wab-99500 The 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'.

bkoganbing 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.

collegeofuselessknowlege 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.

csdietrich 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.