La Gerusalemme liberata (1957)

SEE- The Dance of the seven orgies! SEE- The duel to the death with 100-pound battle axes! SEE- The seduction of Renaldo, the White Knight, by the dark daughter of Damascus! SEE- The ... See full summary »

Director:

Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia

Writers:

Sandro Continenza (screenplay), Annalena Limentani (script)

Stars:

Francisco Rabal, Sylva Koscina, Gianna Maria Canale

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Francisco Rabal	...	Tancredi d'Altavilla
Sylva Koscina	...	Clorinda (as Silva Koscina)
Gianna Maria Canale	...	Armida
Rik Battaglia	...	Rinaldo d'Este
Philippe Hersent	...	Goffredo di Buglione
Andrea Aureli	...	Argante
Alba Arnova	...	Harem Dancer
Nando Tamberlani	...	Pietro, eremita
Cesare Fantoni	...	Aladino
Edoardo Toniolo	...	Raimondo da Tolosa
Carlo Hintermann	...	Dilone
Ugo Sasso	...	Gernando di Norvegia
Leonardo Bragaglia	...	Achille Sforza
Fedele Gentile	...	Comandante del presidio
Giulio Battiferri	...	Ambasciatore mussulmano

Storyline

SEE- The Dance of the seven orgies! SEE- The duel to the death with 100-pound battle axes! SEE- The seduction of Renaldo, the White Knight, by the dark daughter of Damascus! SEE- The mammoth battle between Heathens and Knights for the Holy Sepulcher! SEE- Assault towers and battering rams breach the walls of the Holy City! SEE- Men turned into human torches by the flaming pitch of the Infidels!

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Taglines:

"...And the Battle Axes of the Knights Shook the Earth of the Holy Land!"

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

January 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mighty Crusaders

Company Credits

Production Co:

MAX Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Ferraniacolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Kolossal - i magnifici Macisti (1977)

User Reviews

THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1958) **1/2

This made for a belated addition to a Bragaglia peplum trilogy that also incorporated the lesser QUEEN OF BABYLON (1954) and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1963). However, it was not watched under congenial circumstances given the English dubbing (though the print emerges as reasonably handsome) as well as the panning-and-scanning. Besides, some abrupt plot development throughout indicates the version I acquired (running 88 minutes) was slightly trimmed since the IMDb gives its full-length as 95.

The film itself is quite good and decidedly literate, though perhaps not enough to do justice to Torquato Tasso's epic poem "La Gerusalemme Liberata" (which was also the picture's original title). The narrative unfortunately resorts to contrived romantic situations, and we even get two for the price of one – involving Christian males (Francisco Rabal and Rik Battaglia) and Muslim ladies (Sylva Koscina and Gianna Maria Canale). That said, the teaming of Luis Bunuel regular Rabal (in atypical hero mode) and Koscina (who also gets in on the action!) is ideal; interestingly, the tragic finale has the two unwittingly engage in a duel and one of them ends up killing the other! Genre stalwart Canale, on the other hand, treads familiar i.e. duplicitous territory.

The film obviously elicits comparison with the likes of THE CRUSADES (1935) and KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS (1954) and actually falls somewhere in between in both approach and effect (being also decidedly sober in comparison with most entries within this field!). Portions of the main theme by Roberto Nicolosi felt oddly familiar: I am sure it was used in some Mexi-Horror that I watched earlier this year, or else was in a trailer gallery included on the disc containing a couple of them, but I cannot for the life of me tell just which one! Anyway, the finale has Christians gathered victoriously atop a hillside in reverent prayer (accompanied by angelic chorus) and capped with Christ's cross appearing fleetingly in the skies.