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Sandokan, the pirate of the Eastern seas, goes to battle with British colonialists who seized his father from their home. In retaliation, Sandokan captures the niece of Lord Guillonk, the biggest villain, for ransom in exchange for his father’s freedom. To conquer the British oppressors and Guillonk’s tyrant militia, Sandokan and his men joined a great tribe of headhunters to lay siege on the British fortress and temples. Throughout all of this, Sandokan forms an alliance that will change the course of history. With Sandokan leading the charge, they will be victorious.
Certainly one of Reeves’s films that I think I like the most. I think I enjoyed this a little bit more than HERCULES (1957). Tim isn’t the best actor around but he does terrify when he puts the tiger mask on Sandokan. He also fights a tiger in the film’s first few minutes. The boxing looks a bit slow and clumsy, but for the period it is acceptable. There isn’t much fighting so the pacing does get sluggish at times but the island scenery makes up for it. The photography is wonderful. Lenzi filmed this in India where the jungle and wildlife provide great scenes. That doesn’t mean the movie is completely without action, it’s just lacking when it needs to be at its height.
The film doesn’t have much action (considering that it has a runtime of 111 minutes), but it makes up for that in the final 15 minutes when the large-scale assault on the fort takes place. Sandokan and his men are to be executed, but they manage to escape with the help of a monkey whom Yanez befriended earlier in the film. After the battle has started, Sandokan and his men are trapped in a tower out of ammunition. The headhunters come to aid and join in the fight alongside the remainder of Sunkokan’s shipmates. Reeve gets to man a Gatling gun and obliterates a number of the British soldiers alongside some brutal machete and spear fighting. Like any good battle sequence, there are plenty of explosions and large-scale attack scenes.
Unlike while for a movie of this genre, this scene is incredibly gory. Leone’s quote mentions that people fired a gun and shot at the same time while being captured in the same shot, however, this was done in extreme detail more than once showing the participants getting shot with multiple guns. This was done a full year before the Fistful of Dollars premiere. There are other instances of conquesting where people get run through alongside being blown up with dynamite and set on fire During a single take there were participants captured that got blasted with spears, set on fire, and then blown up with Dynamite. Other participants are run through with swords and some are blown apart with dynamite.
Resting solely on their gut feeling, Reeves was acing these kinds of movies. Reeves withdrew from his usual fantasy films like “THE OLD GLORY OF TROY (1962)” or visiting an old gem “THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959).” Reeves did however portray a character rather identical to Sandokan in the rarely seen film “THE WHITE WARRIOR” where he took on the role of a Turkish warrior resisting an army of Russian invaders. He seems to have retired from acting after doing so out of suffering the injuries that appear to be sustained from active duty in the field.
Andrea Bosic has also worked on The Witch’s Curse (1961), alongside the fusto movie Kirk Morris as well as Corbucci’s Peplum Romulus & REMUS (1961) with Reeves and Gordon Scott. He worked on an array of “spaghetti westerns,” such as Gemma’s DAY OF ANGER (1967), FORT YUMA GOLD (1966), also ARIZONA COLT (1966), and many more, with some of Lenzi’s more recent war epics.
Anchoriz, who was a villain in Sandokan, The Pirate of Malaysia (1964), and the fusto favorite, PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE (1961) starring Richard Harrison, also worked on the sequel to Sandokan (1963). In that film, Anchoriz again played a villain. Like so many others, he carried over into Westerns featuring in lively and adventurous big-budget Italian oaters, 7 GUNS FOR THE MACGREGORS (1966) and the first sequel, 7 WOMEN FOR THE MACGREGORS (1967). He was the main villain in both. He also featured in the downbeat classic, A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL (1969) where he again essayed the role of a bandit.
Umberto Lenzi is likely the single most underrated Italian filmmaker of all time. The man proved his range as a director by dabbling in just about every type of film and genre. He showcases a competent touch in displaying large action sequences like the siege at the end. This must have been why he was given the later war pictures to direct starting in the late 1960’s. He also hints at his cannibal films earlier when Sandokan and his men encounter a tribe of headhunters that are actually loyal to Sandokan’s father. One of my favorite directors of all time, the man is unjustly called a hack and this tag is based solely on his most famous films, the violent jungle ones, and his more extreme horror efforts.
It is more than unfortunate that these few visceral exploitation horror films constitute the entirety of engaging material regarding his work outside of Italy. It is completely understandable why a man of this caliber is deeply distressed and annoyed in interviews when it seems that the only film worth talking about is CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) although there are many other more respectable and better films in his long-filled vitae. Without a doubt, the man’s extensive and exhaustive filmography has a lot more to offer, but one thing stands true: his crime and adventure movies are in a category of their own and in dire need of the appreciation from the general audience that he profoundly deserves.
SANDOKAN, THE PIRATE OF MALAYSIA (1964) is the sequel that Lenzi also directed, exemplifying his return to the franchise. The follow-up has Lenzi more at ease with the director’s chair now having a more detailed script that features many more action scenes. Other writers would later expand on the Sandokan franchise but without contribution from either Lenzi or Reeves. The part was taken by Ray Danton for the next two SANDOKAN FIGHTS BACK (1964) and SANDOKAN AGAINST THE LEOPARD OF SARAWAK (1964). The following decades featured many more such films and various shows. In addition to these, Lenzi directed the peplums MESSALINA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1964) aka THE LAST GLADIATOR, and TEMPLE OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT (1964).
The Spanish version of the DVD for SANDOKAN THE GREAT has a segment lasting 12 minutes which, quite clearly, was not remastered. The quality of that segment is inferior in comparison to the rest of the film. Based on the disclaimer that precedes the film, it appears this section was added later. But it is rather interesting and contains a Sandokan action sequence where he and his men get ambushed while attempting to escape from the island, forcing them to withdraw deeper into the jungle.
The editing seemed unprofessional but the color grading was nearly flawless. The label has also put out a number of similar films with other pirates starring Gordon Scott and Robert Woods. Lenzi, because of his other more popular horror and gore works, is not known for that much. So it is definitely a must for his fans to explore other of his films. It seems likely that a number of those fans will find something that interests them here. SANDOKAN, THE GREAT (1963) degrees the viewer back to a time when adventure films were less complicated deals and insipid brilliance was far removed from the equivalent films today, which is enjoyable in its own way.
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