Rosalba Neri Friday # 15 - Kindar The Invulnerable 1965

    This rather oddball peplum from director Osvaldo Civirani is helped along by the presence of sword & sandal all-star Mark Forest (in his last film role here), an Egyptian setting (even the pyramids are visible in several shots) and of course Rosalba Neri, who was appearing here in her 8th (!!) peplum in almost 2 years.

    The movie itself is a bit of a mash-up between Thief of Bagdad-like puffy paints, turbans and giant curved swords, along with ancient Egyptian settings & customes and oiled up peplum pecs (plus even Superman!!). Forest plays the title character, who while being born to the wife of King Eman of Utor, is struck by lightning (!?!) at the moment of birth (which kills the mother) making him “invulnerable” to the stick & stab weapons of the period (and to prove this little baby Kindar IS stuck & stabbed). This was prophesied by the king’s soothsayer who also explains that the only thing that can bring harm to him is the “red rose” (which is never adequately explained- but might be fire). In addition we know he’s “The Invulnerable” as it’s intoned by every member of the cast at some point during the course of the movie.

      Soon after his birth Kindar is abducted by Seymuth (Mimmo Palmara – chewing up tons of scenery here),a desert nomad who is attempting to conquer the walled city of Utor with its abundant supply of water and upon learning of Kindar’s “invulnerableness” hopes to use this to enslave the city. Rosalba plays Kira who as the somewhat evil mistress of Seymuth, when not crawling all over Seymuth is throwing lustful glances over at Kindar. Seymuth and his band capture Nefer (Dea Flowers) and Kindar begins showing interest in her (with Rosalba glaring away in the background). It turns out Nefer is the fiancé of his real unknown to him brother Siro (Renato Rossin – billed here as “Red Ross”) which sets up a pretty nifty whip & sword fight between the two of them, with each of them wearing bright red pants and leaping and rolling about mountainous terrain.

    Other highlights include Kindar being placed in an iron maiden and upon stepping out unhurt solemnly declares “I’m invulnerable”, a great scene where flocks of arrows bounce harmlessly off his chest, and a scene stealing performance by Rosalba and her bare midriff. She even gets to cauterize wound on Seymuth’s back (and seems to enjoy it immensely). Kindar eventually learns of his true heritage and has to choose between his families (and not to mention Nefer & Kira !)

     For some strange reason a lot of the dialogue scenes are shot at medium or long distance and the photography ranges from amateurish to quite breathtaking (some of the interior stuff, particularly the lighting involving Nefer is quite beautiful). I love these movies and no matter how cheap & cheesy, I always find peplums entertaining (I can sit thru a bad peplum a lot easier than a bad spaghetti western). Renato Rossi (who was often billed as Howard Ross) was a pretty big star in his own right, appearing in bunches of sword & sandals and worked steadily up until the mid 90’S (showing up in NEW YORK RIPPER & WEREWOLF WOMAN along the way).
    Strangely this is Dea Flowers only acting credit, as she’s quite a looker here and has a very beautiful screen presence. Director Civirani was also responsible for 1964's hilariously inept (but vastly entertaining) HERCULES AGAINST THE SONS OF THE SUN, which again featured Forest (and Rosalba in a small role) – this time as Hercules who travels to South America to help out the Incas!!

      This is available on the Mill Creek 50 Warriors set, which as the title implies contains 50 (count ‘em 50!) sword & sandal epics. As usual with Mill Creek the quality ranges from horrible to quite good (with many “borrowed” transfers). Unfortunately Kindar is one of the horrible ones with a sickly green tint over much of the movie (these screen grabs were taken from a German release I happened across).

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