too-widely spaced for one of those Cinemascope smiles, but unlike Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, and other stars of this genre, he had hair on his chest! (His torso is put on display here when he kneels down, hugs a stone altar, and is given a lashing across his bare back by horsemen wielding whips. This flogging ranks 23rd in the book "Lash! The 100 Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.")

Fans of this kind of movie will find the usual array of battles, intrigue, romance, colorful costumes, gaudy sets, comic-book dialog, etc. What puts "Son of Cleopatra" a bit apart from the others are some impressive desert tableaux of armies marching across desert scenery. It may not match "Lawrence of Arabia," but all that sand and sky still looks pretty impressive.

One note: the movie's script seems to forget that Cleopatra was not Egyptian but was actually Greek.

The plot here his that the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar called Caesarion was smuggled away and survived, being reared by the bedouins in the desert and brought up like a son of one of their chiefs, while instead another boy was sacrificed to the Romans who naturally had to have him disposed of as a political peril and threat to the dynasty of Augustus, who was only a grandnephew of Julius Caesar, while a son of his could not be tolerated. Caesarion grows up to become a leader himself of the bedouins who wage a kind of guerrilla warfare with sudden surprise attacks against Roman convoys in the desert, but he has problems with his identity, as he is not as dark in his complexion as an Egyptian should be. His stepfather finally one day has no choice but to reveal his real identity to him, and that's where the drama of this film begins.

It is beautifully made with wonderful desert settings, great riding sequences on horseback, while at the same time it is almost a melodrama, as El Kebir (Caesarion) gets involved with the daughter of the Roman prefect, the villain of the play called Petronius, who has earned the displeasure of Octavian for embezzling funds and riches of Egypt. His daughter is nothing short of a blonde bombshell. There are reminiscences too obvious of both "Ben Hur" and "Lawrence of Arabia", the director has clearly been inspired by these mammoth epics and tried to at least accomplish something next to them. It is not unsuccessful. To its merits is added a marvellous score by Carlo Rustichelli, whose music generally has the power to elevate any film to a higher position than its realities. It is not a great film but highly intriguing, inspiring and interesting for its concept and impressive style.

Son of Cleopatra was included in the DVD Son of Samson that I had ordered through Amazon. I had ordered Son of Samson, because I am a Chelo Alonso fan. I held no expectations for Son Of Cleopatra, so I was happily surprised by this near epic movie. It was filmed in both Rome and Egypt. The acting was excellent for this sort of film, because with the exception of Mark Damon, it was an all Italian-Egyptian cast. They were great actors! There are innumerous amounts of people in some of the battle scenes. I suppose to pay that many people; they must have been citizens of Egypt at that time. The battles were excellent. The plot was thick, and action suspenseful. This is definitely a better than average Gladiator movie superbly directed. Sadly Son of Samson fell to second place behind this Desert Oasis. The quality of the DVD was very good, and the color was impressive.