Dropping peplum trappings of toga, sword & sandal, body-building HERCULES star Steve Reeves donned a burnoose as freedom-fighting liberator Sandokan in this surprisingly lux production. Fighting British colonialists responsible for his mother’s murder and his father’s imprisonment, he’s abducted the niece of his fiercest enemy and forces her to accompany him after escaping a death sentence. Soon, these antagonists are billing & cooing as they make their way to the coast, briefly interrupted by various physical obstacles (a gooey swamp the yuckiest, a fight with a tiger the silliest*) when yet another set of struggling natives (flown in from Africa?) abduct them. Happily, it’s soon straightened out (the tribesmen are natural allies!) in time for the big climax, with all hands joining in for a jolly massacre of those despicable Brits back at the fort. (How Sandokan survives disguised in enemy uniform is anyone’s guess. He’s a pretty big target!) Hunk fanciers get their fill, Reeves managing to disrobe now & then to show off his massive upper torso and weirdly slim lower half (if he were a Super Hero he’d be Articulated Man!), and he’s hardly the only bodybuilder in this little army of beef-cake guerilla warriors . . . just the biggest! If only the story, dialogue, acting or camera technique were half as strong as the physical production, this might be more fun. Reeves did a sequel, and a sort of Western a few years later, before calling it a career at only 42.
ATENTION MUST BE PAID: Many Sandokan movies & series out there. Who knew? And who knew composer Giovanni Fusco wrote this score between regular assignments for Michelangelo Antonioni.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: *The risible stuffed tiger fight actually tops the risible stuffed lion fight in DeMille’s SAMSON AND DELILAH/’49. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/11/samson-and-delilah-1949.html
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