Le conquérant de l'Orient

Sultan Paul Muller has been oriental-potentating over his vast empire, ever since he usurped the throne and killed the rightful Sultan. Up in the mountains, Fosco Giachetti has been raising his son, Rik Battaglia, who is in love with Irène Tunc, and is loved by her. Muller is angry that the mountains aren't paying enough gold. He is pleased that his chancellor, Giulio Donnini, has arranged for Signorina Tunc's kidnapping, and offered her to Muller. This annoys his usual piece, Gianna Maria Canale, who keeps on offering him good advice anyway. Signorina Tunc resists, and he's going to wait for her to accede. But Battaglia decides on some derring-do to get her back, and the revolution is a-coming.

In other words, same old same old. There's some fine camerawork by Vincenzo Seratrice and Luciano Tasatti, and lots of drapery by the set designers, but there's little here but the usual stuffing of Oriental foofery. Still, the ladies are beautiful, the bad guys are nasty and greedy, and the result is a typical pleasant time-waster for those who are in the mood.

Conqueror Of The Orient seems a rather high-falutin' title for another one of those sand and scandal epics about a prince reclaiming his lost throne from exile. The influence of those old Universal epics with Jon Hall and Maria Montez is readily apparent.

Rik Battaglia, an actor who did both spaghetti western and spaghetti sandal films is the lead here. He plays a prince who was spirited away when a usurper named Khan took away dad's throne. It was rumored that an infant prince survived and the new king was spending a lot of time to find him.

That is when he wasn't tracking down a harem favorite named Fatima played by a pulchritudinous Irene Dunc. Her bosoms are enough to stir any straight man.

You've seen it all before and better.

The tyrant Dakar (Paul Muller) suppressed the people of his country with high 'tributes' long enough, they think. When Princess Fatima (Irène Tunc) refuses to marry Dakar and escapes from the palace, she falls in love with Nadir (Rik Battaglia) who wants to lead a rebellion against the tyrant. Luckily, his father has hidden a big treasure somewhere that can finance a whole army. Funny he didn't think of that before, during those many years of suppression when they were almost starving. But the writers' idea of 'clever' shows well in the scene when Nadir finds the princess floating in a boat. Mercenaries have been looking for Princess Fatima all over the country, and then he discovers an unknown woman wearing plenty of jewels. 'You must be Fatima', his father says, and everybody looks at the old man totally surprised. He needs to explain how he guessed this and everybody admires his wisdom. Maybe there are so many princesses floating around in boats that they are hard to distinguish...

A collection of the usual Oriental clichés you've seen all before, made on a very low budget. The set decoration looks like a children's birthday party with gold stars glued to the wall. I watched a 74 minute fullscreen version of a film that was originally 87 minutes long and in widescreen format, yet I don't think additional scenes of better quality would change my impression much.

Another of those historical "epics" abusing the white-people-in-turbans approach. When it comes to Italian sword & sandal dramas, I prefer the more fantasy-themed ones with two-fisted muscle-men and the occasional monster. Unfortunately, THE CONQUEROR OF THE ORIENT replaces the more imaginative elements with enough clichés to make every plot-twist visible a mile away. Not only has the story been told many times before and since, but it's usually more entertaining in other variations of these often repeated themes (i.e. palace intrigue & conspiracies, avenging the death of one's father). It's dialog-heavy and most of its action scenes are pretty bad: Flimsy swords and dreadfully bad swordplay. I don't know if these weak (and few) duels were exciting back in 1960, because I'm seeing them through 21st century eyes. In short, the movie doesn't stand the test of the times and even in its English dubbed form, THE CONQUEROR OF THE ORIENT just isn't interesting.

Even so, I enjoyed it more than Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR (2000). But then, I enjoyed getting a route canal more than I enjoyed GLADIATOR. To be fair, THE CONQUEROR OF THE ORIENT has its good points: The costumes aren't bad, the sets (curtains help cover the walls' lack of props) are okay, and them harem girls put Barbara Eden "Jeanie" to shame. Though not cheap by Italian 1960s standards, its resourceful budget cuts add unintended humor: A night-time cityscape is an obvious matte that looks like a cartoon. In one scene, the obligatory tyrant (Paul Muller) looks out the window of his lavish palace, to see revolting peasants carrying torches. It's so obvious that these 'torches' are lit matches that it's actually quite cute!

When I watched this average tale of tunic-attired hero Nadir (Rik Battaglia), I had to tolerate a badly restored VHS tape with abrupt cuts (severing many sentences mid-word), scratches, and the "Something Weird Video" logo throughout. Anyway: I don't think there was any finger-printing or DNA testing back in the old primitive Middle East, so when an exiled prince(Battaglia) wants to prove he's the rightful heir to the throne, they have tests. One test is simply to hit a board using his sword! Oncethis feat is accomplished, our hero leads the rebellion to rescue Princess Fatima (Irene Tunc) and her cleavage. The reluctant bride was held captive by evil ruler Dakar (Paul Muller), until the palace is attacked by heroic Rik Battaglia. The final (and only) fight between Muller & Battaglia is decent, or at least better than the other action scenes in this slow-paced drama. In one decent stunt, the good guy swings on a vale and kicks Muller's stunt-double. Naturally, Rik Battaglia wins and gets the girl (and the country).

The only thing this film really has going for it is that it is in the Peplum / sword and sandal style and category. It is not an Epic film. Peplum does not equal Epic, Epic does not equal Peplum. It is simply an adventure film that was inspired by the story Arabian Nights.

It's far from being good, it's worse than mediocre but it's better than awful. I find it barely tolerable. It's one of those films where my eyes are easily focused on the costumes and sets while my mind wanders off to another world. None of the characters captured my interest, so the story didn't capture me either.

It's a stale film, not quite moldy but definitely not fresh.

2/10