THE SIGN OF ROME 1959 aka NEL SEGNO DI ROMA aka SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR
Georges Marchal (Marco Valerio), Anita Ekberg (Queen Zenobia), Mimmo Palmara (Lator), Jacques Sernas (Juliano), Chelo Alonso (Erica), Folco Lulli (Semantio), Lorella De Luca (Betsabea), Alberto Farnese (Marcello), Arturo Dominici
Directed by Guido Brignone
The Short Version: Nicely produced and lavishly decorated peplum picture is light on action, but heavy on intrigue. Anita Ekberg's mountainous mammaries and Chelo Alonso's erotic bump and grind dance moves will distract those demanding blood, swords and musclebound heroics. The ending provides a violent assault between two armies replete with some wincingly brutal horse falls including horses trampling other horses and soldiers set on fire. Lots of big names in front of and behind the camera make this of interest to Torch & Toga fans.
The arrogant Queen Zenobia of Palmira ascends the throne after the death of her husband, king Odenathus. With the help of the Assyrians, she breaks the treaty with Rome by attacking their troops at the border. A Roman council must decide what action to take when Marco Valerio--one of their military commanders--is captured at the border after a battle with the Syrian traitors. Brought before Zenobia, she decides to enslave Marco instead of killing him. Rescued by his friend Juliano and a sympathetic member of Zenobia's army, Valerio plans to return to Palmira in an attempt to stop a war between the two states.
In the process, the two fall in love with one another. Zenobia proclaims her true and noble intentions to Valerio and he in turn secretly tries to negotiate peace between her people and that of Rome but Zenobia's treacherous minister, Semantio, covertly plots against her by forming an alliance with King Shapur of Persia. With Rome on one side and Persia waiting in the wings, Valerio tries to halt the destruction of Palmira and the possible execution of Queen Zenobia.
The years between 1959 and 1961 yielded some of the best examples of the Sword & Sandal genre and 1959 alone had several big productions including THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS, THE GIANT OF MARATHON and HERCULES UNCHAINED. This rare, yet sumptuously mounted action drama belongs among them aside from one or two faults. It wouldn't be long before these convoluted, bigger budgeted tales of court intrigue and empire usurpers would be overthrown by a flood of Saturday matinee fashioned superhero pictures populated by larger than life characters such as Hercules, Maciste and Samson. Behind the scenes of SIGN OF ROME was some up and coming as well as established talent. Among the credits you'll spy Sergio Leone as one of the scriptwriters, Michele Lupo and Riccardo Freda as assistant directors. The score by noted composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino is exceptional and contains a few memorable cues.
SIGN OF ROME, unlike most films in this genre, is more about romance and subterfuge than lots of sword battles and derring do. It's basically a soap opera in third century Rome with its near constant onslaught of treachery and deception. There's also two subplots--one involving the vestal virgin, Betsabea and her secret lover, Juliano and the other to do with the sympathetic Syrian soldier, Lator (played by genre mainstay Palmara), who has converted to Christianity. Virtually everyone in the cast carries with them some form of a secret agenda, or has an ulterior motive whether noble or guileful. This increase in intrigue and lack of action may bore viewers more accustomed to seeing clashing blades and musclebound heroes tossing trees and boulders around the screen.
It does have beautiful women, pageantry and some torture including a great bit near the beginning when Marco Valerio is crucified while slaves are whipped around him. Character actor and villain extraordinaire (and unbilled) Arturo Dominici quenches his thirst with water and makes out like he's going to give Valerio a drink but just as the bowl nears his lips, the callous centurion casually pours the water at his feet. Strangely, Dominici disappears from the film after this point.
The action doesn't make its presence known till the final 15 minutes in the form of a large scale battle replete with catapults armed with various weaponry including fireballs and spears. This big showdown comes with some of the most brutal horse falls ever seen onscreen and an unusual amount of stuntmen set on fire which surely must have been a first. The end of the battle features one of the best scenes of the movie when Zenobia, her army defeated, is brought before the Roman commander Marcello and sees to her surprise Marco Valerio at his side. Feeling betrayed, she hurls a spear at him penetrating his chest leaving a wound that would have "killed any other man".
As with a large number of these movies, there's a strong aura of sexuality throughout and it's not all emanating from Ekberg's enormous chest. Chelo Alonso, the Cuban sensation, made her name in these movies putting her sensual dance moves to good use. SIGN OF ROME is no different and is one of her earliest peplum roles, if not her debut performance in the genre. In nearly all of her movies, she stops the proceedings owning the screen for a few minutes while she mesmerizes the male viewing audience with her varied dancing styles. Arguably her most erotic showcase was as the duplicitous usurper in MACISTE IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS (1960). Her sizable role in GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS (1959) allowed her to shake, rattle and roll on two different occasions.
This Italian-French-German co-production is of a high caliber and quite well made although it likely won't win over peplum fans expecting the typical thrills the genre is known for. However, it has a lot of scenes of Anita Ekberg in low cut outfits (actually, her huge bosom should have gotten a billing of their own) and an eye-opening appearance and dance number by Chelo Alonso. Those two reasons alone along with high production values will be enough for die hard fans of the genre curious enough to seek this one out.
This review is representative of the Medusa Entertainment Italian PAL R2 DVD. There are no English options.
GOLGO 13: KOWLOON ASSIGNMENT 1977
Sonny Chiba (Duke Togo), Callan/Ga Lun (Captain Smithy), Etsuko Shihomi (Lam Ling), Dana (Lai Dut), Jerry Ito (Polanski), Tsuruta Koji (Shigemune)
Directed by Yukio Noda
The Short Version: This second film based on Takao Saito's popular manga is fine entertainment for fans of both Chiba and modern day HK crime pictures, but the character deserved a bigger budget and better director. As it stands, KOWLOON ASSIGNMENT barely manages to take out its target with a wobbly script, but benefits from some nice locations and an iconic portrayal from Chiba as the feared and formidable title hitman. There's also some nudity and a few cool action set pieces in what is basically BOND on a budget.
***WARNING! This review contains images of nudity***
Chow Liu Fung is an enterprising drug lord who covertly purloins the goods from the criminal syndicate that funds him. The underworld has no intentions of letting him live and after several failed attempts to assassinate him, the mob decides to hire the worlds most feared assassin--Duke Togo, Golgo 13. With Chow in his sights, somebody else manages to snuff out the kingpin before Golgo pulls the trigger. It's learned by both Togo and a determined Hong Kong cop named Smithy that a Mr. Polanski, the Console of Porania is the real Mr. Big behind both Chow's racket and his demise. With the police tailing him to prevent Togo from ruining the case, the mysterious hitman plans to take out Polanski before he escapes Hong Kong.
Cinemart April 1978
If you're familiar with such "works" from director Noda like ZERO WOMAN: RED HANDCUFFS (1974) and SOUL OF CHIBA (1977), than you know what to expect here for this outrageous, bafflingly batty, globetrotting (well, mostly the Asian territories) Toei actioner. The script--what can be salvaged of it--is inconsequential, despite the writers throwing in numerous details that attempt to pass themselves off as subterfuge. In its defense, the film does play a lot better in its original Japanese language version. The English dubbed version is one of the most atrocious ever compiled even though the one offered here is simply laid over the Japanese print. The words and sound effects rarely even moderately match up with lip movements and the onscreen action. This was likely more the fault of the team at BCI than anything else, but if viewing the dubbed version is your choice, this sloppiness ruins what little respectability this unquestionable 'B' picture has to offer.
Considering how huge of a star Chiba was at the time, it's surprising that Toei didn't wrangle a better director to guide the charisma soaked star. If not for Chiba, this movie would be almost worthless. Far from the man's best work, Chiba is the perfect choice to bring Saito's popular manga character to the big screen (previously essayed in 1973 by Ken Takakura), but unfortunately, Noda was far from the perfect choice of director. Kinji Fukasaku would have been much better for helming this live action adaptation than the wild card that is Yukio Noda. Fukasaku was likely immersed in his comically chintzy, but entertaining science fiction adaptation of 'Eight Dogs of Satomi' that was MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978). Noda's style isn't too far removed from the world of eccentric and boundary pushing filmmaker, Teruo Ishii, only without that directors panache, or ability to create an attractive visual palette.
Shot mostly in Hong Kong, KOWLOON ASSIGNMENT was a co-production between Toei and Callan Leung Cinema Co. Limited--Callan Leung being the films main Chinese star. Director Yukio Noda makes the most of the crowded islands locales and Asian film fans will spot a number of familiar faces from both Shaw Brothers and independently produced features. Noda's batshit approach to tossing realism and logic out the window applies here, but not to the extent of the aforementioned ultraviolent sleaze classic ZERO WOMAN: RED HANDCUFFS and the other Chiba co-pro from '77, the incomprehensible VIOLENT DEATH! WAY OF THE EVIL FIST aka SOUL OF CHIBA aka SOUL OF BRUCE LEE--possibly the single nuttiest movie Sonny Chiba ever participated in. Noda also worked with Chiba in 1970 for YAKUZA DEKA, a gangster flick with Chiba playing a marijuana smoking undercover cop.
Hong Kong Movie News December 1976
The sultry Dana had worked for Shaw Brothers between 1973 and 1977 in a string of erotic exploitation movies and other escapist entertainment like SUPER INFRAMAN (1975) where she played a mostly human looking creature with talons and eyeballs on her palms. Most of her roles required her to shed her clothes and little else. Echoing a look similar to that of Li Han Hsiang's discovery, Shirley Yu, Dana seemed very comfortable being naked onscreen. Some of her other roles (with varying amounts of screen time) include SEX FOR SALE (1974), BLACK MAGIC (1975), LOVE SWINDLER (1976) and Sun Chung's awful COBRA GIRL (1977). For GOLGO 13, Dana is on familiar territory and she's pitch perfect playing the role of the conniving, deceitful bitch.
In compliance with Noda's other movies, there's a smorgasbord of implausibilities here, but this suits the comic nature of the source material. The bulk of the film is undeniably silly and often times seems to revel in these absurdities. That Togo never misses his mark regardless of the circumstances is definitely rife comic book hero material. It reaches an alarming level of ridiculousness, though, when he expertly pulls off hits while on boats rocking in the sea (managing to shoot a man straight through his telescope and piercing his eyeball!) or dangling from a cliff aiming for a target inside a passing helicopter and all with Togo's weapon of choice--an Armalite M16 mounted with a scope!
Above and below: Cinemart April 1978
Another scene that comes off terribly anemic is one of the films big set pieces. Togo plans to take out Chow at what is described as a gala event wherein Chow will donate a huge swimming pool to the city followed by a show from HK's Olympic Swimming team. For such an event, you'd expect there to be a big turnout, but there appears to be only about 50 people that show up and that includes Smithy and his subordinates! Also, the movie unnecessarily jumps from HK to Japan and back again (in between a temporary stop in Macau) in what appears to have been an excuse to show the films Chinese star, Callan, briefly walking around Kyoto locations. It does nothing to propel the story and comes off as an afterthought.
Even though Noda's direction reminds one of a sloppy joe (it tastes good, but makes a big mess), he does manage some snappy sequences from time to time to keep things lively and mildly interesting. The best scene for me would be when Togo is enjoying a tryst with Chow's adulterous wife. Of course this is a set up to kill our man from Japan, but this being Golgo 13, he's one step ahead of the sexy seductress. Another nicely done action sequence is a foot chase in and around the Walled City district of Hong Kong that allows Chiba to show off his stunt work prowess including a bit atop a moving bus that recalls a similar instance in Jackie Chan's POLICE STORY 2 (1987).
Chiba carves an iconic image with his menacing visage, brandishing a big gun and decked out in--among other fashion statements--his white suit. The character of Duke Togo is the perfect action anti hero schematic--his name, true ethnicity, age and his background are all unknown. Covered in scars, he maintains a cold, vicious demeanor, trusts no one and rarely ever cracks a smile. He's smooth with the ladies and even though he emotes about as much as THE TERMINATOR, Togo does display a human side during his time spent with a poor hooker with a heart of gold. He doesn't shake hands and says about as many lines of dialog as Charles Bronson in a DEATH WISH sequel. It's about image here and Chiba really shines in that department. As said above, without him, this movie would barely be of passing interest.
Callan Leung (Ga Lun) played a lot of cops in his career and here he gets lots of opportunities to display his frustration with the incapability of the police to successfully nail the criminal element. Even with all his dialog and 'fist on the table' theatrics, he fails to steal the film away from Sonny Chiba who, amazingly, gets less screen time and even fewer lines of dialog. Callan also took the lead in the bizarre horror flick RED SPELL SPELLS RED from 1983, a film that was part of the 'Evil Sorcerer' cycle of HK horror that began with Shaw's trendsetting BLACK MAGIC in 1975.
Etsuko Shihomi was one of Chiba's Japan Action Club's major proteges and the first to gain prominence in her own string of films. Here, she's playing an undercover HK cop who gets tortured by Chow. She gets to show off her fists and kicks in one scene before being captured and used as a shield against Smithy and company. Shihomi also played a Chinese in Japan in Norifumi Suzuki's bizarre SHOGUN'S NINJA from 1980--that film being a headlining role for Chiba's most popular pupil, Hiroyuki Sanada. Shihomi can be seen in such films as DRAGON PRINCESS (1976) and her own quartet of SISTER STREETFIGHTER movies.
The music of Harumi Ibe is incredibly catchy and aside from Chiba, is the best thing about the movie. The main theme is amazing and rivals the score for Chiba's iconic STREETFIGHTER movie from 1974. The cue for Golgo 13 featuring an unknown Japanese female singer is very reminiscent of the hauntingly beautiful voice of Ennio Moriconne's frequent collaborative muse, Edda Dell'Orso whose famous vocal chords can be heard in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) among other titles.
While the script and the character of Duke Togo are ripe for an awe inspiring theatrical presentation, this version fails to be that movie. It's not without its shining moments, it just needed a few more of them and a better director in the drivers seat. Still, it's much more controlled than the usual fruit loop approach of some of Noda's other movies. Fans of both Sonny Chiba and modern day HK crime pictures will be the best audience for this flawed, but entertaining footnote in the long and illustrious career of the one and only Shinichi Sonny Chiba.
This review is representative of the BCI Sonny Chiba Collection 6 film DVD set
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