Le fils de l'aigle noir

A '60s Italian production of some standing, where all the male actors were Italians sporting Anglo-Saxon aliases and NOT a spaghetti Western. Just for that, it's worth watching.

The plot is about Count Aleksej who plays the part of a frivolous seductor at the Czar court, only to turn into the avenger of his people in the Caucasus when the Russians invade his land.

Sad to notice that the Russians still haven't stopped with that kind of behavior in the year 2024.

Apart from that, the cast also features some genuine foreign actresses, among which Edwige Fenech who plays the main role of Natascia. The name hints at War and Peace, even if this story is not so grand.

Inevitably Aleksej and Natascia will fall in love, even if she's Russian and her uncle wants her to marry the nasty Russian General Volkonsky.

Most admirable in this movie is also the fast wrapping up of the plot after an epic battle with real people and no CGI.

Excellent costumes, decent settings, a remarkable support cast and the amazing battle scene at the end show why Cinecittà in the '60s was "Hollywood on the river Tevere".

Just out of curiosity, note that Mimmo Palmara from Rome played the main character Alexej, billed as Dick Palmer, and that this is one of the very few movies in which Ms. Fenech didn't disrobe, before turning into a "sex icon" in way too many Italian soft-porn flicks.

Here is an excellent costume adventure directed by Guido Malatesta. After Czar Alexander II names the vicious General Volkonsky as governor of the Caucasus, the Cossocks decide to plan a revolt. Alessio Andrejevic, a young nobleman, adopts his father's alias, "the black eagle," and begins to free villagers from the terror and tyrrany of Imperial Russia. This film boasts some wonderful cinematography by Augusto Tiezzi, as well as favorable roles for Mimmo Palmara, Loris Gizzi, and Andrea Aureli (the latter of whom actually gets to play a good guy for a change). This film also has a remarkable mucic score (by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino), and contains one of the best battle scenes I've ever witnessed! The fact that Umberto Lenzi wrote the original storyline for this film is icing on the cake. This film is simply too good to be true.