After years of absence , Kadir (Kirk Morris) goes back to his hometown Samara in the center of the Arabian desert. He finds out that the new ruler Atatur (Franco Fantasia) is a villain ruler who leads wars merely to expand his territory . After saving at an ambush the life of Atatur's general Kames (Aldo Sambrell) and Atatur's bride , principessa Amar (Dina Loy) who's led to her wedding , Kadir receives the opportunity to rise to high ranks in Atatur's army. Atatur coerces the princess Amar to a forced wedding to make peace against the enemy leader, and each citizen of the region must give a horse or a camel as a wedding gift . But Atatur is scheming a cruel war of retribution against the desert tribes of King Hussein .After a brawl in a tavern Kadir meets a blind acquaintance who treated him when he was a boy, as he was kidnapped by pirates and he recognizes Kadir as the legitimate heir of the kingdom.
This desert adventyre is shot in the classic Sword and Sandals style , getting an atmospheric and acceptable direction from Spanish fimmaker Miguel Lluch . This is one of the many muscle men of adventures and Peplum movies who dominated Italian sword-and-sandal epics in the early 60s , including epic battles , struggles , tavern brawls , bizarre scenarios , saving damsels in distress and being quite entertaining . The plot is notoriously formulaic with desert battles , freeing slaves , restoring the throne to rightful ruler , fighting evil kings and anything else. The picture was well starred by Kirk Morris as the hero who's pitted against a ruthless desert warrior. In fact this ¨The falcon of the desert¨results to be an exciting and moving Kirk Morris vehicle with exotic setting. He often dyed his pompadour-styled hair blond and he had a slight, sulky resemblance to Elvis Presley. Italian Kirk Morris -born Adriano Bellini- was born in the late 1930s and plucked from the canals of Venice for his go at moviedom . A gondolier when discovered by an Italian movie producer, he was deemed a perfect speciman to showcase their spectacles and a fitting hero to help offset the silly special effects and ridiculously dubbed dialogue and he was one of the very few Italian bodybuilders to achieve stardom in the sword and sandal/mythological . This also made him one of the few leading performers who was able to speak the Italian dialog from the script. Morris eventually migrated to the United States where he went into the advertising field . Years later he returned to his local Italy . If one must try to distinguish Kirk from the rest of the mythical bodybuilders such as Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott , Alan Steel or Sergio Ciani , Richard Harrison , Dan Vadis, Reg Park , Rock Stevens , Brad Harris , among others . Other than that his stoic posing of Hercules, Samson, Maciste and the others were no better or worse . Kirk portrayed Maciste, one of the sons of Hercules, in several other movies as Maciste contro Ercole nella valle dei guai (1961), Maciste in Hell (1962) , Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1963), Maciste alla corte dello zar (1964) and La valle dell'eco tonante (1964). The mythological plots, usually set in ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome, and here in Arabia and defeating life-threatening monsters , beasts , wildlife , sorcerers, witches and demons. While his hero's name often changed, Kirk's mission was almost always the same to save unfortunate people. He portrayed Samson in The knight from Pardaillan (1962); Samson Against the Pirates (1963) , Hercules himself in Hércules versus Sansón (1963); Sandar Khan in I predoni della steppa (1964), Anthar, son of Hercules in Soraya, queen of the desert, Nadir in Il dominatore del deserto (1964) , Maciste, Avenger of the Mayans(1965). Besides , appearing famous secondaries and Eurotrash babes , and being a Spanish/Italian co-production there are Spain actors as Tomás Picó , José Riesgo, the great Aldo Sambrell who starred a lot of Spaghetti Westerns and Italians as Howard Ross or Red Ross, Ignazio Dolce , Roberto Messina, and special mention for prolific player Franco Fantasia as nasty tyrant.
It contains a colorful cinematography by Osvaldo Civirani , an usual filmmaker , shot on location in Desierto de Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain, but a perfect remastering being really necessary because of the film copy is washed-out. As well as atmospheric and evocative musical score by Ugo Filippini. Financed in medium budget by María Ángel Coma Borrás who also produced other av¡dventure movies as Knights of Terror , Zorro de Monterrey and Thrillers as The awful Dr Orloff , Autopsy of a Criminal , Only a coffin . The motion picture was professionally directed by craftsman Miguel Lluch. Thie latter was an artisan who made all kinds of genres : Adventure , Comedy , Thriller , Drama , such as : El halcón del desierto , La chica del autostop , Crimen , El precio de un asesino , Los claveles , Fra Diávolo , Las estrellas , Sitiados en la ciudad , La montaña sin ley, Taxi , Un demonio con ángel, among others . Rating : 5.5/10 . Passable and acceptable.
