THE TARTARS is a tale of revenge set in the Russian steppes circa 900 A.D. Viking Prince Oleg (at best a weak and unintentionally humorous portrayal by Victor Mature) is asked by a Tartar chieftain to join the Mongol horde and destroy the indigenous Slavic tribes. Oleg refuses to betray his Slavic brethern and all hell breaks loose. The Tartar chieftan is murdered and his brother Ogotai (a "larger" than life Orson Welles) voys to avenge his brother's death which leads to more massacres and malicious deeds. Welles is interesting in the part of the Tartar Khan and his palace is a work of sensational art direction. Costumes in this Italian-made epic are first rate and half of the cast and crew are recognizable names from other Italian epics, sci-fi and horror films. Mature once said, "I'm a lousy actor with 75 motion pictures to prove it." This critic can only say, "Amen to that!" THE TARTARS is certainly worth seeing but is not the most memorable moment in epic filmmaking history.
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csdietrich17 February 2001
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JohnSeal11 June 2010A stilted historical epic with pretensions of Hollywood grandeur, The Tartars remains a viable option for admirers of sixties Euro-cinema. Victor Mature, looking ridiculous in period garb and elevator sandals, plays Oleg, a Viking prince who's somehow found his way to the Russian steppes, where he's been invited to join forces with the Mongol hordes in war against the opposing Slavic hordes. Oleg refuses and immediately becomes a target for Tartar big man Burundai (Orson Welles, who's clearly enjoying himself). Oddly, IMDb doesn't list a director for the film, but MGM vet Richard Thorpe was at the helm, and his experience directing costume dramas (such as 1954's Knights of the Round Table) is evident. Featuring terrific art design, plenty of action, and a fine score by Renzo Rossellini, The Tartars is clearly head and shoulders above the usual sword and sandal pictures of the period—even though Mature seems out of his (admittedly shallow) depth.
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gregorhauser4 November 2001This is no boring picture but it is far away from well entertainment too. The story is too simple. Most of the actors are not very convincing (especially too old and too dark "Viking" Victor Mature and an uninspired Luciano Marin). There remains an interesting Orson Welles as "Tartarian" Burundai and the experienced directing by Richard Thorpe (director of legendary historical epics like "Ivanhoe"). Good work is also done by the Italian cast members who composed the music, took the location shots and designed the costumes. To sum it up an average movie.
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Sleepy-177 March 2003This film has a few bizarrely humorous scenes. When the vikings practice shooting paper-mache boulders with their catapults, their leader Victor Mature goes out to be the target, all with that great grin on his face! Welles as the Tartar prince makes goo-goo eyes at his Viking hostage with the plunging neckline, during a banquet which has for entertainment ballet dancers pretending to copulate in front of the dazed guests! Endless shots of armies on horseback riding by, with each shot lasting about twice as long as you'd expect! And then there's the scene where the vikings throw knives at the Romeo-and-Juliet couple in order to register their vote on the couple's fate! And the shots of Orson, huge as a house and shaped like a melon, walking up and down the corridors in his resplendent robes! And the battle scenes are great too, no one ever seems to get hurt! And the viking commandos slip into the river to cross; even though no one's around to see them, they go underwater for a remarkably long time! And then there's the ship which returns to harbor even though no one's got a pulse enough to steer! And then there's the giant sugar cubes being loaded into the catapult! ********SPOILER**** When a wounded Welles (actually a double) falls into the river, it's an absurd echo of "Touch of Evil". Pretty strange stuff.
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Welles always seemed to need money to make his own movies. He'd take on a role (even if it was just lending his voice) no matter how good or bad the movie was just for the paycheck, saving up until he had enough money to make his next visionary film that was far removed from the normal type that audiences were used to.
You can tell by his acting that he really didn't care about the role--but it was the money that mattered to him--and where the money was--no matter what country he had to go to to get it, he'd take the role--even if it was a piece of crock--and this film sure is! But 1961's THE TARTARS helped finance Welles' next movie (Despite, as usual, his having to film it in another country plus having problems getting a US distributor) the following year--1962's Kafka's THE TRIAL.
As usual, Welles' small indie film made little money and he barely broke even--but he was already planning Shakespeare's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT and going through the process once more in acting in any role given to him to get those paychecks in his savings account. -
ragosaal11 November 2006Very talented and recognized Orson Welles (brilliant in "Citizen Kane", "The Third Man" or "Compulsion") must have been very needed of money in the early 60's to enter this film; there can be no other explanation whatsoever. As a Tartar ruler confronting Viking invaders Welles shows not interest at all in what he is doing and even though his undeniable screen personality is enough for him to steal the show.
Victor Mature plays the enemy Viking chief (yes, I said Viking!) with his usual and inevitable overacting and going around with his little war? axe and his black greasy 1960's hairdo. His casting in this is like putting Mickey Rooney to play Goliath.
As for the rest of it "The Tartars" is just one more of the usual sort of low budget adventure costume movies the Italians gave us after the bad though sort of original "Hercules" (1959) with good old Steve Reeves (he always underacted in the same level Mature overacted). Some average action sequences a less than average plot and an all standard direction complete the picture.
The point is that if Welles (or even Mature) where not in "The Tartars" you would have not much expectations and you would surely judge this film with a more generous concept. But taking the film as it is you can only say it's a terrible piece of cinema. So terrible that if you are a movie's fan you can't miss it because that is precisely its major achievement. -
Victor Mature and Orson Welles head a continental cast in I Tartari, a badly dubbed Italian film about the Vikings and the Tartars set somewhere in the steppes of Eastern Europe. Both of these American film icons had nothing better to do. Welles just needed the money for his own projects and Mature after the studio system was shutting down was putting his career into half speed as he concentrated on golf more than films.
Like the cowboys and the farmers in Oklahoma, the Tartars and Vikings just feud because its natural both being imperialist sorts. The Tartars are moving west and would eventually reach the Balkans. The Vikings expanded in every direction including voyages southward down river routes into what is now Byelorussia and the Ukraine.
The Tartars make an offer the Vikings under Mature can and do refuse. The Tartars want to have a military alliance and attack the native Slavs, but Mature who has married into the Slavs refuses and negotiations break down. The Tartar chief is killed and his daughter is carried off by the Vikings and Mature's brother has a yen for her and they get to kanoodling.
Orson Welles who is the brother of the slain chief takes over and his troops capture Mature's wife. He's willing to exchange Mature's wife for his niece, but not after a little forced kanoodling of his own, brought on as Welles and the wife are being entertained by some sexy oriental strip dancing and Orson's hormones get the better of him.
I won't go any farther in describing this disaster of an Italian spectacle film just to say it all ends rather badly for just about everyone in the film. There were spots in the film where Mature's English was dubbed and I can't see why other than Mature could not summon up enough conviction to give a passable interpretation of a performance. Given the material I can't blame him. Even Welles, professional that he is, looks positively bored even when getting ready to rape Mature's wife. Victor Mature would be off the screen for five years before appearing in Peter Sellers's After The Fox in a good natured satire of an actor very much like himself.
Vic and Orson really hit the bottom doing this one. -
castledrac3120 January 2023The reviewers who called this "one of the worst ever" apparently haven't seen really poor films. This would be an average spear and sandal movie but for the presence of Wells and Mature that lifts it a bit. It's typical of the genre, some big sets, lots of extras, and plenty of fighting with rubber swords. Incredible to believe that five writers worked on its very thin plot, but at only 83 minutes it's an easy time killer. Director Richard Thorpe was a journeyman whose career included some very good films such as "Ivanhoe," as well as his share of turkeys. The music score by Renzo Rossellini is undistinguished.
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wab-995006 April 2017The tartars casts some of the same characters as "The Conqueror" which starred John Wayne and Susan Heyward and is widely known as one of the worst big-budget Hollywood movies ever made. It is so bad it is usually seen as a comedy due to awful scripting and acting.
The Tartars takes Wayne's character 30-40 years into the future in the shape of Orson Welles. Welles here attacks Victor Mature, miscast as a Viking (?), and murders his wife. Terrible vengeance is the theme of this laughable epic. It is hard to tell whether the worst thing about this movie is the acting, the script, or the costumes featuring all the men in mini-skirts.
Turner movies has both epics in the library and should combine them on any weekend billed as 'The worst historical double feature of all time'. -
I had seen this movie a long time ago and saw it as just "another Italian Spectacle" action movie. I recently viewed a great LBX version that wasn't edited. In this new version. They clearly state that Orson Wells rapes Victor Mature's wife and "throws her to his men". A rather magnanimous ending to the beautiful Liana Orfei. This key fact was usually cut out of most TV versions of The Tartars. Liana Orfei starred in many Sword & Sandal flicks in this era. She is also a famous Circus performer. I have added 2 movie stills from my collection to the galley.
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gohlson12 May 2005This was one of those awful exotic spectaculars of the 1950's and early 1960's that tried to place a grade b western into an exotic place. In this case, Orson Welles and Victor Mature quarrel over control of the steppes of central Asia. The dialog is stilted, to be kind only because I can't think anything worse to say about it. The plot consisted on Orson Welles plotting(he was already getting fat)and Victor Mature running around showing his muscles. The movie combined the worse attributes of the two. Victor Mature was never noted for his ability to handle sophisticated dialog and Orson Welles was never noted as an action hero, except at the dinner table. The movie did feature some rather stunning blonde women with large mammary glands, but their parts were limited to lines like, "Yes, Great Khan." Even something that simple was often blown. After seeing this film it's hard to understand why they say Orson Welles was so great. This one certainly didn't do him any honor. I gave the movie a 1 only because they wouldn't let me give it a 0.
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Sometimes there are films that are so bad they are good, even great, see "Welcome to Woop Woop." (1998) "The Maze." (1953.) The Conqueror" (1956). "I Tarari" (1961) is in this vaulted class of movies. Staring the great Orson Wells and Victor Mature it just collapse under it's own sincerity, what a hoot!. The lines are stock and over blown. Don't bother with the plot what ever it is, just listen to the lines and watch the really bad acting, have a bottle of cheap red wine to get the full effect. I love this movie and give it a 10.
It is worthy of an MST3K treatment. Orson Wells must have needed money to make a movie he wanted to make, as others have pointed out in this section. It's a lot of fun to watch with friends. -
SnoopyStyle8 June 2020On the great plains of Russia a thousand years ago, many tribes converge. From the North, the peaceful and honorable Vikings are led by Oleg the Brave (Victor Mature). From the East, the barbaric Tartars are led by the local khan Togrul. He tries to recruit Oleg to join in attacking the Slavs but Oleg refuses due to their hundred years of friendship. Togrul starts a fight and gets killed. The Vikings kidnap Togrul's daughter Samia and escape. Togrul's brother Burundai (Orson Welles) vows revenge.
This comes from another era in Hollywood and the world. The yellow-faced Orson was ignored at the time but it has not aged well in the present day. One thing that wasn't ignored is the Italian-American Mature trying to play a Viking. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Neither him nor Orson fit their roles in the modern sense. If one can ignore that, this is generally a functional B-movie with a lot of westernized history and a Hollywood version of the exotic East. As part of the plot, I would expect Oleg to sent emissaries to the Slavs right away. The movie opens with many tribes and it quickly dwindles down to the two sides. As for the acting, it is old-time Hollywood melodrama and Orson seems to be gleefully playing the villain. All in all, it is a swords and sandals adventure that hasn't aged well. -
In the 1950s and 60s, Italian filmmakers realized that if they cast American actors in the leads in their films, they'd be more marketable worldwide. As a result, many B-list actors or A-listers in their waning years went there to make films. To do this, they needed to dub the actors in various languages...which is what they did with "The Tartars" ("I tartari"). Like most of the Italian epics of the era, it looks a lot like a Hercules/Maciste film...with large casts, nice costumes and adequeate acting.
In the case of "The Tartars", two Americans lead the cast...Victor Mature plays the leader of the Russian Vikings* and Orson Wells plays the leader of the local Tartars. Of the two, Wells looks the silliest...and SHOULD look like a Mongolian, but doesn't.
The film involves a war between the Tartars and Vikings...and various women are taken prisoner in order to try to convince the other side to capitulate. Of couse, this doesn't work so they spend much of the movie splitting each others' head open and acting macho.
This film turned out to be pretty much what I expected...a lovely looking story but also a relatively dull one. Why? Because the acting seems so incredibly muted and none of the main characters seem to act like real people...more like statues that somehow talk. This makes it all seem quite sterile...and dull. For a MUCH better and more interesting film, try Hollywood's "The Vikings" (1958)...a film that is better in pretty much every way.
*While most folks think the Vikings were only from Scandinavia, some migrated to Russia and instead of sacking the land, stayed and became farmers and traders. Many Russians today can trace their ancestry to these people. -
This swords-and-sandals spectacle is definitely entertaining -- mostly for its raw, male-female interactions and Hollywood's over-the-top depiction of battle in the Middle Ages.
Victor Mature and Orson Welles make for diverting arch-foes, Mature a Viking inexplicably clad in hot pants and Welles in drapery-like garb enveloping an ample girth. A voluptuous presence in the mix is Liana Orfei as Viking mama Helga. It's a shocker to see how evil Tartar chief Burundai (Welles) treats her, with nary a care for the consequences. Her reunion with her beloved Oleg (Mature) could not be less predictable. She's tragic.
"Only don't anger the gods," she had warned her man. Yet she pays the price.
Guess life on the medieval steppe wasn't any more fair than today's existence... -
bobfv7 August 2022This is one of the most ridiculous movies in the history of cinema. Imagine, an aging Victor Mature running around in a costume which consists basically of black panties and a cape! And a morbidly obese Orson Welles pretending to ride a horse into combat and fight hand to hand. Ridiculous! The plot involves fighting in medieval times between Tatar's and Vikings around the Volga River in what is now Russia, but rather than being historically focused it has a trumped up plot involving kidnapping and rape of women, erotic dancing, and other things that were titillating to 1960's audiences. Skip this one.
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inourbutwutami-662-6734248 June 2020What a mess...and Victor has no pants I mean really
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elo-equipamentos31 January 2020I'm totally convinced that the pictures are a deep study of mankind, through them we learn too much about many ancient people, as shown in this picture The Tartars around 900 A.D. they live together at Russian plains with Slavs and Vikings neither, on movie Mature plays Oleg a faithful Viking's leader with strong friendship with his neighbors the Slavs, in a meeting with the greedy Khan of Tartars Togrul (Folco Lulli) try out persuade OLeg by high um of gold to invades Slavs's territory to, However due the peaceful coexistence of both people he refuses to fight, otherwise he is willing defend his friends against the Tartars's menace, both end up fighting there and Oleg kills Togrul in self defence, further he also kidnapped his daughter Samia (Bella Cortez) who falling in love for Eric, the wicked Burandai (Orson Welles) is Togrul's brother replaces him as new Khan, he swear a prompt vengeance even been advised by Ciu Lang (Foá) the skilful to handle on political matters, Burandai kidnapping the loved Oleg's wife Helga (Liana Orfei) after she returns of a voyage, now the clash among Tartars and Vikings is unavoidable, the gorgeous Italians actress allow us a bit redress over a weak screenplay, nevertheless far away to be bad as rated by mostly reviews!!!
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First watch: 2008 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7 -
coltras3527 December 2023The Tartars and the Vikings maintain a fragile peace in the harsh landscape of the Russian Steppe. When the leader of the Vikings, Oleg, declines to accompany the Tartars on a campaign against the Slavs, there is an explosion of violence. After Oleg kills the Tartar leader and kidnaps his daughter, the dead man's brother, Burandai, retaliates by holding Oleg's wife, Helga, hostage. The stalemate can be resolved only on the battlefield.
The Tartars is a fairly entertaining piece of peplum, something you wouldn't guess by the bad reviews. In those days, entertainment was more important than historical accuracy or having the correct costumes or picking an actor that looked like a Viking. Star presence was important and Victor Mature got that in abundance, despite looking like an Italian gangster rather than a Viking. Orson Welles is quietly menacing as the power mad Tartar chieftain - the man's got presence and not just because of his size.
There's some impressive set pieces, set designs, good cinematography and well-staged action scenes - I enjoyed it and I have seen much worse films. There's a nice subplot of a young Viking and the Tartar captive falling in love, which creates some tension.