{"id":4369,"date":"2017-02-15T21:12:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T21:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4369"},"modified":"2017-02-16T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T21:24:00","slug":"sandokan-fights-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/reviews\/sandokan-fights-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandokan Fights Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sandokan<\/a>
Sandokan Fights Back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aka Sandokan alla ricossa
\n1964
\nItaly\/Monaco
\nOttavio Poggi for Liber Film (Rome), Eichberg G.M.B.H. (Munich)
\nDirector: Luigi Capuano
\nStory: Based on the novel by Emilio Salgari
\nScreenplay: Arpad De Riso, Luigi Capuano
\nCinematography: Adalberto Albertini {Totalscope \u2013 Eastmancolor}
\nMusic: Carlo Rustichelli, copyright Nazionalmusic (Milan)
\nEditor: Antonietta Zita
\nArt director: Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni
\nRunning time: 91 mins
\nItalian takings: 127.800.000
\nFilmed: De Paolis Incir Studios (Rome)
\nCast: Ray Danton (Sandokan), Guy Madison (Yanez), Franca Bettoja (Samoa), Mario Petri (Sir Charles Brooks), Alberto Farnese (Tremel Naik), Mino Doro (Lumbo), Giulio Marchetti (Sagapar), Sandro Moretti (Kammamuri), Nando Poggi (associate of Theotoklis), Raf Baldassarre (Theotoklis), Isarco Ravaioli (Sidar, a traitor)<\/p>\n

The short burst of 1960s \u2018Sandokan\u2019 films, based on Emilio Salgari\u2019s most famous literary character, commenced with Umberto Lenzi\u2019s Sandokan the Great<\/strong> (Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem<\/em>) in 1963.\u00a0 This was originally intended as a vehicle for Steve Reeves, who was looking to move away from his patent mythical muscleman act, and proved reasonably \u2013 if not outstandingly \u2013 successful.\u00a0 It certainly proved enough of a moneymaker to spawn two unofficial sequels, produced by Ottavio Poggi for Liber Films and directed by Luigi Capuano, the first of which was Sandokan Fights Back<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It starts off with a handy resume of Sandokan\u2019s past: born heir to the Kingdom of Sarawak, he was rescued by his nursemaid during a bloody massacre in which his parents were killed.\u00a0 After escaping into a swamp, they were presumed dead: the victim of a crocodile or the numerous quicksands.\u00a0 In fact he survived and grew up into a renowned and brave pirate leader, known as \u2018The Tiger of Malaysia\u2019.\u00a0 Needless to say, when he finds out about his true origins \u2013 and this is where the plot here really kicks off – he\u2019s none to happy.<\/p>\n

Sarawak, meanwhile, has fallen under the governorship of Sir William Brooks (Mario Petri), one of the men who \u2013 along with his now deceased brother – had organized the massacre of Sandokan\u2019s parents.\u00a0 His rule is as cruel and exploitative as you\u2019d expect, making him particularly unpopular with his subjects.\u00a0 Not that he cares; his time is filled up with elephant hunting and public executions.\u00a0 The things a chap must do.<\/p>\n

Sandokan soon raises an army and joins forces with an old companion, Yanez (Guy Madison), in an attack on his rightful Kingdom.\u00a0 Whilst carrying out an undercover reconnaissance, he manages to save the life of Brooks\u2019 niece, Samoa (Franca Bettoja), during an unlikely looking tiger attack.\u00a0 The grateful Governor, unaware of his true identity, invites him to be a guest at the Imperial palace: the perfect location from which to plan a revolution (and, of course, to fall in love with Samoa).<\/p>\n

Despite some pedestrian direction, Sandokan Fights Back<\/strong> isn\u2019t a displeasing way to wile away an hour and a half.\u00a0 It\u2019s very much like the action films that used to run on school holiday mornings way back when I was a nipper, and as a result I confess to have something of a soft spot for such piratical swashbucklers. There\u2019s certainly no shortage of action, and the writers throw in more than enough subplots to keep things ticking over.\u00a0 Too many, in fact: several seem to dwindle away into nothing as the running time progresses.<\/p>\n

\"Sandokan<\/a>
Sandokan Fights Back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an adult, it is often more likely to raise a smile than a thrill, and there are lots of fun sequences in which people stand on the brows of ships, brandishing swords and muttering in a very Monty Python manner.\u00a0 Those with a loathing of stock footage will find their patience sorely tested here, as there are repeated loops of buffalo herds running across the plains, rhinos running towards the camera and so on.\u00a0 All edited in with the delicacy of a hammer in the face, natch.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the scenery looks suitably lush \u2013 even if it was filmed within shouting distance of Cinecitta \u2013 and the interiors are decorated with some panache, making the settings as a whole not entirely inauthentic.\u00a0 There was obviously a bit of money thrown at this: there are an impressive amount of extras in evidence, and the battle sequences are relatively epic in scale (within the terms of the genre).\u00a0 There\u2019s an interesting climax \u2013 in which Sandokan\u2019s army attacks Brooks\u2019 stronghold by running across a smoke enshrouded reed-bed \u2013 that almost anticipates the napalm and paddy fields that were to stylistically characterize the Vietnam movies a decade or more later.<\/p>\n

The performances are decent enough.\u00a0 Danton, who has the thanklessly earnest role of Sandokan, is suitably athletic, but looked more at home in spy films (where he could bring more humor into his performances).\u00a0 Madison fares better, despite being out of the plot for considerable stretches of time, and there are useful supporting performances from Mino Doro and Raf Baldassarre (as a dodgy Greek in a fez).\u00a0 Kudos also to Jumbo, the heroic elephant, who not only sheds a tear when it looks like Samoa is about to be executed, but saves the day when things are looking bad.\u00a0 As our hero says: \u2018Don\u2019t worry, Jumbo will protect you.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that somebody else has pointed out the similarities between the Sandokan and Winnetou stories: both were written by dreamers with no experience of their chosen subject (Salgari was a wannabe naval explorer who never realized his ambition due to poor performances in naval College, May was a frequent convict who never set foot in the Wild West); both feature a heroic native (Sandokan \/ Winnetou) and his white friend (Yanez \/ Shatterhand), fighting against traitors from both of their races; and both were made into popular film series during the heyday of Euro-adventure films, the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Whatever, this was obviously intended as the first in a series of films: there\u2019s much talk of Brooks\u2019 son, \u2018The Leopard of Sawarak\u2019, who never actually appears in the film.\u00a0 He would go on to be the villain of the sequel, Sandokan contro il Leopardo di Sarawak<\/strong>, played \u2013 bizarrely enough – by Mario Petri, the peplum regular who plays his father here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The short burst of 1960s \u2018Sandokan\u2019 films, based on Emilio Salgari\u2019s most famous literary character, commenced with Umberto Lenzi\u2019s Sandokan the Great (Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem) in 1963. It proved enough of a moneymaker to spawn two unofficial sequels, produced by Ottavio Poggi for Liber Films and directed by Luigi Capuano, the first of which was Sandokan Fights Back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1212,8],"tags":[1308,1307,792,568,917,1309,818],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4374,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions\/4374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}