The Ark of the Sun God

I wholeheartedly agree with the other commenter who referred to "Ark of the Sun God" as a reunion of the dream team that previously made the similarly themed "Hunters of the Golden Cobra". Director Margheriti and cult cinema actors David Warbeck and John Steiner (and, optionally, Luciano Pigozzi as well) really do form a dream team and their exciting and adrenalin-rushing Indiana Jones imitations are truly a must for all fans of the Italian exploitation industry. Personally, I think "Ark of the Sun God" isn't half as action-packed and memorable as the aforementioned "Hunters of the Golden Cobra", but it still is a far above average and amusing adventure-movie with likable characters and some impressively spectacular stunts. David Warbeck portrays the acclaimed safe-cracker Rick Spears, traveling with his sexy girlfriend to Istanbul supposedly for a routing burglary job. It quickly turns out his hirers wanted to test his skills and entice him into accepting a much more adventurous job, namely the search for the lost Temple of the Sun God with its entrance gate of pure gold and the incredibly valuable scepter hidden somewhere in the tomb of the king. The journey to trace down the Temple is full of dangerous traps and the ill-tempered descendant of the Sun God also sends his troops after Rick to recover the treasures. "The Ark of the Sun God" (the "Ark"-part is presumably just to cash-in on "Raiders of the Lost Ark", as there's not an ark in sight) is a simple and straightforward adventure movie without much pretension, but with a lot of heart and spirit. It's simultaneously a buddy-movie with fun dialogs and comical situations and an action flick with delightfully fake car chases and virulent shootouts. Antonio Margheriti's direction is taut & fast as always, since he had an average of 3 films per year to deliver, and the majority of the cast clearly had an awesome time starring in this light-headed cult production. Although the ratings and reviews for this film are better, I would like to encourage fans to track down "The Hunters of the Golden Cobra". It simply has more ingenious action bits, including plane crashes, truck explosions, spiders, snake pits, cockfighting, black magic, spells, poisonous darts and volcano eruptions.

The ever likable David Warbeck headlines in this highly enjoyable Raiders Of The Lost Ark inspired yarn as a professional burglar/safe cracker hired by a rich British Lord (John Steiner) to locate and retrieve a priceless artifact (a sacred sceptre) from a lost temple somewhere deep in the Turkish desert.

This being tauted as an all action film however, you can probably imagine that the task proves far more complex and dangerous than initially sounding as the artifact is also craved by some less than pleasant individuals who wish to get hold of the sceptre for their own nefarious ends and who most certainly do NOT wish to share it with anyone else.

Plenty of the promised action inevitably ensues with a plethora of high speed car chases (which utilise some cool looking Gerry Anderson style model work), fist fights, shoot outs and James Bond style intrigue together with a healthy dose of humour which all add up to produce a highly satisfying 90 or so minutes.

Warbeck is on top form here and is ably supported by a great cast which includes the previously mentioned and always great value John Steiner, and perennial favourite Luciano Pigozzi (who appears to be in pretty much EVERY Italian B-movie ever made!!!)

Tremendous fun from beginning to end, this is typically rip roaring stuff from the ever dependable Antonio Margheriti and is certainly well worth watching.

The dream team of Antonio Margheriti, David Warbeck and John Steiner reunite for a thematic sequel to Hunters Of The Golden Cobra, and its a beauty, as good if not better than the earlier film. Warbeck is on top form and John Steiner is as magical as ever in a rip roaring adventure that will keep you hooked until the credits fade. Good guys, bad guys, fisticuffs, car chases and a lovely in joke about Roger Moore. This is a wonderful film.

My review was written in July 1986 after watching the film on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

After filming the fantasy "Yor, the Hunter from the Future" there, Italian filmmaker Antonio Margheritti returned to Turkey in 1983 to shoot "The Ark of the Sun God", a subpar entry in his series of imitative adventure films. Pic debuted domestically on video cassette.

British thesp David Warbec (veteran of 10 Italian films to date) gets to play a British character for a change, sa Rick Spear, a London cracksman sent to Istanbul on a cockeyed mission: he's to find the temple of the Sun God which is the resting place of Gilgamesh. A legendary jeweled scepter of the king is inside and can be used as a limitless source of power to the bearer. Because the golden door is booby-trapped (with the entire temple set to self-destruct), a master burglar like Spear is needed for the job.

If this sounds a bit like "Raiders of the Lost Ark", it's because Margheritii earlier raided that hit with an interesting variation, "The Hunters of the Golden Cobra". This time there's too much padding, as Sperar is tested and then goes hunting for the site, aided by a survivor of a mission over 40 years earlier, Beetle (Alan Collins).

The Turkish locations are again impressive, but this "Ark" doesn't pic up steam until the final reels containing cliffhanger derring-do in the em=emple and caverns surrounding it.

Soundtrack features a lovely romantic theme but elsewhere pointlessly includes the main theme from "Battlestar Galactica".

First off, I'm a big fan of Italian genre cinema in general and of the director Antonio Margheriti in particular. This isn't film as art but commerce. The Italians were experts at exploiting the popularity of various American films and selling the imitations worldwide. This particular film is (obviously) derivative of Indiana Jones with a little James Bond thrown in.

Margheriti was a very competent director who elevated the cheap films he directed. He almost always assembles a solid cast (as is the case in Ark of the Sun God) and packs his movies full of outlandish special effects. His use of miniatures is especially impressive although this film doesn't reflect his best use of them. Although I have high praise for his work both in this film and others, many people will laugh at what is presented. It is a cheap film and the FX aren't always anywhere near Hollywood standards. But Margheriti still consistently produced entertaining films, on the cheap, with exotic locations (in this case Turkey), and wild FX. It's the cinema equivalent of a comic book from the 50s...cheap, disposable, juvenile, but fun as hell.

As to this film in particular, Ark of the Sun God is an entertaining adventure film that takes place mostly in Turkey. David Warbeck is solid (as usual) as the lead, as is John Steiner who takes on a secondary role. Lucinno Pigozzi, who is a regular in Antonio Margheriti's films, returns here as Beetle--he was a very solid character actor little known outside of Italy. Of course the whole movie is dubbed (many Italian genre films of the era were filmed without sound and dubbed in post-production). The plot involves finding and stealing a valuable artifact from an ancient tomb, all the while being chased by various goons. Standard boilerplate nonsense. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous and disposable. If you're looking for innovative cinema, look elsewhere. But the movie is fun in the same way as those old comic books were. They were pretty much considered disposable schlock as well until folks began to appreciate the talent that went into creating them.