The Saracen Blade

The plot: During the era of the Crusades, Ricardo Montalban plays an Italian peasant who gains favor of the king and works his way up to knight in order to avenge the death of his father.

THE SARACEN BLADE should work, but it doesn't. It's hampered at all ends-- the script isn't incompetent, but is uninspired and predictable. The dialog and performances jog between "old English" to modern-day soap opera. The cast is uneven, and nary a one of them is Italian, where the majority of the film is set-- indeed, England would have been a more convincing location location given the plot. Carolyn Jones and Betta St. John are pleasing to look at, but totally out of place and are better used in many other films of this period.

Henry Freulich's wide-screen cinematography is colorful, and the set design and costuming reflect this accordingly, but the lighting and camera-work is flat.

The exteriors are unconvincing, often doubling the rocky California countryside for rural Italy as well as the Middle East, and during an attack on a castle, the night-tinted stock footage is painfully unconvincing in black and white, inter-cut with the Technicolor footage shot for the picture.

The blame rests on the always cheap producer Sam Katzman and in-over-his-head William Castle, a director that I admire, but who was clearly more comfortable in westerns and cleverly-written contemporary pictures than costume dramas.

This was screened for me in a theatrical setting (35mm) in the last month, and doesn't seem to be available in any television package at this point (TCM seems to have struck a deal with Sony, so you may see it on their channel).

While I may be over-critical on what is nothing more than what would have been the "B" feature on a double bill in its time, I also doubt it's noteworthy enough to end up on DVD unless it's part of a Montalban set. No loss, as while this would have played in its day as a time-passer on the lower half of a double bill, out of this context today, it's just a mediocre time waster.