Sun 3 Apr 2016
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE GOLDEN ARROW (1962).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[3] Comments
THE GOLDEN ARROW. MGM, 1962. Originally released in Italy as L’arciere delle mille e una notte. Tab Hunter, Rosanna Podesta. Directed by Antonio Margerhiti. There are a lot more names in the credits, but they won’t mean much to you unless you speak Italian.
Director Antonio Margerhiti had a few films released here under the nom-du-fake “Anthony Dawson†(not to be confused with the actor so memorable in Dial M for Murder), including War of the Planets and Web of the Spider, and he earned a mild reputation as a visual stylist whose films are sometimes fun to look at, if not to watch.
The visual flair serves this film well, because The Golden Arrow is simply stunning: vast palaces, exotic cities and golden deserts done up in storybook Technicolor, set off with colorful costumes and lovely ladies… or the chiseled features and manly chest of Tab Hunter if your tastes run to that sort of thing.
Tab Hunter was never as bad an actor as his reputation would suggest — he’s quite good in Gunman’s Walk — but he’s dubbed here, so it’s hard to evaluate his thespic accomplishments. In fact, the whole cast is dubbed, with some voice-actors clearly taking several roles, lending a comfortable feel for those of us who grew familiar with Italian movies in the 1960s, from Hercules to the Man With No Name.
The story is a bit far-fetched perhaps, but once you accept Tab Hunter as an Arabian Bandit Chief, you can swallow the rest fairly easily. Princess Rosanna Podesta is being pressured by the evil Grand Vizier (you know the type) to marry one of three rather miserly Princes when she’s abducted by Tab and the Arabs. Not to worry though; it seems he’s really the son of the murdered sultan and rightful heir to some throne or other, and before we know it, Princess Rosanna has been returned to the palace (and the three Scrooges) while Tab goes off in search of the Golden Arrow that will restore him to his throne.
Fairly standard so far, but here’s where things get whacked-out. Rosanna prays to Allah to help Tab, and Allah sends down three goofy angels to help him out with sundry miracles and magic tricks. No kidding, Allah sends three angels. At this point I began to wonder how this would have played in a Biblical epic if Jesus had gone around reuniting happy young lovers, and it gave me pause.
But only for a minute. Next thing I knew, Tab had wandered into the Underworld, doing battle with fire monsters and resisting the advances of a kinky queen. Then the three pesky Princes got sent off on some kind of quest, each to find the rarest gift in the world to win Rosanna’s hand. Then Tab entered a city of ruins lorded over by an evil wizard. Then the evil Vizier poisoned Rosanna. Then Tab beat up the Wizard, returned a bunch of dead folks to life and resisted the advances of a grateful queen. Then… well you get the idea: just one damn thing after another here, with magic, treachery, pitched battles and the obligatory flying carpets thrown around like insults at a Friars Roast.
In all, a film you can switch off your brain and enjoy without feeling guilty the morning after. Or not very guilty, anyway.
April 3rd, 2016 at 6:46 pm
These movies are often a visual feast if an intellectual famine. This one actually works on the level discussed as a sort of live action Arabian nights cartoon with Hunter and Podesta badly dubbed Jon Hall and Maria Montez substitutes.
Park your brain, bring out the popcorn, and dial back your expectations and it can be quite fun.
April 3rd, 2016 at 10:34 pm
Margheriti made a couple of pretty decent gothic horror films starring Barbara Steele – CASTLE OF BLOOD and THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH are both worth a look. LIGHTNING BOLD is not a bad spy/sci-fi flick. I think WILD, WILD PLANET is his masterpiece though – one of my favourite 60s sci-fi movies.
May 13th, 2020 at 9:09 am
This one does survive on budget alone. The money was there to do decent effects (Flying carpets somewhat sabotaged by a jet engine sound effect), beautiful sets (with bonus peacocks and doves all around), lots of extras in costume and filming in Egypt(Vast deserts, Karnak and the Hatshepsut temple across the river in the Valley of Kings).
So, worth looking at although the score by Mario Nascimbene is definitely written down to the material – which is surprising when you know that he also wrote the scores to the Hammer prehistoric trilogy and those are quite sophisticated.