The Lion of Thebes

Menelao (Alberto Lupo) and Helen of Troy (Ivonne Furneaux) are going to Greece when they are shipwrecked on shores of Egypt . Menelao disappears and Helen stays under protection of superhero Aron (Mark Forest) . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the woman he loves from villain Tutmes (Massimo Serato) who is pharaoh's counselor (Pierre Cressoy as Ramses) . Then , he becomes inextricably involved in a war between rulers of High Egypt (capital is Tebas) and Under Egypt (center is Sais) . The Greek warrior under the command the Egyptian troops must fight against the enemies .

This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious scenarios . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither historical prospect . The picture contains stock shots from anterior films , as some flashbacks of previous movie by Giorgo Ferroni : ¨The Trojan horse¨and battle scenes . Mark Forest , in his last film , is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying save his true love -the queen Helen- of numerous odds . Forest who played the mythic Maciste in great number of movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hércules , Goliath , Samson or here Aron for U.S. viewing . Robust and strong Forest was a muscle-man who left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the Opera , he used the amount of money he made acting as hero and gladiators films in Italy to study Opera , he currently teaches in the Los Angeles zone . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , Brad Harris ,Alan Steel , Reg Park , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune acting absurdly muscle mythological figures , but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . Above average muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti , thanks to Mark Forest and by Peplum specialist like is fine director Giorgo Ferroni .

Il leone di tebe(1964) Regia di Giorgio Ferroni Con Mark Forest, Yvonne Furneaux, Massimo Serato, Rosalba Neri, Pierre Cressoy, Enzo Fiermonte, Alberto Lupo

That the set are well done but a bit in the studio, the costumes and hairstyles are good.The story at the beginning is a bit' slow and boring, but then it becomes interesting.Yvonne Furneax is beautiful and she had breathtaking close-ups, has a wonderful body. No chemistry with Mark Forest and their love story is boring. The music is recycled and not very incisive.Rosalba Neri is beautiful and manages to be more provocative, sensual and charismatic of Furneax.Mark Forest better than usual but in the fight scenes you can see his double . Very good Alberto Lupo, Massimo Serato and Pierre Cressoy as the villains.There are some interesting twists. A good peplum film even if there are moments of bore.

Mark Forest's personal favorite of his films is one of the best Italian sword & sandal films of the 1960s. Superior writing and direction, and handsome Egyptian sets and costumes, make it seem like a wonderful comic book come to life. Forest, in great shape, has never been better or been better-photographed. Furneaux capably heads a strong supporting cast.

The story finds the Pharaoh Rameses in love with Helen of Troy (Furneaux), who prefers Aryan (Forest), her beefy bodyguard. A mythological mix-up, but it's one of the genre's strongest, most logical and compelling stories.

A film like this, in an unfaded print with strong bright colors, makes one wonder if some of these films aren't actually better than they seem in their ludicrously-dubbed American TV versions. If this had been made by Fassbinder, David Lynch or some other fashionable director, it might be acclaimed as an avant garde masterpiece.

When the Greek army conquers Troy, Helen is exiled from her city. Her loyal guard Arion and Helene ends up shipwrecked on the shores of Egypt, they meet a caravan in the desert and escape from them to Thebes. In the Egyptian city, the Pharaoh Ramses falls in love with Helen, and this ends up making her numerous enemies during her stay in Egypt. She ends up being blamed for the assassination of Ramses, and its up to Arion to save her from those who wish to harm her.

Mark Forest, the dependable star of musclebound adventures, stars in this peplum that comes across thoughtful with a fairly intelligent plot. It's a little quiet, unravels rather gradually. Yvonne Furneaux is more in the lead as the exiled Helen of Troy and Forest as her guardian , who, of course, fancies her. There's a fair amount of dialogue, the acting is good, the characters are little complex rather than the plain "I'm a good guy and he's the bad guy." Here, the playboy Ramses loses interest in Rosalba Neri when Helen comes along and wants to marry her. Jealous Neri wants to be rid of her but Helen reassures she doesn't fancy the playboy. But Helen fancies her guardian. Then there's the murder of the playboy and intrigue is added as well as the usual heroics. Ends with Helen getting a crushing reception under a stone grinding down towards her, and of course, the gallant Forest comes to the rescue, but before saving her he has a well-staged rough and tumble with a guard. I didn't find this a snore fest, but quite interesting and watchable.

One of the approximately 300 Italian peplum (sword and sandals) films made between 1957 and 1965, Lion of Thebes is unusual for a number of reasons: one, there is actually something like a coherent story rather than a simple collection of "strongman set pieces"; two, there is actually a fair amount of dialogue, and the acting is rather better than usual--one almost has the impression that the muscleman (Aryan) cares about what is happening; three, the film is a little more ethically ambiguous than usual: the good woman (Helen) and the "bad" woman (Naïs) actually want the same thing; the "usurper" is actually the proper heir to the throne; the wicked counselor is evil, but actually wants to save Thebes from its weak and careless leader. Peplums tend to range from laughably bad to simply agonizingly bad--this one's actually okay.