Conrado San Martín and Virginia Mayo in REVOLT OF THE MERCENARIES (1961)
When you think of who's the queen of the PEPLUM genre, does Virginia Mayo come to mind? Not really. Virginia made a couple of films in Europe as her US career waned. She did star in Hollywood productions, THE SILVER CHALICE (1954) and KING RICHARDS & THE CRUSADERS (1954). It's hard to categorize her career. I recently made a compilation of all the major PEPLUM female stars and she's one of the stars I didn't include in it. Conrado acted in supporting roles before briefly becoming a leading man. He's still alive! Not to be confused with REVENGE OF MERCENARIES (1962).
Virginia Mayo gave solid performances in THE FLAME AND THE ARROW, THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE, KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, and CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly THE SILVER CHALICE is one of the worst big budget Peplums of all time. However that was due primarily to its preposterous script rather than to any failing on her part.
You couldn't be more wrong about The Silver Chalice. It's a great story and an inventive production.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing this post I decided to seek out the film and found a beautiful widescreen color DVD of it from Germany. Conrado San Martin is wonderful in it. Too bad he wasn't the hero more often.
ReplyDeleteAdd to your list of Virginia Mayo costume films The Story of Mankind in which she portrays Cleopatra.
Yes, Conrado is wonderful in it. Excellent actor.
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