By the Gods!

Tony Russel gives a beautiful piece of jewelry to Luciana Gilli in SWORD OF DAMASCUS

The original Italian title translates literally as THE THIEF OF DAMASCUS, which makes more sense than SWORD OF DAMASCUS, certainly considering the film is more comedy than anything else. It's sorta a take on the THIEF OF BAGHDAD but with some surprisingly violent scenes and a moment when Tony is in blackface. This film will probably never see the light of day on US TV. I really like some parts of it but other parts, not so much. Very odd film. Tony made many PEPLUM films but his star was eclipsed by other more famous actors or bodybuilders. He's sorta an after thought in the entire genre. He made a bigger impact in other Italian genre films like WILD, WILD PLANET. As for Luciana, her acting career was short lived but the majority of her films were of the PEPLUM kind.