The first Sandokan movie with Ray Danton to be released in 1964. Th movie is pretty much a straight up PEPLUM production, with the main cast all actors from PEPLUM movies, including Mario Petri (not seen here) in a major role. Torture scenes in PEPLUM movies are fairly common. Back then one could torture someone without censors making a big deal out of it but today, a scene like this would get it classified as adult stuff. It's one of the many reasons why I like the genre: they got away with so much back then, stuff that wouldn't be acceptable or seen today. This scene would be more effective if the surroundings didn't look like a movie set but the movie was shot in (stunning) locations. Danton is okay as Sandokan but I prefer Steve Reeves. Guy Madison was touted as an up and coming star more than a decade prior to this film's release. I wonder how he felt starring in movies made in Italy/Europe.
I'm sure Guy Madison felt the same way as all the other fading stars from Hollywood did when they went to Europe to appear in these films...lucky to have work. Plus the Italians still treated them like royalty. It wasn't called Hollywood on the Tiber for nothing.
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