Unlike movies such "lives of a Bengal lancer " ,the English are the villains ,who drive the legitimate sovereigns away from their land ;prince Sandokan is not only a noble who fights for a just cause , he's also endowed with a Herculean strength (Steve Reeves who leaves the sword and sandal world for the exotic landscapes of Sri Lanka)
The screenplay looks like a comic strip : it seems that some scenes (concerning the hero's father ,the sultan ) were intended but not filmed -they are told ,a convenient economical way);the story is very conventional :a group lead by a charismatic hero makes his way through a hostile luxuriant jungle ,with the usual dangers :snakes , wildcats ,headhunters ...and for good measure a traitor in the pay of the enemy ,the cruel English Lord ; and it's obvious ,a girl , precisely the lord's niece whose attitude is ,to put is mildly ,predictable :Geneviève Grad seems ill-at -ease in this genre,although she played with Reeves' alter ego Gordon Scott in "L'eroe di Babilonia" the very same year ; she's more efficient in Louis De funès ' s comedies , "Le Gendarme" -she's featured in three of them -.Here ,she is relegated to the part of the damsel in distress shrieking "Sandokan !help !"
The only character who is not entirely carboard is Yanez the stateless person (Andrea Bosic).The cinematography is nice, the movie takes advantage of the beautiful landscapes of the island.
