SIGN OF THE PAGAN is an historical curiosity in more ways than one. The director is Douglas Sirk, more normally at home with lush melodramas such as MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION or WRITTEN ON THE WIND. This film was made for Twentieth Century-Fox rather than Universal, and shot on a low budget. Nonetheless, with the help of his regular cinematographer Russell Metty, Sirk manages to create some memorable set pieces, especially when he depicts the movement of Atilla the Hun's (Jack Palance's) army on its doomed trek to Rome.
Perhaps more so than any other epic, except perhaps for QUO VADIS? (1951), this film preaches an explicitly Christian message. Atilla's attempts to take over the Roman Empire are doomed, not because of any lack of valor on his part, but because he cannot challenge the will of God. His regular astrologer (Eduard Franz) counsels him not to pursue his campaign, but he ignores the advice in the belief that to turn back would represent a betrayal of his masculinity. In the end, however, the struggle to carry on becomes too much, and he does turn back, only to meet a violent and bloody end. Palance transforms Atilla into a complex character, one who likes to maintain an aggressive facade, mistreating his women (Rita Gam, Allison Hayes) and exchanging aggressive banter with his men. In truth, however, he is genuinely apprehensive of God's wrath, despite his pretensions to the contrary. In his frustration - at not being able to fulfill his intended quest - he throws a dagger at his daughter and kills her stone dead.
Jeff Chandler is predictably wooden as the good guy, the Roman Marcian. He doesn't have to do much, other than to show loyalty to his ruler and insist on the power of Christianity to save everyone he commands, soldier and civilian alike. Despite being heavily outnumbered, God is on their side.
The settings are predictably orientalist: medieval Constantinople is represented as a city full of eastern promise with muezzins in the background and oriental music playing on the pipes. The female slaves wear long baggy silk pants; their male counterparts have bare torsos. The Roman colonizers lie down on expensive mattresses eating fresh fruit and ordering a variety of entertainments including gladiator-fighting. Such tropes were characteristic of the Hollywood representation of Turkey from the 1920s on.
As a piece of mid-Fifties propaganda celebrating the American way in opposition to alternative lifestyles (here denounced as "pagan") including communism, SIGN OF THE PAGAN is an intriguing historical document, enlivened by Palance's colorful performance.
Perhaps more so than any other epic, except perhaps for QUO VADIS? (1951), this film preaches an explicitly Christian message. Atilla's attempts to take over the Roman Empire are doomed, not because of any lack of valor on his part, but because he cannot challenge the will of God. His regular astrologer (Eduard Franz) counsels him not to pursue his campaign, but he ignores the advice in the belief that to turn back would represent a betrayal of his masculinity. In the end, however, the struggle to carry on becomes too much, and he does turn back, only to meet a violent and bloody end. Palance transforms Atilla into a complex character, one who likes to maintain an aggressive facade, mistreating his women (Rita Gam, Allison Hayes) and exchanging aggressive banter with his men. In truth, however, he is genuinely apprehensive of God's wrath, despite his pretensions to the contrary. In his frustration - at not being able to fulfill his intended quest - he throws a dagger at his daughter and kills her stone dead.
Jeff Chandler is predictably wooden as the good guy, the Roman Marcian. He doesn't have to do much, other than to show loyalty to his ruler and insist on the power of Christianity to save everyone he commands, soldier and civilian alike. Despite being heavily outnumbered, God is on their side.
The settings are predictably orientalist: medieval Constantinople is represented as a city full of eastern promise with muezzins in the background and oriental music playing on the pipes. The female slaves wear long baggy silk pants; their male counterparts have bare torsos. The Roman colonizers lie down on expensive mattresses eating fresh fruit and ordering a variety of entertainments including gladiator-fighting. Such tropes were characteristic of the Hollywood representation of Turkey from the 1920s on.
As a piece of mid-Fifties propaganda celebrating the American way in opposition to alternative lifestyles (here denounced as "pagan") including communism, SIGN OF THE PAGAN is an intriguing historical document, enlivened by Palance's colorful performance.