source: Sign of the Pagan

Moviecut—Sign of the Pagan

Sign of the Pagan

This movie can no more be taken as history than Gladiator, but it is entertaining. You can take it as a might of been as it sets the scene in the Roman Empire as Attila the Hun was menacing invasion. Jack Palance does a fine job as Attila. By the way his name is pronounced At-ill-a not A-Till-a. I gave it a 7/10.

I've watched this movie on the Late Show as a child. To me Jack Palance is the ultimate Attila. He portrays barbarians well in movies as in The Mongols opposite Anita Ekberg. Jeff Chandler's untimely death at an early age is a great loss to for his career was on the up and up. The only survivors of this movie are Rita Gam and Michael Ansara. I saw another movie about Attila which I did not like. Maybe the the producers were trying to be more accurate about character. I taped this movie before AMC changed their format. AMC did show lots of old films especially those made by UNIVERSAL and they did show lots of Jeff CHandler flicks. I love swords and sandals movies and I hope one day this movie will be released on DVD.

Made the same year as another sword and sandal movie dealing with the same subject ,"Attila Flagello Di Dio" (starring Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren),it is an icily impersonal movie from Douglas Sirk.It's watchable ,but it could have been done by anyone at all.Sirk's métier was melodrama (he was the master of the genre in the fifties) and western ("Taza,son of Cochise" ) and epics are not obviously his forte. Although Jack Palance was potentially as ideal as Anthony Quinn to portray the king of the Huns,the screenwriters made him a too polite ,too sentimental ,not bestial enough character (just compare with Anthony Quinn's performance,in a movie which was not better though). Sirk did not seem to put of lot of effort into his work:"Christian" best describes it:the thunderbolt,the Roman talking about the Virgin and her son to the pagan daughter ,the pope 's intervention (there's a similar scene in the Italian movie),the final victory which was given by "their" God...

Even for an epic, at 92 minutes this movie is quite short, but hey it is a very enjoyable movie regardless. Yes even with the occasionally muddled plot and dull performance of Jeff Chandler. Sign of the Pagan is an example of a movie that is strikingly photographed in early CinemaScope, lustily staged by the director Douglas Sirk and terrifically scored. And there is some nice dialogue as well, not Oscar-worthy material perhaps but nice enough and the pacing wasn't too bad either. It is the performance of Jack Palance though that takes centre stage, he portrays Atila the King of the Huns as a ruthless and ferocious barbarian, and Palance seems to be having a whale of a time, it was quite simply a hugely enjoyable performance. Overall, not absolutely brilliant but very enjoyable even with its faults. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is not exactly great, but it is probably my personal favorite. And it's all because of Jack Palance's performance as Attila the Hun. I just love Jack Palance. He is one of Hollywoods first real tough guys. Before Stallone and Van Damme, there was Palance. It is sad that his early films have been sort of forgotten. They were classics. And "Sign of the Pagan" was one of his finests acting jobs. He played the part like he was born for it. All the other characters in the film were far less colorful. He stole the show! The story of the movie is definitely more Hollywood then history. And the real Attila the Hun was a dwarf. But that's okay, it still is most enjoyable. I've watched it maybe about 100 times. I don't think most people will want to do that. However, the princess is a mighty hot looking babe with a fine body. She could dance for me anytime. Attlia gets to kiss her too. Lucky Guy!

An enjoyable spectacle, though some of the plot was a bit unconvincing. For a tough guy, Marcian was very eager to volunteer details of his mission when he was captured by Attila, and I don't know he he got intelligence of the pagan hordes' move on Rome and was able to rush some of his troops to its defence across considerable distances. And I was also puzzled by how Attila came to be in awe of Christianity. But Palance made an excellent Hun, and was every bit as good a villain as he was in Shane and Arrowhead. And Chandler has never looked better, thanks to his Roman armour and longer hair than usual. It was also fun to try to recognise lesser actors such as Pat Hogan and Leo Gordon in their barbarous costumes. A good 90 minutes of entertainment.