Copyright 1956 by Warwick Film Productions. Released worldwide through Columbia Pictures. New York opening at the Globe: 26 December 1956. U.S. release: January 1957. U.K. release: 11 February 1957. Australian release: 12 April 1957. Sydney opening at the Capitol (ran one week). Original running time: 99 minutes. Censored to 94 minutes (USA), 95 minutes (UK), 97 minutes (Aust).
COMMENT: Anita Ekberg was a popular pin-up beauty of the 1950s. Popular in just about all countries except Australia. Here, aside from me, she had virtually no following at all. I remember watching her cavort through Zarak at Sydney's Capitol back in April 1957. The Capitol was a huge place — in fact it was Sydney's largest cinema — but at the session I attended no more than 23 of its 2,773 seats were occupied. Yet up the road at the Prince Edward, Audrey Hepburn was pulling in capacity crowds with War and Peace. And this despite the fact that Miss Ekberg's dance to the strains of "Climb Up the Wall" had censors worldwide reaching for their scissors and splicing cement. In fact the number was completely deleted in New Zealand and drastically pruned in the United States. These facts were thoroughly publicized, but Australian picture-goers regarded Miss Ekberg with contempt. Despite more publicity than Marilyn Monroe, she didn't rate a single success in Australia (unless of course you count "War and Peace"). Aside from La Dolce Vita and Four for Texas, Oz receipts from her starring movies didn't even cover their advertising expenses.
Well, as I say, I quite enjoyed this Boy's Own Paper tale of the British Raj skirmishing with outlaws on the Peshawar Frontier, when I first saw it on the Capitol's giant CinemaScope screen. And Miss Ekberg's dance turn proved an absolute delight.
But, sad to say, Zarak has not improved with age. Miss Ekberg's number now looks so innocuous, we wonder how on earth censors from Aabenraa to Zyrardow were so myopic as to create such explosive flak. And as for the rest of the players: Victor Mature with his agonizing facial contortions that passed for "acting" in the mid- 50s, and stolid British actors like Finlay Currie and Bernard Miles so obviously uncomfortable in greasepaint...
Admittedly, the players were hampered by ridiculous dialogue and a dreary plot. Of course the general ineptness of Mr Young's direction was no help either. And all that obvious inter-cutting of genuine action and location footage with incredibly banal studio interiors. Not very exciting to begin with, and that murky grainy, early CinemaScope photography makes everything look even worse.
Hard to credit that no less than three units contributed to this lackluster mess. Young and Wilcox presumably headed the main unit, while Canutt supplied the half-hearted action footage. Heaven knows what Gilling and his unit did – and frankly I can't see any eager- tailed researchers pressing him to find out. Perhaps the DVD distributors are right. Perhaps "Zarak" is best forgotten.
COMMENT: Anita Ekberg was a popular pin-up beauty of the 1950s. Popular in just about all countries except Australia. Here, aside from me, she had virtually no following at all. I remember watching her cavort through Zarak at Sydney's Capitol back in April 1957. The Capitol was a huge place — in fact it was Sydney's largest cinema — but at the session I attended no more than 23 of its 2,773 seats were occupied. Yet up the road at the Prince Edward, Audrey Hepburn was pulling in capacity crowds with War and Peace. And this despite the fact that Miss Ekberg's dance to the strains of "Climb Up the Wall" had censors worldwide reaching for their scissors and splicing cement. In fact the number was completely deleted in New Zealand and drastically pruned in the United States. These facts were thoroughly publicized, but Australian picture-goers regarded Miss Ekberg with contempt. Despite more publicity than Marilyn Monroe, she didn't rate a single success in Australia (unless of course you count "War and Peace"). Aside from La Dolce Vita and Four for Texas, Oz receipts from her starring movies didn't even cover their advertising expenses.
Well, as I say, I quite enjoyed this Boy's Own Paper tale of the British Raj skirmishing with outlaws on the Peshawar Frontier, when I first saw it on the Capitol's giant CinemaScope screen. And Miss Ekberg's dance turn proved an absolute delight.
But, sad to say, Zarak has not improved with age. Miss Ekberg's number now looks so innocuous, we wonder how on earth censors from Aabenraa to Zyrardow were so myopic as to create such explosive flak. And as for the rest of the players: Victor Mature with his agonizing facial contortions that passed for "acting" in the mid- 50s, and stolid British actors like Finlay Currie and Bernard Miles so obviously uncomfortable in greasepaint...
Admittedly, the players were hampered by ridiculous dialogue and a dreary plot. Of course the general ineptness of Mr Young's direction was no help either. And all that obvious inter-cutting of genuine action and location footage with incredibly banal studio interiors. Not very exciting to begin with, and that murky grainy, early CinemaScope photography makes everything look even worse.
Hard to credit that no less than three units contributed to this lackluster mess. Young and Wilcox presumably headed the main unit, while Canutt supplied the half-hearted action footage. Heaven knows what Gilling and his unit did – and frankly I can't see any eager- tailed researchers pressing him to find out. Perhaps the DVD distributors are right. Perhaps "Zarak" is best forgotten.