Ambrogio Molteni Movies
- 1962
With a setting in medieval Russia and two top film stars leading the action -- Victor Mature as Oleg and Orson Welles as Burundal -- this otherwise uninspired costume drama has its moments. The Vikings and their leader Oleg are pictured as pacifists, while the Tartars and Burundal are the real culprits, evil and brutal. Both factions hold a coveted woman hostage while they try to work out a deal. That tactic fails and as the slaughter and bloodshed mount, a romance between a young, mixed couple (Viking/Tartar) is beginning to heat up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Victor Mature, (more)
Very loosely based on its Biblical source, this standard Italian sword-and-sandal action film stars Orson Welles as an intense, inward-turning King Saul, deteriorating at the same time that David is rising in renown. The shepherd David (Ivo Payer) is sent to the Israelite forces with supplies for his older brothers when he first discovers who Goliath is -- the giant over nine feet tall that challenges any single warrior to meet him one-on-one in battle. If someone takes up his challenge, it would decide whether the Israelites or Philistines are victorious in their current stand-off. David's one-shot victory turns the tide and hastens Saul's decline. The monarch's lithesome daughters Merab and Michal are played by Eleonora Rossi-Drago and Giulia Rubini, his son Jonathan is portrayed by Pierre Cressoy, and Goliath by Kronos, a muscular "giant" of European circus and music hall circuits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Ivo Payer, (more)
In the year 20,000 B.C., the continent of Atlantis is ruled by King Yotar (Roldano Lupi), who has set his people on a course of fantastic scientific development. The Atlanteans have dominated the Earth from their capitol city of Metropolis with their powers and technology, but they have also inflicted terrible cruelties on humanity. Yotar has begun experimenting with the powers of life and death on his young son, hoping to grant him immortality. The hero Obro (Gordon Mitchell) appears at the outskirts of Metropolis, leading a quest to stop the Atlanteans and their bloody reign over the Earth. Obro's brothers and allies are killed by the powerful rays dispatched by the Atlanteans, but he is strong enough to survive them -- he is captured, but rather than kill him, Yotar decides to see if Obro's super-strong physique would make him a better subject than his son for his experiments. Obro is put through various tortures, and set upon by menaces including a murderous giant and a horde of blood-thirsty dwarves, and is finally liberated by rebels against Yotar's rule, including Yotar's own daughter, Mesede (Bella Cortez). With their help, Obro begins killing the king's guards and retainers, terrorizing his underlings and eluding capture as he isolates Yotar; meanwhile, Yotar is becoming increasingly concerned not only with his experiment, which is about to reach its conclusion and which may kill his son in the process, but with the volcanic forces that seem to be building up beneath Metropolis. Finally, as if in rebellion against the king's profane use of science, an eruption ensues -- earthquakes rend the city and tidal waves threaten to engulf Atlantis, and amid the conflagration, Yotar is moved to pity by the pleadings of his son. He turns to Obro and Mesede to help save the boy from the doom that he has brought upon Atlantis, its people, and himself. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Rod Flash is the star of Ali Baba and the Sacred Crown, and we don't believe that name for a minute. However, Rod does moves quick as a flash to locate the titular crown on behalf of a beneficent Genie. To do this, however, he must go the Hercules route and perform seven near-impossible tasks. He is rescued from the most ungovernable of these tasks by heroine Bella Cortez, who soon needs rescuing herself from the film's despotic villain, Furio Meniconi. Ali Baba and the Sacred Crown was originally released as Le Sette Fatiche di Ali Baba. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
