Attila 1954

Attila (1954 film)

Attila (Italian: Attila, il flagello di Dio; French: Attila fléau de Dieu) is a 1954 Italian-French co-production, directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti for Lux Film

  

 Based on the life of Attila the Hun, it stars Anthony Quinn as Attila and Sophia Loren as Honoria, with French leading man, Henri Vidal, as the Hun’s antagonist, Flavius Aetius

 Irene Papas, in the second of three contract pictures for Lux Film, plays one of Attila’s wives, Grune

Ettore Manni, Christian Marquand, and Claude Laydu are among the supporting cast of mostly French and Italian actors

American Scott Marlowe (1932–2001) made his screen debut in the film

 Along with The Pride and the Passion and Houseboat, it was one of Loren’s biggest box-office successes during the 1950s

Filmed immediately following the breakthrough Italo-American co-production, Ulysses (Lux Film / Ponti-DeLaurentiis / Paramount Pictures, 1954), Attila, Scourge of God represented an independent attempt by the same Italian producers to make a film with an American lead actor in hopes of licensing it to an American studio for distribution on more lucrative terms

It failed to secure this goal for a variety of reasons unforeseen at the outset

 However, three and a half years later (retitled, Attila) it proved to be the vehicle which launched the career of Joe Levine — Joseph E. Levine presents—as a producer and distributor of international films, many of them Italian in origin

While never to be a financially or critically acclaimed motion picture, Attila ultimately achieved the status of a significant product in the evolution of world film markets

The king of the Huns, whose hordes from various tribes and allies have been sweeping the Asian steppes and both Roman empires, dies, leaving the throne to two sons. Bleda, tired of war and hungry, bloody campaigns, wants to settle as allies of Rome in peace, his brother Attila believes only in the power of the sword. Roman general Aethius, who knows the Huns well as a result of former hostage exchanges, fails to get a true peace but buys a shaky one promising doubled tribute

The court of weakling emperor Valentinianus, moved north from Rome to Ravenna, where the true ruler is empress-mother Galla Placidia, widow of a barbarian king, refuses the terms and imprisons Aethius, who still refuses to seize power with Valentinian’s sister Honoria

 The ambitious princess now offers her hand and the empire as dowry to Attila, just what Bleda hoped for. Scorning peace, Attila has popular Bleda murdered during a hunt, and persuades the hordes to march with him on the empire. While clueless

Director: Pietro Francisci. Stars: Anthony Quinn, Sophia Loren, Henri Vidal

Color. Runtime: 77 minutes

Attila (1954)

Attila (1954)