Sergio Fantoni and Rosalba Neri in ESTHER AND THE KING (1960)
The main actors are Richard Egan and Joan Collins but this pair is more interesting. Not that there's anything wrong with Egan and Collins but as it's often the case in many PEPLUM movies, the secondary characters are often more lively or interesting than the lead actors and their roles they have to play. The best example would be QUO VADIS (1951) with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr eclipsed by the Leo Genn / Marina Berti pairing.
2 comments:
I totally agree with you about Quo Vadis. The relationship between Genn and Berti is far more engaging and sympathetic.
The scene where Neri, as Keresh, lies down on the couch in Fantoni's (she's playing Haman's mistress) chambers, seductively and slowly removing her earrings as she gives him a smoldering smile, is really, really sexy for a 1960-vintage movie, even an Euro peplum, and I'm surprised the sequence made it into the American cut. Then again, Neri's character is a villainess who ends up getting murdered by mistake after she steals the golden shawl that was supposed to be worn by Joan Collins (Esther), marking *her* as the assassination target, so!
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