The Son of Cleopatra

The plot here his that the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar called Caesarion was smuggled away and survived, being reared by the bedouins in the desert and brought up like a son of one of their chiefs, while instead another boy was sacrificed to the Romans who naturally had to have him disposed of as a political peril and threat to the dynasty of Augustus, who was only a grandnephew of Julius Caesar, while a son of his could not be tolerated. Caesarion grows up to become a leader himself of the bedouins who wage a kind of guerrilla warfare with sudden surprise attacks against Roman convoys in the desert, but he has problems with his identity, as he is not as dark in his complexion as an Egyptian should be. His stepfather finally one day has no choice but to reveal his real identity to him, and that's where the drama of this film begins.

It is beautifully made with wonderful desert settings, great riding sequences on horseback, while at the same time it is almost a melodrama, as El Kebir (Caesarion) gets involved with the daughter of the Roman prefect, the villain of the play called Petronius, who has earned the displeasure of Octavian for embezzling funds and riches of Egypt. His daughter is nothing short of a blonde bombshell. There are reminiscences too obvious of both "Ben Hur" and "Lawrence of Arabia", the director has clearly been inspired by these mammoth epics and tried to at least accomplish something next to them. It is not unsuccessful. To its merits is added a marvellous score by Carlo Rustichelli, whose music generally has the power to elevate any film to a higher position than its realities. It is not a great film but highly intriguing, inspiring and interesting for its concept and impressive style.