Legions of the Nile

Legions Of The Nile casts Linda Cristal a year before she made her mark in John Wayne's The Alamo as Cleopatra in this low budget saga of Antony And Cleopatra. The story is told from the perspective of Ettore Manni a young centurion who Octavian has sent to Mark Antony played by Georges Marechal into surrendering peacefully. This of course is after the Battle of Actium.

In this story Cleo has a double life. Someone in Italian cinema might have read the story of Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid known to go out among his people incognito at night to get a feeling for public opinion in Bagdad. Cristal gets tired of all the worship by day, she wants a little fun so she goes out at night. On one of her romps she meets Manni, but of course for better or worse her fate is tied to Marechal.

This ain't Liz Taylor's or Claudette Colbert's Cleo, but not too bad.

Mankiewicz's movie,even if it's unfairly looked upon by pretty much as a failure is a great director's /writer's work.It's not only a question of money;give the same big budget to Vittorio Cottafavi and he will not do what Mankiewicz does.Definitely not.

"Some French critics ,much to the Italians' surprise,called Cottafavi "an auteur" who transcends the peplum genre".(Jean Tulard;dictionnaire du cinéma,T1).It's wishful thinking.The cock and bull screenplay cannot be taken seriously one single minute.Unlike Mankiewicz's work,which encompasses the whole story,beginning with the rivalry Cleopatra/Ptolemy,"legioni" begins after Actium (maybe it was too expensive to direct a naval battle.So we have Cleo and Mark-Anthony back in Egypt,waiting for Octavius' armies. History is given a rough ride as ever:the plot focuses on a Marc-Anthony's friend,Carridius ,who tries to reconciliate the two former triumvirs.A spate of clichés waits for the audience:taverns where everybody's drunk and fighting,gladiators scenes,tortures aplenty -one of these nice pastimes might indicate that the wicked cruel Egyptians (we do not see the Romans do such a thing)invented the ancestor of the Nuremberg virgin-, and exotic dances,some of them in a low dive,by Cleopatra herself incognito.

The plot loses itself in an uninteresting supporting cast which includes a gladiator who becomes friend with the hero Carridius and whose laugh will get on your nerves:a comic relief,this is definitely not;a young and gorgeous slave girl who falls in love with.. well you guess;a courageous slave boy;a very sadistic gladiator.

Because of these pointless subplots,we lose sight of the essential,and Georges Marchal,the best actor of the cast,who plays Marc-Anthony ,takes a back seat to the secondary characters.He tries to do the best he can with the lines he gets ,but what can an actor who used to work in "la comédie française" theater do in such a company?

This film takes place during the time when "Octavian" (Alfredo Mayo) ruled the western part of the Roman Empire in Rome while "Marc Antony" (Georges Marchal) and "Cleopatra" (Linda Crystal) ruled the eastern half of the empire from the city of Alexandria in Egypt. It's during this time that Cleopatra dons a disguise and happens to meet a Greek gladiator named "Curridio" (Ettore Manni) with whom she falls in love with. Yet even though Cleopatra doesn't initially reveal her identity to him it soon becomes apparent that Curridio isn't necessarily who he pretends to be either. To further complicate things, an Egyptian slave girl by the name of "Marianne" (Maria Mahor) also falls in love with Curridio which changes the overall dynamic in more ways than one. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I enjoyed the presence of Linda Crystal who performed in an excellent manner. Unfortunately, the director (Vittorio Cottafavi) seemed confused on whether he was making a drama or an action film which eventually resulted in a rather uneven final product. That being said, I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

The problem with this movie for English speaking viewers is that the English Language version was cut and then dubbed in an appallingly slipshod way. If you refer to the original Italian or French versions, you find that the dialogue is much more profound and intentionally comedic in places. Most of this was steamrollered over with bland lip-fitting inanities in the US version. At one point, Curridius stuffs a bunch of grapes into a slave-trader's face to shut him up, and in the original version, comments to his friends that people will just think he's drunk. The US dialogue has Curridius saying "Did you see his face when I offered him the two talents?" Don't blame Cottafavi for that, please.

The reason the French and Italians love Cottafavi is that they are seeing his movies as intended, not butchered to fit a TV screen, and dubbed with nonsensical dialogue.

Also, don't forget that this was the movie that 20th Century Fox bought for a million from its producers, so they could put it on the shelf, and make sure it wouldn't interfere with the blockbuster release of its own Elizabeth-Taylor-starring CLEOPATRA. Maybe when they eventually put it out on Television, they intentionally had it badly dubbed just so you wouldn't like it.

A hockey and extravagant retelling of the infamous Queen Cleopatra who becomes infatuated with a Roman centurion , while going on her love for Marc Anthony . Medium budget version of the famous Queen of Egypt and Roman lovers, as her lust for Marc Anthony after Caesar's death . Set 44 BC later Julius Caesar's murder by Brutus and Casius , governing the second triumvirate formed by Lepido who governs Africa , Octavius Augustus ruling over Hispania and Marc Anthony over Egypt and Orient. Then the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (Linda Cristal) rules Egypt along with Caesar's possible successor , Marc Anthony (Georges Marchal) , but things do not turn out as well . Along the way , Octavian Augustus (Alfredo Mayo) intends to regain his empire by landing his army at Alexandria, besieging the city and attempting to capture Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius . Then Octavius sends a young centurion (Ettore Manni) to deal with Cleopatra into surrendering peacefully, and , of course , they fall in love. As there starts a tragic love story with fateful consequences . Later on , Octavian forms a huge army that's bigger than Cleopatra's forces , getting some allies from various Egyptian tribes who can come to her aid . Both sides prepare for a final showdown in the sunny desert . And Augustus eventually defeat them in Actium . Her Passion Ruled Rome! A Columbia Hit !. Cleopatra and the Emperor. He came her conqueror - He became her slave! The Loves of Cleopatra !

This "sword-and-sandal" epic concerning the known history about the famous Queen , the popular Egypt temptress who pins her hopes on rash Marc Anthony , resulting to be an extravaganza in budget enough , financed by Robert de Nesle and Italo Zingarelli , the latter a producer expert in making Peplums and Spaghetti Westerns . It is a multi-colored sleeping tablet with historical characters giving plain and simple recreation . It contains abundant matte painting , carton/stone settings , well-staged battles , some opulent grotesque interiors and a few actors hopelessly wooden . Passable starring quartet : Linda Cristal , Ettore Manni , Georges Marchal and Conrado San Martín. They are accompanied by an acceptable support cast , being an European co-production , here appears actors from various countries such as , Spain : María Mahor , Alfredo Mayo , Mary Carrillo ,Rafael Durán , Rafael Luis Calvo , Tomás Blanco ; Italy : Andrea Aureli ,Daniela Rocca Mino Doro, Salvatore Furnari and France : Jany Clair .

Enjoyable Sword and sandals flick , being professionally directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (1914-1998) ; he was a complete artist , painter and Peplum expert , as he directed : ¨Conquest of Atlántida¨, ¨Goliath and the Dragon¨(1961) with Mark Forest , Broderick Crawford , Bruce Cabot , ¨Hércules and the captive woman¨(1963) with Reg Park and the ordinary Ettore Manni , ¨Legions of Cleopatra¨, ¨Mesallina¨ and this ¨rebellion of gladiators¨. Vittorio began his professional career in the film industry as a clapper boy . After progressing to write motion picture screenplays and working as assistant director under Alessandro Blasetti and Vittorio De Sica, he became a director in his own right in 1943. Many of his films have been lavishly-produced, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, "sword-and sandal" or ¨Muscleman¨ epics, dealing with mythological subjects involving the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt . From the mid-60's, Cottafavi concentrated exclusively on directing TV series and mini-series, under contract to RAI , many of them dealing with historic events or known characters , such as Oliver Cromwell , Don Giovanni , Napoleone a Sant'Elena , Vita Di Dante and Cristóbal Colon .

Others films concerning this historic figure Cleopatra are as follows : Silent version¨Cleopatra¨ (1917) by Gordon Edwards with Theda Bara. ¨Cleopatra¨ (1934) by Cecil B. DeMille with Claudette Colbert, Henry Wilconson, Warren William, C Aubrey Smith. ¨Serpent of the Nile¨ (1953) by William Castle with Rhonda Fleming , William Lundigan, Raymond Burr , Michael Ansara . ¨Two nights with Cleopatra¨ (1954) by Mario Mattioli with Sofia Loren, Alberto Sordi, Paul Muller. ¨Cleopatra's legions¨ (1959) by Vittorio Cottafavi with Linda Cristal, Ettore Manni, Georges Marchal, Conrado San Martin. ¨A Queen for Caesar¨ (1962) by Piero Pierotti with Pascale Petit, George Ardisson, Akin Tamiroff, Gordon Scott, Corrado Pani . The mamouth version is ¨Cleopatra¨ (1963) by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall, Hume Cronyn, Andrew Keir, being produced by 20th Century-Fox that bought Le legioni di Cleopatra (1959) for $1 million and shelved it so it wouldn't draw potential customers away from its own upcoming Elizabeth Taylor rendition. And ¨Cleopatra miniseries¨ (1999) by Franc Roddan with Leonor Varela, Timothy Dalton, Billy Zane, Rupert Graves.