''The Tartars''/''I Tartari'' is a 1961 Italian-Yugoslavian

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Technicolor film directed by

Richard Thorpe Richard Thorpe (born Rollo Smolt Thorpe; February 24, 1896 – May 1, 1991) was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Biography Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, Richard Thorpe began his en ...

and starring Victor Mature and Orson Welles. It is one of the

sword-and-sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget H ...

genre films made in Italy in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Plot

In what is now Russia, a settlement of Vikings lives in peace with both the Tatars and the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. All is well until Togrul ( Folco Lulli), a Tatar chief seeks the help of Oleg ( Victor Mature), the chief of the Vikings, to war on the Slavs in a surprise attack. Oleg refuses and the group does battle ending with Oleg killing Togrul and abducting Togrul's daughter Samia (

Bella Cortez Bella Cortez (born Alicia Paneque, also known as Bella Cortese) is a Cuban actress and dancer known for her work in Italian peplum (film genre), sword-and-sandal films of the 1960s. Career Alicia Paneque was spotted by an Italian film producer ...

) as a hostage. Togrul's brother Burundai ( Orson Welles) is furious and wishes the Viking settlement burnt to the ground. "I am your

Khan Khan may refer to: *Khan (inn), from Persian, a caravanserai or resting-place for a travelling caravan *Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name *Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by ...

", he says to his troops. His high priest, Ciu Lang ( Arnoldo Foà), reminds Burundai that Samia is promised to the leader of the Tatars as his wife; her safety and return has a higher priority than Burundai's revenge. Burundai gets his chance to retrieve Samia when a Viking longship is attacked, resulting in the capture of Oleg's wife Helga (

Liana Orfei Liana Orfei (born 6 June 1937) is an Italian actress and circus artist. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1959 and 1971. Life and career Born in San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna, daughter and niece of famous circus artists, since her ...

) and her handmaidens. Burundai initially promises to treat Helga well as an exchange for Samia but tortures Helga's handmaidens to discover the strength of the Vikings. He also rapes Helga and gives her to his men for their further pleasure prior to exchanging her for Samia. Meanwhile, Samia has fallen in love with Oleg's brother Eric (

Luciano Marin Luciano Marin (9 December 1931 – 12 November 2019) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than twenty films since 1957. Filmography References External links * 1931 births 2019 deaths Italian male film actors {{Italy-f ...

). When Oleg comes to make the exchange and Ciu Lang leads Helga out to the battlements of the Tatar fortress, she leaps down upon seeing Oleg below and is fatally injured. He takes her and Samia back to the Viking settlement, where Helga asks him to kiss her and dies. The grief-stricken Oleg is ready to kill Samia, but Eric reveals that she is pregnant by him and demands to marry her. Oleg has them tried for their lives by the tribal elders. Meanwhile, Ciu Lang counsels Burundai to get Samia back peacefully, but he has megalomaniac dreams of conquering the whole West, and he kills the priest and goes to lead the Tatars to wipe out the Vikings. At the trial of Eric and Samia, the elders split their votes evenly between acquittal and death, leaving Oleg to cast the deciding vote. Just as he is about to, word comes that Burundai is attacking. He tells Eric to earn the second chance this gives him, organizes the women and children to flee to the Vikings in the mountains, and he and Eric lead the defense of the settlement by the men. The Tatars outnumber them and overwhelm the defenses; Oleg tells Eric to take Samia and go, and Eric rescues her from Tatar soldiers and gets her to a longship. Oleg fights Burundai, throws him into the water and drowns him; as he is saluting Eric and Samia on board their ship, a Tatar spear strikes him and kills him. The longship moves off as the settlement burns.

Cast

* Victor Mature as Oleg * Orson Welles as

Burundai Boroldai (or Burulday, Borolday), also known as Burundai, (Cyrillic: ''Боролдай'') (died 1262) was a notable Mongol general of the mid 13th century. He participated in the Mongol invasion of Russia and Europe in 1236-1242. The clan of Borol ...

as Helga * Arnoldo Foà as Ciu Lang *

as Eric *

as Samia *

Furio Meniconi Furio Meniconi (22 February 1924 – 12 December 1981) was an Italian film and television actor. Life and career Meniconi was born in Rome into a family active in the cinema industry in the technical cast, or engaged in the general organizati ...

as Sigrun * Folco Lulli as Togrul

Production

Filming took place in Rome and Yugoslavia in October 1960. It was filmed using Italian Totalscope anamorphic lenses.

Reception

Box office

According to MGM records the film made a profit of $34,000..

Critical

Orson Welles' enunciation has been praised while Victor Mature has been considered a miscast for not having the looks of an archetypal Viking. Critic Leonard Maltin calls the film "a routine spectacle", giving it 2 stars out of four.

Biography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tartars Yugoslav adventure films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1961 films 1960s English-language films English-language Italian films English-language Yugoslav films Fictional Vikings Films based on European myths and legends Films directed by Richard Thorpe Films set in the Viking Age Italian epic films Historical epic films Lux Film films 1960s historical films Italian historical films Films set in Russia Films scored by Renzo Rossellini 1960s Italian films