After my shock at having acquired a black-and-white print of LADY IN THE IRON MASK (1952), I was met with another surprise at the end of this one – where it was stated that the trio of protagonists here would return in PIRATES OF MALAYA (1941)...which I had watched a couple of days earlier, being under the impression that it had actually preceded the movie under review in the "Sandokan" saga! Still, thinking about what I had just viewed, I realized this could not be so – given that, in LE DUE TIGRI (which, apparently, was never exported...and that, in itself, is sign enough of its later chronology in the series!), a number of references are made to events that had occurred in PIRATES OF MALAYA: the fact that Tremal-Naik's daughter was abducted by the fanatics of the goddess Kali because he had himself chosen his partner from amongst their would-be inviolable ranks, and also Sandokan and his Portuguese ally Yanez de Gomera's reminiscing about their brush with Lord James Brooke! Not to mention that the famous Indian hero appears virtually all through this adventure, whereas he only took over during the last third of what would have been his subsequent exploit...which, again, makes no sense!
Anyway, this runs 79 minutes against the 67-minute copy I had watched of the original Sandokan flick: having mentioned a certain stiffness of approach in my earlier review, this is only accentuated by the extra length here – the pace, in fact, is rather sluggish and, for what it is worth, a similar disjointedness is also evident (characters are often isolated or divided into factions and we alternate between following their respective journey). That said, in view of the fact that the two films' cast and crew are practically interchangeable, the overall quality is indeed comparable – while hardly classics of the action genre, both prove enjoyably exotic fare. Incidentally, the title (which translates to "The Two Tigers") refers to Sandokan's nickname of "Tiger of Mompracem" and that of the High Priest of the temple, himself dubbed "Tiger of the Jungle". The main female presence, then, is supplied by one of the latter's dancers (now charged with inducting Tremal- Naik's daughter into the exhaustive rites of passage) – a princess who had been kidnapped while yet a child and forced to live underground; with this in mind, one of the myriad 'brainwashed' followers (who chant their way to acquiring favours from their leader, even if he only ever selects his minions from the front row!) is actually an old devoted servant of the woman's noble family slain before her very eyes all those years before! An added treat to the spectacle quotient is a typhoon sequence which significantly diminishes the hero's forces (when the Thugs take just this opportunity to unleash their sneak attack!)...but the ultimate triumph of the righteous, especially in time of war (when this was made), is never really in doubt!!
Having just watched Steve Reeves' brawny take on the character and recalling Kabir Bedi's dignified – and definitive – one, I should point out that Luigi Pavese's hot-headed approach (considering the level-headed and downright laid-back attitude of his lieutenant Yanez) has dated quite a bit!; perhaps it was an imposition made by the Fascist regime that Sandokan be fearless and always ready to give his life for the cause...but the protagonist's fighting spirit is not always what one expects it to be, either, since he is shown taking the longest time to dispose of his arch-nemesis in this case!
