Les légions de Cléopâtre

A hockey and extravagant retelling of the infamous Queen Cleopatra who becomes infatuated with a Roman centurion , while going on her love for Marc Anthony . Medium budget version of the famous Queen of Egypt and Roman lovers, as her lust for Marc Anthony after Caesar's death . Set 44 BC later Julius Caesar's murder by Brutus and Casius , governing the second triumvirate formed by Lepido who governs Africa , Octavius Augustus ruling over Hispania and Marc Anthony over Egypt and Orient. Then the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (Linda Cristal) rules Egypt along with Caesar's possible successor , Marc Anthony (Georges Marchal) , but things do not turn out as well . Along the way , Octavian Augustus (Alfredo Mayo) intends to regain his empire by landing his army at Alexandria, besieging the city and attempting to capture Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius . Then Octavius sends a young centurion (Ettore Manni) to deal with Cleopatra into surrendering peacefully, and , of course , they fall in love. As there starts a tragic love story with fateful consequences . Later on , Octavian forms a huge army that's bigger than Cleopatra's forces , getting some allies from various Egyptian tribes who can come to her aid . Both sides prepare for a final showdown in the sunny desert . And Augustus eventually defeat them in Actium . Her Passion Ruled Rome! A Columbia Hit !. Cleopatra and the Emperor. He came her conqueror - He became her slave! The Loves of Cleopatra !

This "sword-and-sandal" epic concerning the known history about the famous Queen , the popular Egypt temptress who pins her hopes on rash Marc Anthony , resulting to be an extravaganza in budget enough , financed by Robert de Nesle and Italo Zingarelli , the latter a producer expert in making Peplums and Spaghetti Westerns . It is a multi-colored sleeping tablet with historical characters giving plain and simple recreation . It contains abundant matte painting , carton/stone settings , well-staged battles , some opulent grotesque interiors and a few actors hopelessly wooden . Passable starring quartet : Linda Cristal , Ettore Manni , Georges Marchal and Conrado San Martín. They are accompanied by an acceptable support cast , being an European co-production , here appears actors from various countries such as , Spain : María Mahor , Alfredo Mayo , Mary Carrillo ,Rafael Durán , Rafael Luis Calvo , Tomás Blanco ; Italy : Andrea Aureli ,Daniela Rocca Mino Doro, Salvatore Furnari and France : Jany Clair .

Enjoyable Sword and sandals flick , being professionally directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (1914-1998) ; he was a complete artist , painter and Peplum expert , as he directed : ¨Conquest of Atlántida¨, ¨Goliath and the Dragon¨(1961) with Mark Forest , Broderick Crawford , Bruce Cabot , ¨Hércules and the captive woman¨(1963) with Reg Park and the ordinary Ettore Manni , ¨Legions of Cleopatra¨, ¨Mesallina¨ and this ¨rebellion of gladiators¨. Vittorio began his professional career in the film industry as a clapper boy . After progressing to write motion picture screenplays and working as assistant director under Alessandro Blasetti and Vittorio De Sica, he became a director in his own right in 1943. Many of his films have been lavishly-produced, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, "sword-and sandal" or ¨Muscleman¨ epics, dealing with mythological subjects involving the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt . From the mid-60's, Cottafavi concentrated exclusively on directing TV series and mini-series, under contract to RAI , many of them dealing with historic events or known characters , such as Oliver Cromwell , Don Giovanni , Napoleone a Sant'Elena , Vita Di Dante and Cristóbal Colon .

Others films concerning this historic figure Cleopatra are as follows : Silent version¨Cleopatra¨ (1917) by Gordon Edwards with Theda Bara. ¨Cleopatra¨ (1934) by Cecil B. DeMille with Claudette Colbert, Henry Wilconson, Warren William, C Aubrey Smith. ¨Serpent of the Nile¨ (1953) by William Castle with Rhonda Fleming , William Lundigan, Raymond Burr , Michael Ansara . ¨Two nights with Cleopatra¨ (1954) by Mario Mattioli with Sofia Loren, Alberto Sordi, Paul Muller. ¨Cleopatra's legions¨ (1959) by Vittorio Cottafavi with Linda Cristal, Ettore Manni, Georges Marchal, Conrado San Martin. ¨A Queen for Caesar¨ (1962) by Piero Pierotti with Pascale Petit, George Ardisson, Akin Tamiroff, Gordon Scott, Corrado Pani . The mamouth version is ¨Cleopatra¨ (1963) by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall, Hume Cronyn, Andrew Keir, being produced by 20th Century-Fox that bought Le legioni di Cleopatra (1959) for $1 million and shelved it so it wouldn't draw potential customers away from its own upcoming Elizabeth Taylor rendition. And ¨Cleopatra miniseries¨ (1999) by Franc Roddan with Leonor Varela, Timothy Dalton, Billy Zane, Rupert Graves.

The problem with this movie for English speaking viewers is that the English Language version was cut and then dubbed in an appallingly slipshod way. If you refer to the original Italian or French versions, you find that the dialogue is much more profound and intentionally comedic in places. Most of this was steamrollered over with bland lip-fitting inanities in the US version. At one point, Curridius stuffs a bunch of grapes into a slave-trader's face to shut him up, and in the original version, comments to his friends that people will just think he's drunk. The US dialogue has Curridius saying "Did you see his face when I offered him the two talents?" Don't blame Cottafavi for that, please.

The reason the French and Italians love Cottafavi is that they are seeing his movies as intended, not butchered to fit a TV screen, and dubbed with nonsensical dialogue.

Also, don't forget that this was the movie that 20th Century Fox bought for a million from its producers, so they could put it on the shelf, and make sure it wouldn't interfere with the blockbuster release of its own Elizabeth-Taylor-starring CLEOPATRA. Maybe when they eventually put it out on Television, they intentionally had it badly dubbed just so you wouldn't like it.

Mankiewicz's movie,even if it's unfairly looked upon by pretty much as a failure is a great director's /writer's work.It's not only a question of money;give the same big budget to Vittorio Cottafavi and he will not do what Mankiewicz does.Definitely not.

"Some French critics ,much to the Italians' surprise,called Cottafavi "an auteur" who transcends the peplum genre".(Jean Tulard;dictionnaire du cinéma,T1).It's wishful thinking.The cock and bull screenplay cannot be taken seriously one single minute.Unlike Mankiewicz's work,which encompasses the whole story,beginning with the rivalry Cleopatra/Ptolemy,"legioni" begins after Actium (maybe it was too expensive to direct a naval battle.So we have Cleo and Mark-Anthony back in Egypt,waiting for Octavius' armies. History is given a rough ride as ever:the plot focuses on a Marc-Anthony's friend,Carridius ,who tries to reconciliate the two former triumvirs.A spate of clichés waits for the audience:taverns where everybody's drunk and fighting,gladiators scenes,tortures aplenty -one of these nice pastimes might indicate that the wicked cruel Egyptians (we do not see the Romans do such a thing)invented the ancestor of the Nuremberg virgin-, and exotic dances,some of them in a low dive,by Cleopatra herself incognito.

The plot loses itself in an uninteresting supporting cast which includes a gladiator who becomes friend with the hero Carridius and whose laugh will get on your nerves:a comic relief,this is definitely not;a young and gorgeous slave girl who falls in love with.. well you guess;a courageous slave boy;a very sadistic gladiator.

Because of these pointless subplots,we lose sight of the essential,and Georges Marchal,the best actor of the cast,who plays Marc-Anthony ,takes a back seat to the secondary characters.He tries to do the best he can with the lines he gets ,but what can an actor who used to work in "la comédie française" theater do in such a company?

This superior Epic rendition of the 'Antony and Cleopatra' affair, helmed by one of the undisputed Italian masters of the genre, is nevertheless a conceptually flawed effort: incidentally, it seems to have taken a leaf from two recently-viewed and almost identically-titled movies i.e. SERPENT OF THE NILE (1953), which deals with much the same events, and PRINCESS OF THE NILE (1954) – the former in view of the Egyptian Queen's more prominent secondary liaison (not to mention, its love/hate nature) and the latter by way of her leading a double-life as an exotic dancer (for no historically valid reason in this case)!

Even so, Linda Cristal's beguiling Cleopatra here is among the more sober, thus notable (if completely unsung), portrayals; interestingly, this would be bookended by her appearances in two films which also featured Maltese character actor Joseph Calleia, including John Wayne's pet project THE ALAMO (1960)! However, the female protagonist's relationship with Antony (an otherwise well-cast Georges Marchal) is vastly underwritten – as they barely share a scene throughout the proceedings! In fact, Ettore Manni (who had co-starred with the latter in Cottafavi's earlier THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL {1958}) is the nominal lead: he falls for Cleopatra when incognito, but then renounces her when he misconstrues her actions to have been politically-motivated and not genuine! To counter this, Manni is involved with a girl whom he buys (along with her brother) at a market place; the boy becomes devoted to him but perishes during a skirmish inside a cave! Both women also get to interact (chiefly so as to intercede for the hero), but Cleopatra then can do nothing to prevent the other woman from being tortured – via the intriguing ruse of premature burial! Also on hand are a dwarf (mute this time around) and Manni's Roman henchman (who constantly makes eyes at a middle-aged but feisty tavern-keeper), both of whom had also featured in that earlier Cottafavi film in practically the self-same roles!

Despite my reservations vis-a'-vis the script (one final quibble concerns the fact that neither of the two potentates' famous deaths are shown and, disappointingly, they are forsaken even during the conventional final shot: ironically, I had commended the director for going against the grain at just this moment in my review of THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL!), the technical side of production really cannot be faulted – indeed, Cottafavi's sense of composition (particularly in the handling of action sequences) has virtually no peers within the mini-budgeted arena (no pun intended)!

I've seen "Le Legioni di Cleopatra" in a restored print in the original Italian language.

If you want a history lesson you should not see this film (and the same applies to Hollywood movies), but the main historical facts are superficially presented (the details concerning the characters are, of course, fantasy) in it.

Mark Antony (Georges Marchal) is in Alexandria (Egypt) with his lover Cleopatra (Linda Cristal), the queen of Egypt. They rule the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Octavian (Alfredo Mayo) rules the western part of the Roman Empire. He lands with his troops in Egypt. Octavian's forces are superior, but Mark Antony with the help of his allies may still be a force to reckon with. The battle that will decide who will rule the Roman Empire looms ahead.

And Cleopatra! Her beauty is legendary. She conquered Marc Antony's heart and lives in a palace. Her legions keep watch over it. No one is admitted entrance without her permission. No one in the outside world is allowed to see her face. But at nights Cleopatra goes out in the streets, disguised in simple clothes, to dance in taverns! She just wants to leave the seclusion of her palace, meet people, and maybe, love.

Meanwhile, Octavian sends one of his officers (Ettore Manni), the handsome Curridio (a friend of Mark Antony) to Alexandria to see how things stand and talk Mark Antony into surrendering.

"Le Legioni di Cleopatra" may be (as many Italian epic films) a low budget production, but it's highly entertaining - tavern brawls, dances, battles, pretty girls.... The story is well told, with good comic, dramatic and romantic moments.

All in all, the film is very colorful - it's not only easy on the eyes and mind, but sometimes it's surprisingly serious and moving (that is, if you turn off your critical brain and let yourself flow with the film).

The European Community asked of 15 filmmakers of 15 countries that each one should choose a film of his/her country to be restored. Gianni Amelio, representing Italy, chose "Le Legioni di Cleopatra".