Kindar the Invulnerable (1965)

This is without doubt one of the toughest Italian sword and sandal movies I have sat through. I will admit that it's not completely without merit - the location shooting in Egypt does provide at times a somewhat eye-catching backdrop. But a pretty look does not a film make. The movie has many problems, but I think the most pressing is that it is surprisingly boring. There aren't that many action sequences, and the few that there are come across as absolutely flat, being given passionless choreography and clunky direction. And between those drab action scenes, viewers will be subjected to a really slow story and endless sequences of dry chat. As for the movie's title protagonist, I don't think it was a good idea to make him invulnerable to practically everything - knowing that he doesn't stand a chance of being killed or even hurt, no tension is ever built, nor does the viewer feel any empathy for this guy, since he never has to struggle. Definitely one time when being stuck in public domain hell is well deserved.

As foretold by the prophets there would one day arise a man who was born of lightning and would be invincible. And that's who Mark Forest plays in Kindar The Invulnerable.Someone must have been reading Superman comics and decided to create a Superman like character for their sword and sandal film. Forest is impervious to all, swords, spears, rocks. There is something in the prophecy also about a red flower being his Kryptonite, but no one can figure that one out.This was the last film made by Mark Forest aka Lou Degni of Brooklyn who went to Italy to study opera and paid his way through the lessons by doing these muscle films. He was the best looking of all the muscle dudes who were glutting the market with these epics in the early Sixties. I sincerely hope he had a good career in opera to make up for some of these films. He certainly had a focus.

...and yet this is probably Mark Forest's best film.I've purchased the WARRIORS DVD pack, which has 50 Sword & Sandal films included in one single package. The quality ranges from execrable to pretty decent action films. Of all the films I've watched up to now, this will probably be the most difficult one to review because part of it is bad but then some part it is pretty decent, in fact, surprisingly good. Because the transfer and image quality on the DVD was almost unwatchable, I cannot give an accurate opinion about the actual production qualities of the movie but needless to say, I have a good eye for these things and here's my rundown of KINDAR THE INVULNERABLE.Let's start with the bad: The acting is pretty bad. Mark Forest will never be mistaken as a great actor but in this movie he gives new meaning to wooden. Actors who played Hercules or Maciste or Goliath were never great actors to begin with and the producers of these movies sometimes compensated for this weakness by hiring dependable actors for the other roles. Not in this movie. Many of the other actors are weak, including the usually dependable Mimmo Palmara, who for some reason here overacts shamelessly.The direction is odd. A lot of scenes shot from faraway. So faraway that the only thing you see are human figures set against the desert with the dubbed voices booming out of nowhere. You know the actors are there somewhere but I couldn't make out who was who. It's like watching "radio".Speaking of voices, the dubbing and dialogue can only be described as all out terrible. The actor who dubbed Mark's dialogue was all wrong and his booming voice didn't match the beefy actor at all. During fights or any moment when characters are huffing or grunting, the dubbing makes it sound like someone is spitting on the microphone. I kid you not. Bad dubbing is not really the fault of the original filmmakers' vision but more the fault of the US distributors. Hopefully, the original Italian dialogue is not this bad.The film has some long moments. Even at 98 minutes, it felt like it lasted over 2 hours. Not a good sign for an action flick. The pacing would be improved considerably with a little editing here and there.Now with the good:Some action scenes are excellent. The fighting scene between Kindar and his brother is the highlight of the film. The location during that scene is amazing. I don't know where this sequence was shot but it was startling.The beginning is also startling. We see and hear a woman giving birth and then a lightning bolt strikes the bed and Kindar is born (and the reason why he's "invulnerable"). This scene is unintentionally funny because of combining a lightning bolt with a birth (!) but it's very surprising to see a woman giving birth to a child, with moans and all, in a kids picture made in 1964.Mark Forest as never been in better shape. He wears tights throughout the movie, which leaves nothing to the imagination. Sexually sensitive Fanboys beware.The sometimes bad acting is compensated by the fact that the cast is uniformly good looking. Mimmo Palmara, Dea Flowers, Howard Ross and most especially Rosalba Neri are all at their prime in regards to their looks. Rosalba is truly gorgeous as Kira. What a screen presence. And lastly, some shots are almost poetic. For instance, the last scene, when Mark and Dea stand against a river, with pyramids on the other side of the river, the reflection of those pyramids can be seen in the water. The effect is cool, subtle and very effective.There's another great moment in KINDAR: when Seymuth (Mimmo) is defeated and returns to his tribe. We see him with his dejected soldiers walking towards the camera in one long static shot. It's a beautiful moment. The music during that scene is excellent.Like I said, KINDAR is wildly inconsistent in regards to its level of quality. Something tells me that a good, clean transfer, with the original widescreen ratio aspect and Italian soundtrack would boost the quality of this Sword & Sandal. The pacing would still be too slow but still a vast improvement over what's currently available on DVD now. For now, this is my favorite Mark Forest S&S flick and one of the most original Peplums out there.

Mark is hit at his birth by a bolt of lightning which kills his mother but makes him almost invulnerable: Only the "Red Flower" can harm him, though nobody knows what it is. Unfortunately, he is soon thereafter kidnaped and made the chief warrior of a desert bandit tribe led by Mimmo Palmara, which tries to sack Mark's city of birth. Two great scenes: Mark, without knowing it, has to fight his own brother in a whipping and wrestling duel in the mountains. And: Mark lets himself be put into an iron maiden to prove that he cannot be harmed; he steps out of it and simply states, "I am invulnerable." Extra wooden acting during love scenes (even in comparison to other products of Italian popular cinema of this time)!! Low production costs, partially boring. Recommended for fans of Mark Forest or Italian trash cinema only. Almost the bottom of the barrel. Rosalba Neri has only a very small part to play, which is a pity.