Sign of the Pagan (1954)

Ok, so the casting leaves something to be desired but I still quite enjoyed this sword and sandals adventure - Hollywood style. This time, it's the fearsome Atilla (Jack Palance) who is threatening ruin on the two empires that emerged from the once mighty Rome. The eastern half is ruled from Constantinople by the spineless Theodosius (George Dolenz) who is quite happy to bribe their would be conqueror and leave him to attack the other emperor in Rome. Luckily for Rome, though, the emperor's sister - the princess Pulcheria (Ludmilla Tchérina), is made of sterner stuff and thanks to the sterling efforts of sandal-maker's son turned centurion "Marcian" (Jeff Chandler) is up for putting up a fight. Can he make it to Rome before it's equally yellow emperor Valentinian (Walter Coy) does a bunk with whatever loot he can carry? All the while, Attila and his daughter "Kubra" (Rita Gam) are having to come to terms with Christianity and the effects a well placed lightning strike can have on years of pagan beliefs. Add to that the fact that she is keen on the centurion (now general) who is keen on his new empress and we have the makings of a gentle romantic tussle to compliment the more substantial one between the Hun and the Roman. Palance exudes all the raping and pillaging menace of your average paper boy and as for Chandler, I still don't really understand why he ever made it out of central casting - but together and with some help from a decent production design, they create an half decent adventure movie with plenty of perfectly choreographed sword fights, a fun dunking in an ornate swimming pool and the first recorded appearance of Pope Leo I (Moroni Olsen) whom I felt Attila was rather uncharacteristically benevolent towards. It's got no edge to it and precious little peril, but it looks quite good and kills ninety minutes easily enough.