During a ceremony Ganor (Mario Feliciani) , the Devil of the Desert , coordinates the murder of the sultan of Baghdad, killing and enslaving the citizens of his kingdom in a plot to usurp the throne. Nearly killing his son Daikor (Manuel Gallardo) , Ganor has him thrown in a dungeon and dominates the daughter Soraya to make her his wife . As Ganor proclaims himself as the legitimate heir of the kingdom. Refusing his advances, Soraya (Michele Girardon of Hatari !) jumps from a palace window into a river. She survives and is saved by Anthar (Kirk Morris) and his mute friend while out fishing. After explaining her story, Anthar is ambushed by the soldiers of slave merchant Akrim. As Soraya is captured once again and sold as a slave girl by Akrim, the Slave Merchant (José Jaspe) . Anthar rescues her again , and learns from an envoy that her brother is still alive . Anthar sneaks into the city , but is trapped in the process. Meantime Daikor incites the mountain tribes still faithful to Soraya to attack and reclaim Baghdad . As the new king is a villain ruler who leads wars merely to expand his territory . During a fierce battle, Anthar and Ganor carry out a duel inside a magic maze of mirrors to avenge the king and free Soraya .
This desert adventure is shot in the classic Sword and Sandals style , getting an atmospheric and acceptable direction from Antonio Margheritti . This is one of the many muscle men adventures and Peplum movies who dominated Italian sword-and-sandal epics in the early 60s , including epic battles , struggles , brawls , bizarre scenarios , damsels in distress and being quite entertaining . The plot is notoriously formulaic with desert battles , freeing slaves , restoring the throne to rightful ruler , fighting evil kings and anything else . The picture was well starred by Kirk Morris as the hero who's pitted against a ruthless desert ruler . In fact this ¨Anthar l'invincibile(1964) results to be an exciting and moving Kirk Morris vehicle with exotic setting in similar style to ¨Miguel Lluch's Falcon of the desert¨. He often dyed his pompadour-styled hair blond and he had a slight , sulky resemblance to Elvis Presley. Italian Kirk Morris -born Adriano Bellini- was born in the late 1930s and plucked from the canals of Venice for his go at moviedom . A gondolier when discovered by an Italian movie producer, he was deemed a perfect speciman to showcase their spectacles and a fitting hero to help offset the silly special effects and ridiculously dubbed dialogue and he was one of the very few Italian bodybuilders to achieve stardom in the sword and sandal/mythological . This also made him one of the few leading performers who was able to speak the Italian dialog from the script. Morris eventually migrated to the United States where he went into the advertising field . Years later he returned to his local Italy . If one must try to distinguish Kirk from the rest of the mythical bodybuilders such as Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott , Alan Steel or Sergio Ciani , Richard Harrison , Dan Vadis, Reg Park , Rock Stevens , Brad Harris , among others . All of them performed mythological figures , such as : Hercules, Samson, Maciste , Rocha among others . Kirk portrayed Maciste, one of the sons of Hercules, in several other movies as Maciste contro Ercole nella valle dei guai (1961), Maciste in Hell (1962) , Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1963), Maciste alla corte dello zar (1964) and La valle dell'eco tonante (1964). The mythological plots, usually set in ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome, and here in Arabia and defeating life-threatening monsters , beasts , wildlife , sorcerers, witches and demons. While his hero's name often changed, Kirk's mission was almost always the same to save unfortunate people. He portrayed Samson in The knight from Pardaillan (1962); Samson Against the Pirates (1963) , Hercules himself in Hércules versus Sansón (1963); Sandar Khan in I predoni della steppa (1964), Anthar, son of Hercules in Soraya, queen of the desert, Nadir in Il dominatore del deserto (1964) , Maciste, Avenger of the Mayans(1965). Besides , being Spain/French/ Italian co-productiong appearing actors from Spain as : Manuel Gallardo , José Jaspe , French : Michele Girardon and Italians as Mario Feliciani, Tanya Lopert , Roberto Dell'Acqua and special mention for prolific player Renato Baldini as nasty tyrant.
It contains a colorful cinematography by Spanish cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who photographed the classic Horror Express , though a perfect remastering being really necessary because of the film copy is washed-out . Shot on gorgeous locations in Algeria : exteriors, desert scenes and battles and interior in Incir De Paolis, Rome, Lazio. The motion picture was professionally directed by craftsman Antonio Margheritti . Thie latter was an artisan who made all kinds of genres : Adventure , Comedy , Thriller , Drama , horror , Giallo , etc. Anthonio often was assisted by his son : Edoardo Margheriti who usually served as second unit filmmaker . Antonio often used pseudonym Anthony M Dawson, he was born in Italy 1930 and passed away in 2002 . Italian writer director of horror and exploitation films, a former university engineering student who began shooting in 1956 . Antonio directs with ordinary aplomb and being especially known for films as Yor, Virus and Horror castle. He was specialist in model-making, optical effects , FX, miniature as floods, scale models and explosions . He directed all kinds of genres such as wartime : ¨The last hunter¨, ¨Tornado¨, ¨Codename Wild Geese¨, ¨Der Commander¨, ¨Command Leopard¨ . Sci-Fi : ¨War of planets¨ , ¨Planet of the prowl¨, ¨Criminal of the galaxy¨, ¨Yor the hunter from the future¨, ¨Treasure planet¨ . Spaghetti Western as ¨Joko¨,¨Dynamite Joe¨, ¨The stranger and the gunfighter¨, ¨Take a hard ride¨, ¨Ghosts go west¨, ¨Joe implacable¨, ¨God said to Cain¨ . Terror as ¨Virgin of Nuremberg¨, ¨Cannibal Apocalypse¨, ¨Alien from deep¨, ¨Flesh for Frankenstein¨. Action : ¨Operation Goldman¨, ¨Indio¨, ¨The squeeze¨, ¨Cyberflic¨. Rating : 5/10 . Acceptable and passable , but mediocre . The yarn wiill appeal to adventure enthusiasts.
