Review of Slave Queen of Babylon

For some unknown reason, this film has undeservedly sunk into obscurity. It is a lavish, dramatic tale of the legendary Semiramis, Queen of Babylon. According to this version, she is an unscrupulous, faithless schemer of boundless ambition, whose manipulation and successful plots propel her to the height of power by sweeping away all her opponents, often literally over their dead bodies. (King Ninurte and General Omnos are cases in point.) Aiding and abetting her cleverness and statecraft is the asset of her great beauty. Yvonne Furneaux has seldom been more alluring or fascinating than she is in this role, no doubt her best. John Ericson is fine as the handsome, stalwart enemy King Kir of the Dardanians, the object of both her possessive love and her hate. Germano Longo is excellent as the ill-fated Assyrian general she manipulates and uses until his ultimate doom. The script is a good one, the action is brisk and the sets and costumes are lavish and befitting royal Assyrian extravagance. Unfortunately there is no complete English print available at this time. The only one floating around is badly chopped and edited, but there are excellent German and Italian prints that can be obtained. "I, Semiramis" is definitely one of the better epic films which still holds up well. It cries out to be restored and made available again for a new generation of viewers.