A Queen for Caesar (1962)
Story of the power struggle between Egyptian queen Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy, and how a common soldier risks his life to serve her.
- Piero Pierotti
- Bixie Banfi
- Viktor Tourjansky
- Fulvio Gicca Palli
- Arrigo Montanari
Rating: 5.2/10 by 9 users
Alternative Title:
A Queen for Caesar - US
Cléopâtre une reine pour César - FR
Una reina para el César (Cleopatra) - ES
Queen for Caesar - US
Country:
France
Italy
Language:
Italiano
Runtime: 01 hour 30 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: roman empire, cleopatra
I wonder if Elizabeth Taylor watched this before she took on the role played here by Pascale Petit one year later? I can't think she would have gained much from the rather wooden effort presented of this most enigmatic of women from history. Sharing the throne with her brother "Ptolemy" (an enthusiastic Corrado Pani) has proved just too awkward for all and so the scheming Theodotus (Ennio Balbo) plots a regime change. This forces our heroine and her protector Apollodorus (Franco Volpi) to take urgent action that sees her end up in the camp of Pompeii (Akim Tamiroff) who has some scheming of his own to do to outwit Caesar (Gordon Scott). Were the acting just a bit more natural and better, this wouldn't be half bad. Effort has been made on the look of the film. The sets and the costumes are effective and the combat scenes are pretty entertaining fayre. It's just that Petit and the even more static "Lucius" (Rik Battaglia) drive the fun and chemistry from the thing quickly and permanently. You don't expect Pulitzer prize writing but again, just a little more application with the typewriter could have made a big difference. Still, I did actually quite enjoy it and I like the genre. If you do, too, then it's certainly worth a gander.
