The Tartars

The Tartars/I Tartari is a 1961 Italian/Yugoslavian international co-production Technicolor film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Victor Mature and Orson Welles.[1]

The Tartars
Original film poster
Directed byRichard Thorpe
Produced byRiccardo Gualino
Written byDomenico Salvati
Sabatino Ciuffini
Oreste Palella
Gaio Frattini
Ambrogio Molteni
Julian De Kassel
StarringVictor Mature
Orson Welles
Music byRenzo Rossellini
CinematographyAmerigo Gengarelli
Edited byMaurizio Lucidi
Production
company
Distributed byMGM
Release date
20 June 1962
Running time
83 min
CountryItaly
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In what is now Russia, a settlement of Vikings lives in peace with both the Tatars and the Slavs. All is well until Togrul (Folco Lulli), a Tatar chief seeks the help of Oleg (Victor Mature), the chief of the Vikings, to war on the Slavs in a surprise attack. Oleg refuses and the group does battle ending with Oleg killing Togrul and abducting Togrul's daughter Samia (Bella Cortez) as a hostage.

Togrul's brother Burundai (Orson Welles) is furious and wishes the Viking settlement burnt to the ground. His high priest, Ciu Lang (Arnoldo Foà), reminds Burundai that Samia is promised to the leader of the Tatars as his wife; her safety and return has a higher priority than Burundai's revenge. Burundai gets his chance to retrieve Samia when a Viking longship is attacked, resulting in the capture of Oleg's wife Helga (Liana Orfei) and her handmaidens. Burundai initially promises to treat Helga well as an exchange for Samia but tortures Helga's handmaidens to discover the strength of the Vikings. He also rapes Helga and gives her to his men for their further pleasure prior to exchanging her for Samia. Meanwhile, Samia has fallen in love with Oleg's brother Eric (Luciano Marin).

When Oleg comes to make the exchange and Ciu Lang leads Helga out to the battlements of the Tatar fortress, she leaps down upon seeing Oleg below and is fatally injured. He takes her and Samia back to the Viking settlement, where Helga asks him to kiss her and dies. The grief-stricken Oleg is ready to kill Samia, but Eric reveals that she is pregnant by him and demands to marry her. Oleg has them tried for their lives by the tribal elders. Meanwhile, Ciu Lang counsels Burundai to get Samia back peacefully, but he has megalomaniac dreams of conquering the whole West, and he kills the priest and goes to lead the Tatars to wipe out the Vikings.

At the trial of Eric and Samia, the elders split their votes evenly between acquittal and death, leaving Oleg to cast the deciding vote. Just as he is about to, word comes that Burundai is attacking. He tells Eric to earn the second chance this gives him, organizes the women and children to flee to the Vikings in the mountains, and he and Eric lead the defense of the settlement by the men. The Tatars outnumber them and overwhelm the defenses; Oleg tells Eric to take Samia and go, and Eric rescues her from Tatar soldiers and gets her to a longship. Oleg fights Burundai, throws him into the water and drowns him; as he is saluting Eric and Samia on board their ship, a Tatar spear strikes him and kills him. The longship moves off as the settlement burns.

Cast

Production

Filming took place in Rome and Yugoslavia in October 1960.[2]

Reception

Box office

According to MGM records the film made a profit of $34,000.[3]

Critical

Orson Welles' enunciation has been praised while Victor Mature has been considered a miscast for not having the looks of an archetypal Viking.[4]

Biography
  • Hughes, Howard (2011). Cinema Italiano – The Complete Guide From Classics To Cult. London – New York: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-608-0.
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References
  1. Jeff Stafford, "The Tartars", Turner Classic Monthly accessed 6 November 2012
  2. Scheuer, Philip K. (Oct 18, 1960). "Diane Baker Will Co-star With Egan: Wyler's 'Not for Children', Players and Writers Assigned". Los Angeles Times. p. C9.
  3. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  4. Hughes, p.34
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