Musings!

Gianna Maria Canale and Paul Muller in CONQUEROR OF THE ORIENT (1960)

When people criticize the PEPLUM genre (the Italian kind) of just being low-budget movies they're often mistaken. They're not big budgeted films but more mid-range. There are some PEPLUM movies which are very low budget and this is one of them. Gianna's role is pretty much a walk-in role. She doesn't do anything in it. She filmed a couple of scenes and in return the producers had a big star's name on their poster. It sorta signalled the (slow) end of her career. Gianna retired from acting 4 years later and remained in seclusion until her death. She was one of the biggest stars of the era. Paul Muller is a regular actor of the genre. It's always fun to see him. The movie itself isn't bad but it is very low budgeted. Painfully so.