Foudres sur Babylone

Two brothers battle it out for the love of a slave girl in ancient Babylon. Its got Hammurabi and Zoroaster thrown into the mix of a familial relationship gone sour. It ends with one hell of a flood and a raging fire. (Look for the burning candle that falls on a drowning woman's face.) A perfectly forgettable time killer.

This is all conjecture but fascinating for its bold effort to try to reconstruct a rather almost totally unknown chapter of history: No one really knows what brought around the fall of Assyria. The intrigue here is spun around two powerful brothers, king Sardanapalus of Nineveh and his brother, king of Babylon. They fall in love with the same woman, and the king of Babylon, Shamash, out of jealousy starts war with his brother Sardanapalus (Howard Duff). In this context the prophet Zoroaster appears, he only plays a part in the beginning when he expresses his ominous prophecies, so unfortunately we see very little of him. But in the Babylonian league is Hammurabi, who makes a good performance, Stelio Candelli, actually the only quite convincing character. Jackie Lane as the mutually desired lady is awful. The war does not go well on either side, and Hammurabi is left to take over the lot. Among the Babylonians is Arbaces as the villain, the same name of the villain in "The Last Pays of Pompeii", who kills Shamash by treachery, exacerbating the war and making it derail in bitterness. It is enjoyable if you appreciate films of this kind, the Peplum productions went on for a decade, and they are all great feasts for the eyes and only loosely connected with history but never resort to historical distortions. Here various historical figures from different times are bundled up together in one historical drama, concentrating several centuries into one, but it doesn't matter. The three great battle scenes are enough impressive anyway, while perhaps the most spectacular part is a lion hunt in the middle of the film.

Asurbanipal (Howard Duff) falls in love with Mirra (Jackie Lane) who is promised to Shamash (Luciano Marin), Asurbanipal's brother . A jealous Shamash bursts and decides to conquer the kingdom of Ninive whose king is his brother . Then Shamash as new king of Babylonia join forces with Babylonian army and helped by Arbace (Sbragia) wages war Asirians but he is double-crossed . Finally , love between Asurbanipal and Mirra originates ¨Fury of Gods¨ and a vengeful Asirian God named Assur sends a curse by means of storms and floods from rivers Tigris and Eufrates .

This sword and sandals movie contains drama , thrills, spectacular battles and hokey historical events. Produced by Aldo Pomilia (Chelo Alonso's husband) who built some sets for two similar films ¨I Semiramide (1963) with Ivonne Forneaux and John Ericson ¨ and this one. Acceptable matte-shots by Joseph Nathanson and passable maquettes by Anthony Margueritti or Anthony Dawson subsequently popular as filmmaker of Italian terror and action movies . Atmospheric score by Carlo Savina and Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Peplum's usual . The motion picture is regularly directed by Silvio Amadio who also realized another Peplum titled Minotaur the wild beast of Creta¨.

The picture is partially based on historical deeds . Asurbanipal or Sardanapalo was the last great king of Asiria , he was a cruel ruler for whom ¨War¨ was a mean and an end . However , he built the Ninive library where stored the knowledge at that time . It's true Asurbanipal fought (circa 639 a.c) against his brother and after his death (626 a.c) succeeded two monarchs until the Babylonians allied to Persians destroyed its capital Ninive (612). Furthermore , there appears Zoroaster well played by Arnaldo Foa who was known as a sage, magician, and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture ,his name was already associated with lost ancient wisdom . Zoroaster sees the human condition as the mental struggle between lie and truth and the condition for Free Will, which is arguably Zoroaster's greatest contribution to religious philosophy. Zoroaster is well portrayed by Arnaldo Foa almost always depicted with a beard, this along with other factors bear similarities to 19th century portraits of Jesus.

Other films about this Mesopotamian sub-genre are the following ones : ¨Semiramis¨ by Carlos Ludivico with Rhonda Fleming and Ricardo Montalban ; I'eroe di Babilonaia(1963) another version of the conquest of Babylonia by Persians , similar to ¨Intolerance¨(D. W. Griffith) and ¨Goliat and La Schiava Ribelle¨ with Gordon Scott and Folco Lulli .

Dreary peplum with a second-rate cast and crew; as often happened in this genre, an American actor (in this case, Howard Duff) was recruited for the lead – with the only notable in the Italian ranks being Arnoldo Foa' (appearaing here as a holy man). Amadio is perhaps best-known for the sexy giallo AMUCK! (1972); incidentally, the scenes requiring special effects were handled by the versatile if erratic Antonio Margheriti – this one is climaxed, as were a few other entries in the genre, by a natural disaster (with the prototype being THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII: by the way, I should be watching the 1926 and 1959 versions of that popular and oft-filmed tale during the month-long Epic/Historical films schedule). The typically sturdy score, then, is the work of two distinguished composers – Carlo Savina and Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.

The excuse for a plot that would lead to that reasonably-staged final spectacle – the city of Niniveh, having shunned the gods, is destroyed in a flood – sees a couple of royal brothers (the elder, a stoic but ill-at-ease Duff, rules Niniveh itself while his bland sibling is assigned the province of the once-mighty Babylon) falling over a young girl, the sole survivor of a decimated people from the mountains who arrives at Niniveh in the company of prophet-like Foa'. Besides, an ambitious Babylonian general deliberately creates discord among the two cities for his own personal gain – though he's eventually routed by another officer loyal to the young king (slain by the general and making it look like it was Duff's handiwork!). Incidentally, having these Biblical cities for backdrops, necessitates that characters get saddled with such unpronounceable names as Sardanapalus and Zoroaster! For the record, the English translation of the film's original title is THE SEVEN FLAMES OF ASSUR – the latter being the God worshipped throughout the Assyrian Empire, and the former a reference to a rite relating to the one-week period of preparation which a new ruler has to undergo prior to his official appointment (which is then followed by three days of festivities wherein, among other things, a lion hunt is organized).

Not much is known about the actual history of this time but that didn't stop the Italians from making a movie about this era. The battles scenes are small and well staged. (At least they didn't steal the scenes from other movies). The story flows along but a heavy rain storm floods the Tigris River destroying the city and thus ending the movie. If you watch enough of this type of movie, you will notice the lead characters wearing ARMOUR that was also used in other productions of the time. I have posted some stills and poster art in the gallery.