Zarak le valeureux

They don't make 'em like this anymore, and more's the pity. It's hokey, contrived, politically incorrect, and laced with clichés, but it blissfully transports one back to that innocent, popcorn-scented time in the balcony of the local Bijou when Technicolor images flickering across a silver screen could sweep one into a magical world of harem girls and charging horsemen.

Structurally, the film is a bit of a mess, stitching together a forbidden romance between star-crossed lovers, a stiff-upper-lip adventure about civilized British soldiers subduing pagan hordes, and a personal drama about the growing respect between two enemy combatants. While the plot is a mishmash, however, it's never dull, it moves along at a merry clip, and it fills the CinemaScope screen with lively, colorful, filmed-in-Morocco images.

Michael Wilding and Patrick McGoohan are properly British, Anita Ekberg never looked more glamorous, and Victor Mature was born to play just this sort of thing. Lean back, set your brain at "Idle," and enjoy!

(Incidentally, Victor Mature is flogged twice in this movie. The one which occurs in the first reel is especially vivid and it ranks 52nd on a list published in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.")

although I was just a teenager when I saw Zarak, I remember very fondly this excellent film, notably the unbelievable Anita Ekberg's dance, certainly one of the most thrilling piece of eroticism of all British films. Director Terence Young was certainly a master of blending sex appeal with action as testified by his latter films (Safari, Dr No...) Ms Ekberg who certainly is the main attraction of the film is not the only one: Victor Mature as Zarak, an afghan rebel (!) is excellent as usual and the British officers are stiff to the point that they look only at Mature and not at Anita Ekberg. Can you believe it? What is amazing me is how such a cult film which has strong fans all over the world lay unissued and can't be seen anymore. When someone somewhere will at last publish this little gem on DVD?

"Zarak" gets off to a roaring start - with us entering the Arabian village where Anita Ekberg's character lives with her old husband, being acquainted with her lusty relationship with his son (Victor Mature) and the father catching them in the act and sentencing them both to death - all within the first ten minutes of the film!!!! After that, it sort of delves into non-stop rebel war fighting scenes, which aren't that engrossing or all that well filmed - only momentarily catching up with Ekberg and her turgid relationship with Mature here and there. There are some very "American" touches of humour which clearly separate this US sword and sandal flick from the much more common Italian ones. But Anita Ekberg's scantily-clad dances, and sizzling seduction scenes are reason enough to seek out this title and sit through the yawn- inducing battle scenes which make up most of the movie.

saw this movie at ganesha talkies in mysore,india(1957). was a big fan of victor mature those days.i think it was a big hit in india.in my opinion this movie was much better than the spielberg creations like(the raiders series).

In 1956 I was a twelve year old girl, going to the Saturday Matinée with my friends. The things I remember best about Zarak were the marvelous colors of the costumes, the romantic plot line and the desert fighting. It was both a Swash and a Buckle, and made even more exciting by its exotic location. Victor Mature was a bit long in the tooth, and probably could have played the father instead of the son, but he was still in good enough shape for my twelve year old heart to side with the errant lovers. Anita Ekburg didn't actually act much, but she was spectacular---in living color and almost in the costumes. In comparison to Victor Matures' be-robed macho, Michael Wilding seemed a bit of a stuffed shirt, leading most twelve year old girls to decide that Arabs were much sexier than Englishmen!