The IMDB lists over three-dozen adaptations of Mr. Salgari's works, films as well as several TV mini series. There have also been several documntaries and animated series. For a full list of films check out the filmography or get a list of selected adapted works at www.imdb.com.  
Cabiria (1914) Il corsaro nero 1936
An Italian masterpiece Palermi's classic swashbuckler
There is some debate as to the first adaptation of Salgari's novels. Cabiria directed by Giovanni Pastrone bears many similarities to Emilio Salgari's 1908 adventure novel Cartagine in Fiamme (Carthage is Burning). Salgari, however, was never credited, Gabriele D'Annunzio being billed as the official screenwriter. In fact D'Annunzio had been brought on board to help revise the film once it had been shot, earning the credit by changing the title to Cabiria, changing the name of some of the characters and rewriting the captions, using more grandiloquent expressions than those employed by Pastrone. The three-hour movie with its grand proportions and cast of thousands created a sensation throughout Italy. It pioneered epic screen production and foreshadowed the work of D.W. Griffith, Eisenstein and others.

Just as Hollywood had its pirate swashbuckling era in the 20s, 30s and 40s, the early days of the Italian film industry brought many a high sea adventure to the screen. Mr. Salgari's Corsair adventures have been the basis for over 20 films, including 8 adaptations of The Black Corsair. In the 1920s Vitale De Stefano made a series of silent films based on Il corsaro nero and it's sequels. Amleto Palermi's version spared no expense. Ships were built specifically for the movie, the director filming a live boardin raid. It was popular throughout Italy and Latin America and subsequently remade as El corsario negro by Chano Urueta in Mexico in the 1940s.
     
Kabir Bedi Steve Reeves
Sandokan defined Hercules turns Malay Pirate
Just as Sean Connery is considered to be the quintessential James Bond, so Kabir Bedi is considered to be the ultimate Sandokan. When the 1976 RAI mini series Sandokan debuted, Kabir became an overnight sensation. He became so popular that he was often mobbed by fans. At airports throughout Europe, women would bare their thighs for his autograph. He starred in two sequels The Return of Sandokan (1996) and The Son of Sandokan (1998). He also played the vengeance driven lead Emilio di Roccanera in Il corsaro nero (1976). After a series of films where he played classic heroes in ancient Greece and Rome, Steve Reeves turned in his sword and sandals to lead a band of Dyaks, Malays and Borneans against a corrupt British colonial ruler in 1963's Sandokan the Great. Umberto Lenzi's film proved popular enough to spawn the 1964 sequel The Pirates of The Seven Seas, where Steve Reeves once again played the legendary 'Tiger of Malaysia.' He also appeared as Morgan in Primo Zeglio's Morgan The Pirate a 1961 Salgari knockoff.
                             
Ray Danton Lex Barker
Another Hollywood leading man in Italy... Tarzan explores a different jungle
In the mid sixties Luigi Capuano directed two Sandokan adventures and cast handsome leading man Ray Danton to play the 'Tiger of Malaysia' in Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak (aka Throne of Vengeance.) He reprised the role along with most of the original cast in Sandokan Fights Back (aka The Conqueror and the Empress) later that same year. Guy Madison played Yanez in boith films and would later go on to play the evil Suyodhana in the Salgari inspired Mystery of Thug Island.   In The Mystery of the Black Jungle (1953) Lex Barker played the intrepid Bengali tiger hunter Tremal-Naik fighting for the life of his beloved gainst the dreaded Thugs of the Kali cult. A "B movie" it later spawned the sequel The Black Devils of Kali (1955). He also played Enrico di Ventimiglia in another Salgari adapted swashbuckler Son of the Red Corsair (1958). Steven Spielberg later brought the cult back to the screen in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
                     
 

Click on an image to view one of our pop culture tribute galleries

  
© 2007 ROH Press All Rights Reserved.
Comments? Questions? Email info@rohpress.com