Film based on a true story of skullduggery, treachery and romance in the Italian Renaissance. This film is rarely seen in the U.S. the print I saw was faded, but in it's original color must have been more impressive, with actual Renaissance settings. Story is similar to Romeo and Juliet, with the lover (handsomely played by Jacques Sernas in settings familiar to him from his other film "Nights of Lucretia Borgia) connected to a young girl of an opposing faction. They come to a bad end thanks to the treachery of Bella Darvi's character.
3 Reviews
A low budget swashbuckler with a decided lack of derring do
melvelvit-11 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
After her father dies in battle, young Pia of Ptolemy (Ilaria Ochini) agrees to wed his mortal enemy, the Mayor of Sienna, to bring peace to the region but this devil's bargain is like a knife in the heart to the young artist (Jacques Sernas) who loves her...
A brief voice-over narration at the outset would lead us to believe this tale of star-crossed lovers torn apart by warring Italian clans in the Middle Ages was based on a true story but except for the tragic ending (and the substitution of "Mayor" for "Caliph"), it's reely just a redux of all those 1940s Universal sex & sandal opuses starring Maria Montez & Jon Hall. A low-budget swashbuckler with very little derring-do on display (only one sword fight!), PIA is undistinguished at best but the back lot foggy bogs actually help give the tale a slightly surreal feel towards the end as the bodies begin to pile up. Horse-faced Bella Darvi, movie mogul Darryl Zanuck's one-time mistress, plays a treacherous noblewoman who's more scary than sexy in her medieval garb and seeing her eventually gobbled up by quicksand was well worth the price of admission.
A brief voice-over narration at the outset would lead us to believe this tale of star-crossed lovers torn apart by warring Italian clans in the Middle Ages was based on a true story but except for the tragic ending (and the substitution of "Mayor" for "Caliph"), it's reely just a redux of all those 1940s Universal sex & sandal opuses starring Maria Montez & Jon Hall. A low-budget swashbuckler with very little derring-do on display (only one sword fight!), PIA is undistinguished at best but the back lot foggy bogs actually help give the tale a slightly surreal feel towards the end as the bodies begin to pile up. Horse-faced Bella Darvi, movie mogul Darryl Zanuck's one-time mistress, plays a treacherous noblewoman who's more scary than sexy in her medieval garb and seeing her eventually gobbled up by quicksand was well worth the price of admission.
Mid-grade Italian adventure epic.
copycat102510 December 2003
This seldom-seen rarity is one of the films which Sergio Grieco made after his run of low-budget swashbucklers, and yet before he achieved professional success with "Salambo." It received poor reviews from the Italian critics, and marks a period of progressive improvement in Grieco's films. Gerard Landry has been replaced by Arnoldo Foa' as the main actor of the drama, and Ilaria Occhini, who looked so lovely in Giacomo Gentilomo's 'Sigfrido' just a year earlier, returns to grace the screen, opposite Jacques Sernas as the hero of the tale. Grieco uses a more obscure cast in this film, several unknown faces showing up, and much of the adventure and swordplay of his earlier films is replaced by an improved drama and dialog. It would be nice to see this film in its original Italian version, but no company has yet offered to give this film that reviving touch much needed for any film historian to successfully evaluate its merits. I consider it a film with some good potential, and another stepping-stone (albeit a minor one) in the history of the Italian adventure epic.
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