In 33 A.D., the Roman emperor Tiberius has sent special envoy Gaius Marcellus to Judea, a sign that Rome is not happy with the way that possible rebels are being handled by Pontius Pilate. The two biggest threats are Barabbas, bandit and political revolutionary, and Jesus, an itinerant preacher who has gathered a crowd of restless followers. On the road, Gaius and his men clash with Barabbas and they rescue Mary Magdalene, the mistress of the wealthy Anan, from abduction. She tends to Gaius' wounds, and when he asks if she'll be easy to find when he arrives in Jerusalem, she replies, "Perhaps." It turns out that Gaius and Anan knew each other back in Rome, but Gaius starts an affair with Mary who, to be fair, has a past as a courtesan—it was never clear to me if Anan actually expected Mary to be true to him (perhaps, as in the Cole Porter song, true in her fashion). Tensions increase as the Jewish crowds tear down the Roman Eagle erected outside the temple. Later, at a party thrown by Anan for Gaius, Anan makes Mary perform a lascivious dance aimed at an elderly follower of Christ who has been captured to be mocked. During the dance, Mary suddenly stares at his face and stops the dance. That evening, she sees an apparition of Jesus outside her window. She tells Anan that he must never touch her again; in fact, she wants no men to touch her. After having the old Christian freed she goes to the temple where the crowds threaten to stone her until Jesus intervenes with, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Mary's critically ill brother Lazarus dies and Jesus intervenes again, resurrecting him. From here on, it's the basic Passion story from the Bible with Gaius and Anan taking supporting roles, though it is Gaius who leads the arrest of Jesus at Gethsemane, thanks to the betrayal of Judas for thirty pieces of silver. The film ends short of the resurrection, with Mary watching the crucifixion as a storm gathers.
This Italian film is a quasi-peplum rendering of the story of Mary Magdalene, conflating her story from the Gospels as a follower of Jesus with the figure of Mary of Bethany, sister to Lazarus and Martha. As such, it's an odd duck of a film. The first half is relatively involving melodrama concerning the love triangle between Mary, Anan, and Gaius. It's clear we're to identify more with Gaius than Anan, but because this plotline is more or less derailed by Mary's slow transformation into a Jesus follower, any tension generated is dissipated. Anan (Massimo Serato) is a more interesting character, and Serato is a more appealing actor than Jorge Mistral who plays Gaius. But for me, neither character is developed very well, though I must admit I liked the ambiguity about how traditionally good or bad either one is. The young and handsome Terence Hill, better known for his spaghetti westerns of the 1970s, is Lazarus, whom we never see after his resurrection. Many critics find Yvonne De Carlo (pictured with Serato) problematic as Mary. At the time, she was 36 and a bit past her prime, though she sustained a lengthy career as a character actor into the 1990s. She gets the occasional glamor shot here, and it's not really her age that's the problem. It's that she plays this leading role very much as she played the supporting role of Sephora in The Ten Commandments, adequately but with a lack of star charisma. I came to wish that the actress playing her sister Martha (Rossana Podesta) had been cast as Mary instead. Martha's role is fairly slight, but Podesta is very good and went on to have a decent career in peplum films. There is a nice sword fight between Gaius and Barabbas (Andrea Aureli) but otherwise not a lot of action. A nice try for something a little different but not terribly compelling. Italian title: LA SPADA E LA CROCE. [YouTube]
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