Wordiezett So much average

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

JohnHowardReid 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.

GUENOT PHILIPPE This movie reminds me my childhood, on Sunday afternoons, when I waited for it. Each Sunday, after my home school work. Colourful feature with plenty of charm and action, Victor Mature at his best, even a less famous film if you compare to his previous features. A movie produced by UK movie industry, in the line of BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR, BANDIT OF ZHOBE, NORTHWEST FRONTIER, and some other movies from Korda brothers's material. The pure British colonialism piece of work. A sort of trade mark, as was, in a total different way, the Kitchen Sink kind. The Ken Loach before his time. Back to this film directed by Terry Young and produced by Albert - James Bond - Broccoli, it is not flawless, but who cares, its only purpose was to entertain. That' all. I picked it from TCM in a superb LBX copy. I guess it will be released in DVD, as was other Columbia adventures yarns, such as BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR, and maybe some other items.

uds3 It's interesting sitting down to write a review on a film you have only seen once - some forty five years ago! Just ten years old, perhaps on account of the striking name (ZARAK - how onomatopoeic? - better look that one up!) I have remembered the film clearly...perhaps Anita Ekberg was an early awakening for me?Victor Mature done up like bin Laden on a bad day, played the title role with gusto, the middle eastern outlaw, on the run from terribly British Michael Wilding as Major Ingram. He derring-do's with the best of them! This type of desert adventure was all the rage in the 50's, another biggie of its day as I recall, Tyrone Power in KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES!...but I digress!Probably most men in the audience (and I was inarguably male, even at that stage) will doubtless remember Ms Ekberg as Zarak's forbidden love Salma, rather inconveniently one of his father's wives. Unless I am mistaken, I seem to recall Zarak pacing around his exotic garden while Ms Ekberg, barely legally silked-up, was sashaying around him teasingly, singing "Climb up the Garden Wall," God, I'd like to see that again!So yeah, take it from a ten year old, this was a film that went off!

Nazi_Fighter_David In "Zarak", Victor Mature didn't take his own acting ability too seriously... but he had a special sense of humor and the art to play the mighty outlaw of the territory with great bravery and courage...Zarak Khan is in love with Salma... Salma is one of the wives of his hateful and offensive father Hajji Khan (Frederick Valk). Salma is the statuesque and voluptuous blonde Anita Ekberg, who remains the impossible love of the mighty rebel...Anita Ekberg burns up the screen with her sexy figure... She looks so radiant and beautiful in her oriental gown, it really flatters her figure... Anita, as always, is tasty and juicy, but acting is not something that she excels in... Her zest is evident in her romantic scenes with Mature, but she stands exposed in places that require serious emoting... The one dimensional portrayal of all the characters is something common to the genre... Michael Wilding is not bad as the British political officer in pursuit of Zarak...Shot in Morocco, and photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, "Zarak" is somewhat an entertaining adventure...