JohnHowardReid Copyright 1956 by Warwick Film Productions. Released worldwide through Columbia Pictures. New York opening at the Globe: 26 December 1956. U.S. release: January 1957. U.K. release: 11 February 1957. Australian release: 12 April 1957. Sydney opening at the Capitol (ran one week). Original running time: 99 minutes. Censored to 94 minutes (USA), 95 minutes (UK), 97 minutes (Aust).COMMENT: Anita Ekberg was a popular pin-up beauty of the 1950s. Popular in just about all countries except Australia. Here, aside from me, she had virtually no following at all. I remember watching her cavort through Zarak at Sydney's Capitol back in April 1957. The Capitol was a huge place — in fact it was Sydney's largest cinema — but at the session I attended no more than 23 of its 2,773 seats were occupied. Yet up the road at the Prince Edward, Audrey Hepburn was pulling in capacity crowds with War and Peace. And this despite the fact that Miss Ekberg's dance to the strains of "Climb Up the Wall" had censors worldwide reaching for their scissors and splicing cement. In fact the number was completely deleted in New Zealand and drastically pruned in the United States. These facts were thoroughly publicized, but Australian picture-goers regarded Miss Ekberg with contempt. Despite more publicity than Marilyn Monroe, she didn't rate a single success in Australia (unless of course you count "War and Peace"). Aside from La Dolce Vita and Four for Texas, Oz receipts from her starring movies didn't even cover their advertising expenses.Well, as I say, I quite enjoyed this Boy's Own Paper tale of the British Raj skirmishing with outlaws on the Peshawar Frontier, when I first saw it on the Capitol's giant CinemaScope screen. And Miss Ekberg's dance turn proved an absolute delight.But, sad to say, Zarak has not improved with age. Miss Ekberg's number now looks so innocuous, we wonder how on earth censors from Aabenraa to Zyrardow were so myopic as to create such explosive flak. And as for the rest of the players: Victor Mature with his agonizing facial contortions that passed for "acting" in the mid- 50s, and stolid British actors like Finlay Currie and Bernard Miles so obviously uncomfortable in greasepaint... Admittedly, the players were hampered by ridiculous dialogue and a dreary plot. Of course the general ineptness of Mr Young's direction was no help either. And all that obvious inter-cutting of genuine action and location footage with incredibly banal studio interiors. Not very exciting to begin with, and that murky grainy, early CinemaScope photography makes everything look even worse.Hard to credit that no less than three units contributed to this lackluster mess. Young and Wilcox presumably headed the main unit, while Canutt supplied the half-hearted action footage. Heaven knows what Gilling and his unit did – and frankly I can't see any eager- tailed researchers pressing him to find out. Perhaps the DVD distributors are right. Perhaps "Zarak" is best forgotten.

bkoganbing Victor Mature puts on a turban and grows a beard to star as the title character in Zarak. It's the story of the eldest son of a clan chief who betrays his father with the father's youngest bride played by the Swedish Anita Ekberg. Just another case of an obviously Cauacasian woman playing an exotic Oriental and just by looks not carrying it off too well. Still she does what she can, Maureen O'Hara knew best of all how Anita felt cast in something like Zarak.After being banished from the tribe, Mature becomes a bandit chief and the scourge of the territory in what is now Pakistan. Michael Wilding is sent to bring in Mature dead or alive, but other tribes are starting to get restless.It maybe set in what was the real India then, but Zarak plays like an eastern western. Finlay Currie plays a mullah who pops in and out of the film at critical points in our protagonist's life. He's quite the saintly figure, more like a Christian saint than a Moslem one.All in all a routine action film that fans of Victor Mature will appreciate.

gerard herzhaft although I was just a teenager when I saw Zarak, I remember very fondly this excellent film, notably the unbelievable Anita Ekberg's dance, certainly one of the most thrilling piece of eroticism of all British films. Director Terence Young was certainly a master of blending sex appeal with action as testified by his latter films (Safari, Dr No...) Ms Ekberg who certainly is the main attraction of the film is not the only one: Victor Mature as Zarak, an afghan rebel (!) is excellent as usual and the British officers are stiff to the point that they look only at Mature and not at Anita Ekberg. Can you believe it? What is amazing me is how such a cult film which has strong fans all over the world lay unissued and can't be seen anymore. When someone somewhere will at last publish this little gem on DVD?

Nazi_Fighter_David In "Zarak", Victor Mature didn't take his own acting ability too seriously... but he had a special sense of humor and the art to play the mighty outlaw of the territory with great bravery and courage...Zarak Khan is in love with Salma... Salma is one of the wives of his hateful and offensive father Hajji Khan (Frederick Valk). Salma is the statuesque and voluptuous blonde Anita Ekberg, who remains the impossible love of the mighty rebel...Anita Ekberg burns up the screen with her sexy figure... She looks so radiant and beautiful in her oriental gown, it really flatters her figure... Anita, as always, is tasty and juicy, but acting is not something that she excels in... Her zest is evident in her romantic scenes with Mature, but she stands exposed in places that require serious emoting... The one dimensional portrayal of all the characters is something common to the genre... Michael Wilding is not bad as the British political officer in pursuit of Zarak...Shot in Morocco, and photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, "Zarak" is somewhat an entertaining adventure...