Le mercenaire

Like so many contract players in the days of the studio system decline in the Fifties Stewart Granger found himself looking for work and taking it where he could find it after MGM let him go in the late Fifties. He found work in Europe and in this particular swashbuckler Swordsman Of Siena which was released in America by his old studio MGM. Later on he would be doing spaghetti westerns.

But the swashbuckler was a film genre Granger was as comfortable and looked as comfortable as Errol Flynn. He's a mercenary, an Englishman working for whoever hires him and in this case it is Spanish captain Riccardo Garrone. Back in those days of the 16th century most of Italy was part of the Spanish empire either under Emperor Charles V or King Phillip,II of Spain. In this particular part of Italy, Tuscany they're not crazy about the occupying Spanish governor Garrone and his enforcer brother Fausto Tozzi.

Garrone wants to employ Granger as personal bodyguard to Sylva Koscina the daughter of the local Italian noble. She tolerates Garrone for the sake of the father, her sister Christine Kaufman is far less so.

There's a horse race which is the town's biggest event about to be held and it's more like the chariot race from Ben-Hur. With just about the same rules applying. The Spanish occupiers always win as a matter of propaganda and pride. Granger upsets a whole lot of plans.

In films like Moonfleet and The Prisoner Of Zenda, Stewart Granger showed he mastered the art of the swashbuckler. This one is all right entertainment, but hardly in the same league as those other films from his glory days at MGM.

Better than those spaghetti westerns to come.

This one of the best of the genre. the swordplay is fantastic and the costumes excellent. the only fault i find is the dubbing. The plot is a bit thin but who cares. If you like swordplay the technical aspects of this film are hard to beat. The character that Granger plays is one that he seems to be at home with. The wit and banter between him and his co-star are funny and to the point. The film lacked only the final duel, between Granger and the villain. The end I felt was anti-climatic. However the beauty of Sylva Koscina more than makes up for the films shortcomings. In my opinion they could have come up with someone other than Christine Kaufman for the secondary female role.

The English version was directed by Etienne Périer whose best work is a pacifist movie "le pont vers le soleil "(1960) .He made two costume dramas ,both taking place in Italy : "Rouge Venise" (1989) is the most ambitious, "la congiura dei dieci" aka "the swordsman of Siena " ,is a routine swashbuckler , a little tongue-in -chick,whose asset is the presence of Stewart Granger , who wields the sword (including a duel with ....Sylva Koscina )with gusto and ,as always ,displays plenty of go and humor ...In the prologue, he fools the duchess's escort with mischievousness; then he takes his bodyguard job seriously when he checks the room where Koscina sleeps ; humor becomes tinged with a certain sadism when the swordsman is tortured :" good things should not be hurried!".

As for the story ,there are actually ten secret people fighting the wicked duke's (and his brother's )tyranny ,and two beauties for the price of one :Koscina's sister is portrayed by gorgeous Christine Kaufmann. Entertaining ,with good use of wide screen .

It's about an 16th-century english swordsman who has to protect a noblewoman. She is not particularly interested in having a protector. The noblewoman lives in an italian village where the people live under the reign of a dictator. There is also a secret group called 'The Ten', which is trying to free the village. When the swordsman sees what is going on he switches allegiance...

This fairly standard Italian swashbuckler is considerably enlivened by two factors: the presence of Stewart Granger, one of movie's great swordsmen who actually was a good swordsman -- only Basil Rathbone was better. The swordplay in this movie is very real -- although the casual moviegoer might not understand the seemingly motionless pointwork, it is very well shot.

The other high point of the movie is the horse race, the famous Pallio of Siena. Although the real Pallio is a bareback race, this version of it is shot very excitingly with some nice point of view shots and excellent stuntwork.

Although I viewed an excellent print, it was dubbed, and therefore a bit hard to judge most of the performances. The costumes are excellent and the result is a surprisingly good Italian potboiler.