Well, you don't get more charmingly dumb than TAUR THE MIGHTY, a hugely amusing little adventure yarn which provides plenty of belly laughs along the way - providing you're in the right silly mood. The storyline can be summed up with the phrase "Taur and his sidekick fight bad guys and win" but there's plenty of strange incident and bizarre attempts at humour to enjoy. Indeed I was half inclined to class this as a "comedy" due to the steady flow of bad jokes and silly humour which pervades much of the movie - most of it coming from Taur's black sidekick, a cowardly muscleman played by Harry Baird. The racism of the times is prevalent in his stereotyping as a dumb, cowardly man who runs from the action and whose teeth chatter loudly when he's scared.
Beginning with an attack by men wearing animal masks and ending with an unexplained volcano eruption, TAUR THE MIGHTY doesn't make much sense but that doesn't stop it being fun. The lack of budget doesn't stop these guys - oh no. Instead they try even harder to create an action-packed epic, as judged by numerous scenes of Taur battling armed guards and winning and a hilarious rip-off of a scene in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS which sees Taur straining to reign in not two but TWELVE horses as they threaten to rip his arms from his sockets! Luckily the ropes snap to spare him the misery of losing his limbs.
Originally conceived as a Tarzan flick, unfortunately the Italian producers forgot to actually get the rights and found themselves being hassled by the Burroughs estate - so, instead of coughing up, they simply re-dubbed the dialogue and called their character Taur instead. No re-filming was necessary! Some obscure Yugoslavian grottoes were the main choice for location filming which, along with some lush green countryside, gives the movie a pleasing visual tone. Joe Robinson's lovable meat head is a highly amusing hero figure to watch, his non-acting reaching new lows whilst at the same time his camp status going through the roof. You've gotta love the ending which sees him walk off arm in arm with Baird - perhaps closer than any two friends of the same sex should ever be.
The incidental pleasures are too numerous to mention, but I'll list what I can remember. For starters, the evil tribe in this film are all dressed in weird, brightly coloured costumes which seem in part to have been influenced by the Egyptians! They also have some huge bizarre machinery in the base of the mountain they use for gold-mining although I'm not sure what it's used for. You've got vine-swinging, silly unconvincing disguises, comedy music, and a gladiator fight between two blindfolded women! (this was to serve as the basis for the movie's sequel, WOMEN GLADIATORS, which is even cheesier and more amusing) In another attempt to go "one better" than Steve Reeves, instead of pushing just a rock on to the chief baddie at the end of the film, Taur instead darned near rips off the peak of a mountain to lob at his enemy - wait until you see the size of this thing!
Chuckle in amusement as Taur - on a conveyor belt into a flame pit - is repeatedly put into danger as his dumb sidekick plays with the control lever. Stare in amazement at the voluptuous Bella Cortez, gracing yet another cheapo peplum yarn with her presence. Watch in amazement as Taur single-handedly and bloodlessly kills another dozen guards with little or no effort on his part at all. Although it fails on all accounts as an exciting action flick, TAUR THE MIGHTY offers tons of cheesy appeal and camp value and is a must for lovers of the obscure and downright strange.
Beginning with an attack by men wearing animal masks and ending with an unexplained volcano eruption, TAUR THE MIGHTY doesn't make much sense but that doesn't stop it being fun. The lack of budget doesn't stop these guys - oh no. Instead they try even harder to create an action-packed epic, as judged by numerous scenes of Taur battling armed guards and winning and a hilarious rip-off of a scene in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS which sees Taur straining to reign in not two but TWELVE horses as they threaten to rip his arms from his sockets! Luckily the ropes snap to spare him the misery of losing his limbs.
Originally conceived as a Tarzan flick, unfortunately the Italian producers forgot to actually get the rights and found themselves being hassled by the Burroughs estate - so, instead of coughing up, they simply re-dubbed the dialogue and called their character Taur instead. No re-filming was necessary! Some obscure Yugoslavian grottoes were the main choice for location filming which, along with some lush green countryside, gives the movie a pleasing visual tone. Joe Robinson's lovable meat head is a highly amusing hero figure to watch, his non-acting reaching new lows whilst at the same time his camp status going through the roof. You've gotta love the ending which sees him walk off arm in arm with Baird - perhaps closer than any two friends of the same sex should ever be.
The incidental pleasures are too numerous to mention, but I'll list what I can remember. For starters, the evil tribe in this film are all dressed in weird, brightly coloured costumes which seem in part to have been influenced by the Egyptians! They also have some huge bizarre machinery in the base of the mountain they use for gold-mining although I'm not sure what it's used for. You've got vine-swinging, silly unconvincing disguises, comedy music, and a gladiator fight between two blindfolded women! (this was to serve as the basis for the movie's sequel, WOMEN GLADIATORS, which is even cheesier and more amusing) In another attempt to go "one better" than Steve Reeves, instead of pushing just a rock on to the chief baddie at the end of the film, Taur instead darned near rips off the peak of a mountain to lob at his enemy - wait until you see the size of this thing!
Chuckle in amusement as Taur - on a conveyor belt into a flame pit - is repeatedly put into danger as his dumb sidekick plays with the control lever. Stare in amazement at the voluptuous Bella Cortez, gracing yet another cheapo peplum yarn with her presence. Watch in amazement as Taur single-handedly and bloodlessly kills another dozen guards with little or no effort on his part at all. Although it fails on all accounts as an exciting action flick, TAUR THE MIGHTY offers tons of cheesy appeal and camp value and is a must for lovers of the obscure and downright strange.