The hundred knights
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The hundred knights |
| Original title | I cento cavalieri / Los cien caballeros |
| Country of production |
Italy Spain Germany |
| original language |
Italian Spanish German |
| Publishing year | 1964 |
| length | 88/125 (German version), 110 (international version) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Vittorio Cottafavi |
| script | Vittorio Cottafavi Giorgio Prosperi Enrico Ribulsi José María Otero |
| production |
Alfons Carcasona Fernando Lázaro |
| music |
Peter Thomas (German version) Antonio Pérez Olea (Italian-Spanish version) |
| camera | Francisco Marín |
| cut |
Alfred Srp (German version) Maurizio Lucidi (Italian version) |
| occupation | |
| |
The Hundred Knights is an Italian-Spanish-German historical and adventure film from 1964, set in the Middle Ages. The leading roles feature an international cast, led by Mark Damon , Antonella Lualdi and Wolfgang Preiss .
action
The story takes place around the year 1000 in Spain. The land is occupied by the infidels from the Orient, the Moors , and groans under their oppression of the native Castilians . A handful of Spanish aristocrats under the leadership of Don Fernando Herrera y Menendez, son of the legendary Moorish fighter Cid , decide to drive the foreigners out of the country for good. This is the starting point of the following story:
The young nobleman gathered a troop of a hundred courageous and mounted noblemen around him and decided to attack the outnumbered Moors. They had previously brought the barrel to overflowing when several hundred Muslim occupiers under the leadership of Sheikh Abengalbón invaded a village on the edge of the Mancha and tried to extort considerable taxes from the city's mayor, Alcalde Alfonso Ordoñez. The Moors rob the farmers of the grain, so that starvation is imminent. When some locals defend themselves against the harassment, the Arabs take hostages and subject them to well torture. In order to protect his village from desecration and further looting, the Alcalde finally gives in to the attempts at pressure. On the other hand, his daughter Sancha, who had promised the richest landowner in the area, Don Jaime Badaloz, was completely rebel and wanted to oppose these exploitative demands of the infidels and became Don Fernando's ally. Sancha's little sister Laurencia, in turn, has fallen in love with the sheikh's son, Halaf. The monks of the nearby monastery have meanwhile joined the rebels and want to offer resistance, albeit in a more peaceful (and, as they believe, more effective) way than the 100 knights.
Don Fernando gathers his people in front of the city for the decisive battle against the Moorish occupiers. To ensure his victory, he forms a questionable alliance with a gang of muggers. Their leader, Don Felipe, becomes Fernando's deputy. The first onslaught on the unbelievers is expected and successfully fended off. From then on, the hundred knights don't give up any more. In order to be able to protect himself better, Sheikh Abengalbón expelled the monks from the monastery and captured the monastery in order to develop it into a defensive fortress. Fernando knows that the next attack on the Mohammedans must be better prepared and better coordinated with his temporary ally, Felipe. Before the following attack can be ridden, one's own people, including numerous peasants and petty bourgeois inexperienced in combat, must be better trained in weaponry, strategy and tactics.
In the meantime, landowner Don Jaime tries to convince the unruly bride-to-be, Sancha, to stop rebelling against the occupiers and instead to collaborate with them. This demand only alienates the beautiful mayor's daughter from Jaime, especially since she has long since lost her heart to the brave and proud rebel leader Don Fernando. It hits her little sister Laurencia much harder. She is torn between loyalty to her own and her love for the sheikh son Halaf. The sheikh, in turn, makes violent reproaches to his offspring about his choice of bride. In an act of desperation, in order to create peace in this way, Halaf challenges Don Fernando to a man-to-man duel, and loses it. Thereupon it comes to the decisive battle between Fernando's knights and the moors of the sheikh in the fields in front of the place. The monks brutally expelled by the Arabs have now openly sided with the Castilian patriots. Don Felipe is wounded in battle and the sheikh is defeated by Fernando. The reign of terror of the Arab infidels over Spain has finally come to an end. The surviving Moors are allowed to stay if they are willing to coexist peacefully with the local people. Halaf is allowed to marry his Laurencia, and Sancha finally gets her Fernando.
Production notes
The Hundred Knights was created in Castile, at Coca Castle , around La Pedriza and in Pedraza , and was premiered in Italy on December 30, 1964. In co-producing Spain, the film did not open until the following year. The German premiere of the film, which was never shown in cinemas in this country, took place on August 24, 1994 on the TV station Pro7 .
Franz Thierry from the co-producing German International Germania-Film (Cologne) was in charge of production. Ramiro Gómez designed the film structures, assisted by Wolfgang Burmann . The costumes are by Vittorio Rossi.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films saw the film as "an eventful conversation, briskly staged and well photographed, which strikes both patriotic and pacifist tones."
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Hundred Knights. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 1, 2018 .
Web links
- The hundred knights in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The hundred knights at filmportal.de