Low-brow but reasonably adequate follow-up to the classic EL CID (1961) – an even more loosely-related but superb one, however, was Vittorio Cottafavi's THE HUNDRED HORSEMEN (1964). This one, then, finds the two daughters of The Cid (obviously never shown here since he died in Anthony Mann's Hollywood spectacle) married to a couple of scoundrels – despite his having made them a gift of his famous swords {sic}! The two, in fact, side with a former enemy of the Cid's
but, to help the damsels-in-distress (one of them, by the way, is played by future Bond Girl Daniela Bianchi – albeit the duller of the two!), is the chief villain's own nephew (whose father's throne the latter had usurped!).
Roland Carey – who had been Jason (of the Argonauts and Golden Fleece fame) in Riccardo Freda's above-average peplum THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960) – is the hero here. Incidentally, despite this being officially an Italian production, the director is actually Spanish (though among the 7 credited scriptwriters are two future film-makers that emanated from the movie's nominal country i.e. Ferdinando Baldi – who often dabbled in the epic genre himself – and Alfredo Giannetti – Oscar-winning scribe of Pietro Germi's DIVORCE, Italian STYLE {1961}!). In any case, the film's highlights involve a three-way duel and the obligatory climactic assault on a castle fortress (which rather recalled the one from THE VIKINGS {1958}!). For the record, the handsome English-dubbed print I landed was, regrettably, via a typically-sabotaged (by way of garbled audio) transmission on the "Movies 4 Men" UK TV channel!
