Conqueror of the Orient (1961)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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

This is another of those historical epics churned out in Italy in the early '60s, although there ain't much that's "epic" about this particular offering: it's a cheap and cheerful effort that never shows more than a dozen actors on the screen at the same time and cuts pretty much every corner when it comes to spending cash. Sadly, the plot isn't much to write home about either, another variation on the tired true-heir-to-the-throne-battles-evil-usurper theme that has been so done to death in these movies. I wouldn't mind a stale plot if the film offered any decent action, but this doesn't – with one exception I'll get to later.Supposedly this is a film set in the Middle East somewhere, so all the guys in it wear turbans and face paint and pretend. Perish the thought of having any real actors of Arabic descent in it! It's a talky offering that seems to take forever to get going, and even the usual run of plot ingredients – belly dancers, secret passages, palace intrigues, cruelty – are played out with a minimum of excitement and effort. Rik Battaglia is the erstwhile hero, although he's not particularly well built like the rest of the musclemen actors, so watching him take on ten men in a tug-of-war match is a little bit unbelievable. I never did figure out how that proved he was the rightful heir, but there we go.Paul Muller is the evil usurper, named Dakar here. Muller's been a real trooper in Italian cinema, appearing in everything from peplum to Jess Franco flicks and more besides. Here he hams it up a treat as the madman, and he also gets to be surrounded by some top quality eye candy from the likes of Gianna Maria Canale and Irene Tunc, so I'm not complaining.The first hour is a boring build up to the climatic attack on Dakar's palace, which takes place in the final fifteen minutes. I was looking forward to this bit, but it's here that the budget constraints become most apparent. Rather than attacking a genuine city, our heroes ambush a poorly-drawn picture of one; when Dakar looks out of the window to see the mob with flaming torches, it's pretty obvious that he's looking at lit match-heads! It's got to be one of the cheapest special effects I've seen in a while.Thankfully things do pick up with an excellent closing sword battle between Battaglia and Muller, one of those old fashioned ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD-style things complete with men swinging on curtains, knocking over torches, jumping through scenery for no apparent reason (couldn't they have just gone around it?) and being thrown out of windows. It's like this five minute sequence belonged to a different, better film, it's so good. Sadly though it's not enough to save the tediousness of CONQUEROR OF THE ORIENT as a whole; this is definitely one of Italy's lesser offerings. Give me Hercules fighting a dragon over this any day.

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.

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.