Sandokan the Great [Sandokan, la Tigre di Mompracem] ** (1963, Steve Reeves, Geneviève Grad, Andrea Bosic) – Classic Movie Review 7,966

Steve Reeves updates his sword-and-sandal spectaculars for the cheerful 1963 Italian historical adventure film Sandokan the Great about the pirate-prince Sandokan rebelling against the forces of Queen Victoria.

US Mr World and Mr Universe Steve Reeves became a star with Hercules and Hercules Unchained, and stayed in Italy but updated his sword-and-sandals spectaculars for this 1963 run-of-the-mill 19th-century historical adventure epic film about a princely ruler, Sandokan the Great (Reeves), rebelling against the forces of Queen Victoria. It is the first of four in a film series about Sandokan from Italian author Emilio Salgari’s popular swashbuckler novels.

Sandokan the Great [Sandokan, la Tigre di Mompracem] (1963) is cheap feeling and unsophisticated, but it remains still cheerful and tolerable, and it looks pretty good in Technicolor and Techniscope, plus Reeves gets to battle a tiger. It was filmed on location in Ceylon and in the studio at De Paolis/ INCIR Studios, in Rome, and some exteriors were filmed in Spain.

Reeves had queues round the block in Italy for such films, and they were strangely popular abroad too, thanks to clever promotion by big American studio MGM. But these kinds of films were starting to go out of fashion, as the Spaghetti Westerns, adventure films and action thrillers gained popularity and took over the market. Sandokan the Great turned out to be the last Reeves film released in US or UK cinemas.

Also in the cast are Geneviève Grad, Rik Battaglia, Maurice Poli, Andrea Bosic, Mario Valdemariv, Leo Anchôriz and Gino Marturano.

Sandokan the Great opened in Italy in December 1963 as Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem and it was released in the US in May 1965 as Sandokan the Great.

It runs 115 minutes but in the UK a dubbed 89-minute version was released.

Giovanni Cianfriglia is Reeves’s stunt double. He debuted as Reeves’s body double in the 1958 Hercules. He later starred in adventure films and Spaghetti Westerns billed as Ken Wood.

Italian film actor Giovanni Cianfriglia was born on 5 April 1935 in Anzio, Lazio, Italy, and worked till 2000.

The cast are Steve Reeves as Sandokan, Geneviève Grad as Mary Ann, Andrea Bosic as Yanez, Rik Battaglia as Sambigliong, Mario Valdemarin as Tenente Ross, Leo Anchóriz as Lord Guillonk, Antonio Molino Rojo as Tenente Toymby, Enzo Fiermonte as Sergente Mitchell, Nazzareno Zamperla as Hirangu, Maurice Poli, Andrea Bosic, Leo Anchôriz and Gino Marturano.

Reeves made a sequel in 1964: The Pirates of Malaysia [I pirati della Malesia], first released in Italy on 16 October 1964. But it was the first Steve Reeves film unreleased in UK or US cinemas. In the US it was first released on video 1980s and in the UK it was first shown on ITV from 1 October 1988 to 30 September 1995.

Reeves played Sandokan in just the two films, both directed by Umberto Lenzi: Sandokan the Great (1963) and The Pirates of Malaysia (1964) for pay per film of $250,000.

They are followed by Sandokan to the Rescue (Sandokan alla riscossa) aka Sandokan Fights Back (1964), starring Ray Danton and directed by Luigi Capuano, and Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak (Sandokan contro il leopardo di Sarawak) (1964) aka Return of Sandokan (1964), also starring Ray Danton and directed by Luigi Capuano).

Italian author Emilio Salgari Sandokan created the fictional late 19th-century pirate as the hero of 11 adventure novels first published from 1883 onwards.

The first two Sandokan films were made in 1941 in Italy with Luigi Pavese as Sandokan: Pirates of Malaya (I pirati della Malesia) (directed by Enrico Guazzoni) and The Two Tigers (Le due tigri) (directed by Giorgio Simonelli).

Then followed the 1963-1964 series of four Italian-made films, two with Reeves and two with Ray Danton.

After that, two Italian films featuring Sandok, based on the character by Salgari, were made: Temple of the White Elephant [Sandok, il Maciste della giungla] with Mimmo Palmara as Sandok (1964, directed by Umberto Lenzi, the maker of the two Reeves films) and The Mountain of Light [Jungle Adventurer], with Richard Harrison (1965, again directed by Umberto Lenzi)

Then Ivan Rassimov starred as Sandokan in the 1970 Italian-Spanish film The Tigers of Mompracem.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,966

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