L'eroe di Babilonia

I first saw this movie when it was on TV in the "old days". It is still a fantastic adventure movie. Great story and excellent action filming. I now have 3 great color version that all have bits and pieces missing or misplaced. It is better than no copies at all. If you like great adventure and admire Gordon Scott, find a copy of this movie and have fun.

Say what you want about the genre of sword and sandal films. Without any historical credibility whatsoever or any similarities with the historical/mythical characters that give the heroes their names some muscle men, mostly American bodybuilders fight for freedom and glory somewhere in the ancient world. This time around it's Gordon Scott as prince Nippur (name taken from an ancient Summerian city located in modern day Iraq) returning from exile after calls from the oppressed people of Babylon, tormented by their usurper with slavery and human sacrifices. In the tradition of Samson and Hercules prince Nippur has superhuman strength, hence overpowering the evil forces to bring freedom and justice back to the empire. Sounds a bit like Anakin Skywalkers/Darth Vaders monologue before the climatic battle at the end of Star Wars Episode 3, though the story is a little too interlaced for film of that length. I like this cheesy flicks on a lazy Saturday morning like today, especially as I', down with a cold, the downside of this movie is that there are way too many characters, both good and evil,too long scenes of sacrifices and random violence against the slaved populace - I mean we get it, the bad guy is REALLY bad - and stereotypical scenes where the trapped or chained hero overcomes all odds in a heroic display of his power to jump in for the rescue at the end. It is entertaining, no doubts there, but with a dozen women wearing same or similar wigs all guys wearing fake beards and armor it's kinda hard to follow the story in detail. You leave for 5 minutes and you don't know what happened cause all throughout the flick new characters are introduced - or killed. The story itself is very interchangeable, so if you'd put in Hercules and a Greek polis where this stuff had happened, it would have worked just as well. For situations like mine atm, where I can't do anything else anyways this film is good, would have been perfect if the storyline was more simple, but other than that it has most things that makes a cheesy sword and sandal flick so entertaining. Silly costumes, bad acting, bad fake beards, bad wigs, random backdrops from obviously various other productions and lots of scenes where a muscle man can show his biceps. 4 or 10 points, however quite entertaining.

Another case of where the dubbing destroys a decent little movie. The subtitled version I saw under the title of Hero of Babylon is much better than the Beast of Babylon with English dubbing. For what ever reason it plays less silly. The plot is the typical muscle bound hero fights and wins the freedom of an oppressed people but its done with just enough conviction of the leads that you do care what happens. The film is a really good action film for most of its run, falling into a bit of silliness as the tries to tie up all the plot threads.

Among other disappointments with The Beast Of Babylon was the fact that the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon were nowhere to be seen. It was one of those 7 wonders of the ancient world and I thought that at least we'd get a depiction. Probably not in the budget.

It's the last days of the Babylonian Empire though few want to talk about it. Mostly because they are ruled by a genuine nut case Balthazar played in ancient Snidely Whiplash fashion by Piero Lulli.

The hero of the piece is Gordon Scott formerly a big screen Tarzan with pecs to die for. He's been spending time at the Persian court where among other things they have adapted a monotheistic religion courtesy of Zarathustra and they've developed a toleration policy for religious and ethnic minorities.

Not so in Babylon where minorities if they're young and beautiful women are tossed into a fiery pit as sacrifice to the head Deity Ishtar. With the emperor getting appropriate jollies.

A lot of recycled material from other Peplum films gives The Beast of Babylon a rather tired look to it.

And in a film centered in Babylon I figured to see those hanging gardens.

The rightful heir (Nippur) to the throne of Babylon leads a slave revolt against an evil ruler.

In a brightly-coloured, reasonably well-concocted escapist fare, Gordon Scott takes on the Babylons in order to free the slaves thrown in the fire for sacrifice as well as seeking his father. He's excellent as always, exuding energy and the action scenes are exciting and well staged, and rather lifts this adventure. The stunts are impressive such as as the one Nipur's friend, Namar, is being chased by soldiers atop the roofs of the Babylonian city. With nowhere to go, Namar leaps from the top of one of the buildings down onto two of men waiting below. There's nothing to cushion him below.

The villainy is always good in these type of films - Moira Orfei sizzles as the evil and duplicitous Ura and the guy who plays Balthazar is a true nut job. The slave capturing scenes and throwing them in the fire can be grim.