Cleopatra's Daughter (1960)

After Julius Caesar's death, Marc Antony and Cleopatra met in Assyria for political purposes. While there, Cleopatra left her daughter Shila with the Assyrians rulers. Shila was raised by and as one of the Assyrian royals. In the years following the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt is in turmoil from their evil and mentally ill Pharaoh Nemorat. Nemorat's Queen Mother, Tegi, wanted her son Pharaoh Nemorat and the Princess Shila to marry in order to unite Egypt and Assyria. Shila rejected Nemorat and he took some poison then died. Now the Queen Mother Tegi has Shila imprisoned for the death of her son. The royal physician, Resi, is in love with Shila and wants to help her. Tegi's younger son, Kefren, is now next in line for the throne. Now Resi and Shila must risk all for their love of one another. Resi has a plan to get the Princess Shila out of prison before she is put to death by order of the Egyptian Queen Mother Tegi.This is a fairly good "B" historical drama. It's not great but it did hold my interest fairly well, I was surprised by how pleasant it was. The first half of the film I did find boring but it picked up about 1/2 through it.4.5/10

By all rights I wasn't expecting to enjoy this stodgy historical drama at all: devoid of much action, it seemed talky and dull, like HEROD THE GREAT or HEAD OF A TYRANT. The obvious paucity of the budget meant that, aside from a dodgy superimposed building in the background of a scene at the beginning of the film, we aren't in for any real Egyptian locations: even though pyramids are present in the plot, we never get to see any of them. In addition, the acting is nothing to write home about: Debra Paget (THE HAUNTED PALACE) is nothing more than wooden in the titular role, and the various plotters at the court are never evil enough to make much of an impact (where's Edmund Purdom when you need him?). In fact, aside from reliable character actor Ettore Manni in a good turn as the heroic court physician and the chap playing the beleaguered architect – who I think is Robert Alda, Alan's dad, nobody in the cast really stands out. I was looking out for Rosalba Neri in a minor part but couldn't spot her.However, about halfway through the film, things pick up and start getting interesting. There's a poisoning plot straight out of Shakespeare and some murky goings-on in sinister tombs replete with bodies and sarcophagi, and a brilliant fight scene in which Manni fends off a crazed knife-wielding embalmer. Then Paget gets buried alive (shades of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER here) and suddenly the film gets quite good. We join a band of grave-robbers as they break into the tomb, only to encounter all manner of deadly traps and double-crosses in the sweaty confines. We get a decently-done cave-in and then a classic (and surprisingly bloody) death for the villain, who's shot to death with about a dozen arrows. Sure, this film can never be watched more than once, even by history buffs, but it's short and, for once, has more adventure than stodge. And that is a definite plus.

After her role as Lilia opposite John Derek in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, roles started getting scarce on the big screen for Debra Paget who as I write this review is the last living of the major players left from that classic. Look at her credits, she did a lot of television after that and like so many of her contemporaries, mostly male though, went to Italy for big screen sand and sandal epics. But Cleopatra's Daughter is in no way like the Elizabeth Taylor classic that came out three years later. For if you remember in that fairly historically accurate film, Cleopatra had no daughter with Julius Caesar or anyone else. She had a son who disappeared after her overthrow, but no daughter. Assyria as a kingdom was no more by Cleopatra's time and there were no more Pharoahs ruling Egypt. Other than all this, Cleopatra's Daughter is a film of great veracity, NOT.Cleo's kid played by Paget goes to live with the Assyrian royal house who bring her up like their own, but now the new ruling house of Egypt, presumably the one left there by Augustus has conquered Assyria and to cement their usurping dynasty, the Queen Mother who really runs things wants Debra to marry her idiot Pharoah son who is a real Mama's boy.Paget's got eyes for the royal physician Ettore Manni, but there's folks with designs on the throne. She's implicated in the poisoning of the Pharoah and sentenced to be put to death and buried in the great tomb of Cheops which he has constructed (another historical anomaly). Manni in a bit lifted from Romeo and Juliet gives Paget a potion that will fake death and his task is to get her out of the tomb once it's sealed up. Breaking in isn't easy and Manni gets some grave robbing professionals to help him do it.If you think this is all ridiculous enough, it gets even worse, but I won't reveal any more. I think that most Hollywood performers who went to Italy to revive their sagging careers did their worst work there. Only Clint Eastwood made a career from spaghetti westerns, no one did it from gladiator films.All that was needed was for June Allyson to come on doing a chorus of the Cleopatterer song that she did in Till The Clouds Roll By.

The 1950s and 1960s were probably the times in the cinema history that for long will be associated with sword and sandal epics, not only those made by Hollywood studios but also by the Italian producers whose careers did not spread worldwide. Since the famous Cinecitta Studios near Rome grew popular for colossal American epics, such directors like Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia or Fernando Cerchio also took a chance to make movies of the genre with an attempt to depict historical periods in their own way, sometimes more original, sometimes more influenced. And in this way, we had movies like ANNIBALE, ERODE IL GRANDE, GIUSEPPE VENDUTO DAI FRATELLI, and many others. IL SEPOLCHRO DEI RE, sometimes misleadingly translated as CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER, is perhaps the least popular of them but appears to convey something rare. To make my comment clear, let me introduce short headlines before each paragraph.WHAT IS SO RARE ABOUT "CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER?" Let me say one significant thing: this movie builds a strong bridge between Hollywood epics and Italian ones, like ANNIBALE did. This time, the link is not the well built male star, a pioneering actor of the genre, Victor Mature, but beautiful, subtle actress who must have made this epic a vehicle to be seen in 1960, Debra Paget. The beautiful Lucia from DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS and the unhappy Lilia from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS plays the main role here, the role of exotic Shila from a faraway kingdom of Assyria. And the effect is sheer delight. She is absolutely brilliant in the role of the Assyrian princess - Egyptian hostage who becomes the wife of Pharaoh but is soon, due to jealousy and sick ambition, accused of assassination and sentenced to cruel fate... SPOILER: But as long as there is romance, there is hope of survival, there is room for justice, for punishing the wicked and for a happy end... WILL THE LEADING ACTRESS MAKE YOUR DAY?It is true that the film was and still is worth seeing due to Debra Paget who makes the story interesting and the whole film pretty enjoyable to watch. The rest of the cast have their moments, but moments of strength and weakness as well. Among better ones, I would mention the famous Italian actor of that time, Ettore Manni. However, generally these are average performances. It is only Debra Paget who will make your day. TOO MUCH HAUNTED BY MORE COLOSSAL EPICS?If you expect this movie to stun you like some American movies of the time, I once again refer to what I have already said: it is more ANNIBALE than THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Due to low budget, this film can mostly offer interior sets, some are clearly fake, the costumes mix the dynasties ruling in Egypt throughout centuries. The same can be said about historical accuracy. The movie is rather an adventure than history. Moreover, its content is built upon previous American films. Resi (Ettore Manni), the surgeon, for instance, reminds me much of Sinuhe, particularly in the scene when Pharaoh accuses him of healing the poor. Ambitious Kefren is pretty much like Rameses from DeMille's film, the only difference being the fact he is not the Pharaoh's son.JUST A FEW WORDS AT THE END...Not to make my comment too wordy because it is not one of those movies that can be analyzed in more details, I'll put this in a nutshell: IL SEPOLCHRO DEI RE is a film for epic buffs, for people who already have some knowledge of the genre. Then, this may be understood in the right way being seen as one among many others. Otherwise, the movie will be an average adventure for you that you will see and will soon forget. Unless, we take into consideration one more aspect that everyone will find impressive: Debra Paget. 5/10