Les Tartares

Original title: I tartari

1961
Approved
1h 23m

IMDb RATING

4.7/10

531

YOUR RATING

Tartan and Viking forces clash in what is modern-day Russia.

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Action Adventure Drama

Tartan and Viking forces clash in what is modern-day Russia.Tartan and Viking forces clash in what is modern-day Russia.Tartan and Viking forces clash in what is modern-day Russia.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.7/10

531

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Featured reviews

5gregorhauser

This is no boring picture but it is far away from well entertainment too. The story is too simple. Most of the actors are not very convincing (especially too old and too dark "Viking" Victor Mature and an uninspired Luciano Marin). There remains an interesting Orson Welles as "Tartarian" Burundai and the experienced directing by Richard Thorpe (director of legendary historical epics like "Ivanhoe"). Good work is also done by the Italian cast members who composed the music, took the location shots and designed the costumes. To sum it up an average movie.

5wab-99500

1/2 of the worst of all double features

The tartars casts some of the same characters as "The Conqueror" which starred John Wayne and Susan Heyward and is widely known as one of the worst big-budget Hollywood movies ever made. It is so bad it is usually seen as a comedy due to awful scripting and acting.

The Tartars takes Wayne's character 30-40 years into the future in the shape of Orson Welles. Welles here attacks Victor Mature, miscast as a Viking (?), and murders his wife. Terrible vengeance is the theme of this laughable epic. It is hard to tell whether the worst thing about this movie is the acting, the script, or the costumes featuring all the men in mini-skirts.

Turner movies has both epics in the library and should combine them on any weekend billed as 'The worst historical double feature of all time'.

7larryanderson

GREAT TIME WASTER AND ENTERTAINING SPECTACLE

I had seen this movie a long time ago and saw it as just "another Italian Spectacle" action movie. I recently viewed a great LBX version that wasn't edited. In this new version. They clearly state that Orson Wells rapes Victor Mature's wife and "throws her to his men". A rather magnanimous ending to the beautiful Liana Orfei. This key fact was usually cut out of most TV versions of The Tartars. Liana Orfei starred in many Sword & Sandal flicks in this era. She is also a famous Circus performer. I have added 2 movie stills from my collection to the galley.

3ragosaal

So bad you can't Miss It !

Very talented and recognized Orson Welles (brilliant in "Citizen Kane", "The Third Man" or "Compulsion") must have been very needed of money in the early 60's to enter this film; there can be no other explanation whatsoever. As a Tartar ruler confronting Viking invaders Welles shows not interest at all in what he is doing and even though his undeniable screen personality is enough for him to steal the show.

Victor Mature plays the enemy Viking chief (yes, I said Viking!) with his usual and inevitable overacting and going around with his little war? axe and his black greasy 1960's hairdo. His casting in this is like putting Mickey Rooney to play Goliath.

As for the rest of it "The Tartars" is just one more of the usual sort of low budget adventure costume movies the Italians gave us after the bad though sort of original "Hercules" (1959) with good old Steve Reeves (he always underacted in the same level Mature overacted). Some average action sequences a less than average plot and an all standard direction complete the picture.

The point is that if Welles (or even Mature) where not in "The Tartars" you would have not much expectations and you would surely judge this film with a more generous concept. But taking the film as it is you can only say it's a terrible piece of cinema. So terrible that if you are a movie's fan you can't miss it because that is precisely its major achievement.

6csdietrich

Passable Entry in Epic/Spectacle Genre

THE TARTARS is a tale of revenge set in the Russian steppes circa 900 A.D. Viking Prince Oleg (at best a weak and unintentionally humorous portrayal by Victor Mature) is asked by a Tartar chieftain to join the Mongol horde and destroy the indigenous Slavic tribes. Oleg refuses to betray his Slavic brethern and all hell breaks loose. The Tartar chieftan is murdered and his brother Ogotai (a "larger" than life Orson Welles) voys to avenge his brother's death which leads to more massacres and malicious deeds. Welles is interesting in the part of the Tartar Khan and his palace is a work of sensational art direction. Costumes in this Italian-made epic are first rate and half of the cast and crew are recognizable names from other Italian epics, sci-fi and horror films. Mature once said, "I'm a lousy actor with 75 motion pictures to prove it." This critic can only say, "Amen to that!" THE TARTARS is certainly worth seeing but is not the most memorable moment in epic filmmaking history.

Storyline

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Trivia
According to Orson Welles's conversations with Peter Bogdanovich, as recounted in the book "This is Orson Welles", Victor Mature had his sandals built up by three inches to make him look taller.

Goofs
Vikings did not wear horned helmets.

Quotes
Burundai: Did you plan to desert me, Ciu Lang, eh? Where were you bound for? Did you dream of bearing your lying reports of me to the court of the great Khan? Did you dare to think I would let you return to the east?
Ciu Lang: You cannot stop me, Burundai, unless you kill me.
Burundai: Why should I spare you, then? You give me no choice. I, who stand on the threshold of glory... What does your little life mean to me?
Ciu Lang: Less than nothing. It means no more to me. We have no choice in the matter of death. It comes for us all, Burundai.
Burundai: You seem to desire your own.
Ciu Lang: No, I have have no desire. I follow the way.
Burundai: The way... Your way is mystic humbug. It leads nowhere. Mine is forward... into greatness.
Ciu Lang: Not forward, Burundai, but downward. Your way is all downward into the darkness. Wading in blood... drowning in blood.
Burundai: You presume upon my patience. Would you dare to speak thus before the great Khan? I do not think so. I do not think that you would stand and face him as you dare now to stand and face me.
[to Guards]
Burundai: Leave us.
[Brandishes axe]
Burundai: I will see what reverence this wise old man will make to me. In the presence of that other Khan who is still called great, you would make the kowtow, wouldn't you, Ciu Lang? You would fall prostrate on your hands and knees and bump your head upon the ground. I would like to see that, Ciu Lang. I would like to see you make your kowtow... before me.
[Ciu Lang stands defiantly and Burundai strikes him down with the axe]
Burundai: That's it, Ciu Lang. Even so, your head at my feet... Even so, you must make obeisance to the great Khan.