Robin Hood of the Middle East
Omar (Alberto Farnese) an evil tyrant is looking to kill off all of his adversaries and marry Fawzia (Cristina Gaioni) the niece of the currant Khadive before then taking over as Khadive. But Omar's plans don't end their as he then plans to get rid of Fawzia and replace her with another woman of his choosing and Omar has an eye for attractive woman such as Laila (Maria Grazia Spina). But when he ends up killing Laila he causes her brother Kerim (Gordon Scott) to vow vengeance and becomes a mysterious Robin Hood style figure known as the Black Sheik, going from tribe to tribe to unite them against Omar.
Well I didn't expect that from an Italian sword and sandal movie but "Kerim, Son of the Sheik" had a bit of an epic quality. The opening scenes were surprisingly shot on a wide angle taking in the expanse of the setting and with bits going on all over the place there is something quite impressive about the visual scale of this movie. Yes the sharpness of the image is lacking but scenes such as when three men ride through a poor settling and hundreds of people swarm around them is more than you expect from a movie which I doubt many people will have heard of.
But once you look past the impressive scale of "Kerim, Son of the Sheik" what we have is as I alluded to, a bit of a Robin Hood style movie with Kerim wanting revenge for this sister's death and so goes about uniting the tribes to rally against Omar. Of course things cannot be that simple and in typical Robin Hood style not only do we get some romance but Kerim doesn't get things all his way when it comes to his attack on Omar. It is entertaining enough but "Kerim, Son of the Sheik" is in truth the sort of movie you can guess will play out in a certain way the minute Kerim vows revenge.
On the subject of Kerim, well Gordon Scott spends a lot of the movie behind a mask of sorts as he secretly goes about his business as the Black Sheik but eventually ends up shirtless which in truth is what you expect from this sort of movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Kerim, Son of the Sheik" is an entertaining movie but is nothing special with the most impressive aspect of it is a surprising sense of scale which gives it a bit of an epic quality.
