Universal pumped out a bunch of Easterns in the 40s and 50s with stars like Tony Curtis and Maria Montez. Columbia made some too including One Thousand and One Nights which like this starred Cornel Wilde.
This one is from Paramount and it's a sluggish piece - William Dieterle was towards the end of his Hollywood career, and I sense he had ambitious above the station of this material, which should be a junky fast paced action film that joyously distorted history. This one tiredly distorted history. I don't recall a film that discussed military tactics so much. Like, wh cares?
Dieterle was famed for his Warners biopics and maybe that approach would have worked here but they've gone the action/romance route.
Wilde plays the title role who impresses ruler Raymond Massey with some poems but also his military strategy.
John Derek is fourth billed in a thankless role as Massey's son. You could cut him out of the film.
A much better part is Michael Rennie's villain - based on a real dude, head of the order of assassins... and a film focusing around that would've been more fun. Debra Paget is The Girl.
Cornel Wilde's career had interesting parallels with John Derek incidentally - both starred in Easterns, both under contract to Columbia and Fox, Wilde turned down the part Derek played in Ten Commandments, both did swashbucklers, both turned director.
Dull.
No comments:
Post a Comment