The Tartars (1961)

A Viking chief (Victor Mature) slays the leader (Folco Lulli) of the Russian Tartars and takes his daughter (Bella Cortez) hostage. The Tartar overlord (Orson Welles) retaliates by taking the Viking's wife (Liana Orfei) as his hostage which spurs an all out war. Directed by Richard Thorpe (IVANHOE), the film is a plodding action adventure movie. Orson Welles described it as a perfect drive in movie and he's not far off though I wouldn't have used the word perfect. The darkly brooding Mature seems miscast as a Viking but the corpulent Welles makes for a satisfactory Tartar villain. Shot in what was then Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) in the wide screen process called Totalscope, the fight and battle scenes are well done but Thorpe languishes unnecessarily over establishing shots which slows down the action. With Liana Orfei and Luciano Mann.