cult film freak: TERENCE YOUNG'S 'ZARAK' WITH VICTOR MATURE & EUNICE GAYSON

Title: ZARAK Year: 1956 Rating: ***1/2

Future James Bond directing icon Terence Young made the Arabic Adventure ZARAK so full of bright 1950's technicolor, it's only when the matte paintings of lush background sunsets and deserts are too obvious is it apparent this is basically yet another low-budget British potboiler... but those matte paintings are painted beautifully...

And with the kind of setup for what would seem a pre LAWRENCE OF ARABIA epic, where a powerful Arab leader father banishes his son Cain-style into the endless sandy wilderness for having an affair with his prettiest of many wives, Anita Ekberg, American import Victor Mature's title character is really a charming anti-heroic bandit straight from any American-shot b-Western...

Eunice Gayson in ZARAK

He's pitted against gentleman major Michael Wilding (with resiliently violent sidekick Patrick McGoohan)... but their scenes are separated into two story-lines: Mature and younger brothers Eddie Byrne and Bonar Colleano raid British posts Robin Hood-style as Wilding, basically the newly appointed "Sheriff in town," has a lovely wife to fully embrace and, in that, one of the first Bond Girl Villains, brunette Eunice Gayson, is far more important than Mature's belly-dancing blonde moll Ekberg...

Gayson's one pivotal scene being attacked and then protected by the avenging Mature has potential for a charming-scoundrel love story that's unfortunately never delved into... a shame since these two have the best chemistry herein but, despite the flaws, there's enough adventurous suspense to make ZARAK a terrific-looking programmer worth the Cinemascope experience, at least once.