Sign Of The Pagan [DVD]

As a boy growing up in the 1970s, I saw "Sign of the Pagan" frequently on TV Movie broadcasts. I absorbed this film as I absorbed anything having to do with history. Jack Palance's performance as Attila exuded villainous power, and he and his daughter make the movie. Jeff Chandler has the less interesting job of portraying the hero, but as usual he does it well. I now have the honor of teaching High School students the history of our Western Civilization. Yes, the film takes liberties with what we believe happened in several ways. But, it's spirit is true to the plight of Late Imperial Christian Rome. Most especially moving is the imagined details of Pope Leo the Great's meeting with Attila. We may never know what was actually said or done, but the King of the Huns did depart from Rome when the Eternal City was at his mercy. Perhaps it was, as this film claimed, Leo overawing Attila with the majesty of God; playing upon the superstitions of any man who so constantly lives with death as did the Hunnic Lord. Or, perhaps, Leo paid a ransom in gold to save Rome. The conversion of Attila's daughter also has depth and rings true to me. Either way, the film brings historic imagination to life in a very powerful scene. If you are interested in a better-than-typical 1950's sword and sandals romp, leavened by a surprising religious sensitivity and some truly scene-chewingly memorable performances, treat yourself. See "Sign of the Pagan". The package may be French, but the default film is pure American English. And, "Star Trek" fans will note that the Hunnic Horde invades the Kirk-Gorn rocks as well as the Castle on Rigel VII where Christoper Pike fought the Taylor, and even the outpost on Cestus III (also the village from "A Private Little War", less the Mugatu). And, Kang (Hank Ansara) assisted Attila.

When ordering this movie, make sure you convert you DVD Player to Region 1 or 0, it's very simple, depending on what type you have, just get the code

Nothing to dislike. It arrived on 12-23. Sound & picture quality are very good. Most critics panned this movie when it was released, and probably would today. It it still one of my favorite films.

This is not a review of the product. It is a warning to potential buyers. The description lists this French Blu-Ray import as an A/B/C All region disk. There is a DVD version included, which is exclusively PAL. That much I understood, but when I tried to play the A/B/C Blu-Ray disk, the Universal logo appeared. So far, so good. It was then followed by an announcement in French about the film (“The Sign Of The Pagan”). Then the screen went BLACK, and the counter stopped. (No Menu appeared.) I got the same result on two other Blu-Ray players (of recent vintage). Upon examining the back of the box, there was no written mention about A/B/C All Region at all, as I have come to expect from Australian and Spanish All Region Blu-Ray releases. It instead reads PAL. Period. I then Googled the product’s complete Cover image and it corresponds to the box I was holding in front of me, and to ALL product illustrations on every website offering it for sale. Question: Does anyone have a different experience with this particular product? Does it play on any Region One player? Or did I simply get a defective disk? Or is this French Import really A/B/C? It definitely is PAL, but that’s not how they are advertising it. And none of the sellers are showing the back of the box where the Logo for A/B/C should be. Needless to say I returned the product and got a refund. The One-Star is not awarded as criticism of the film or the DVD. It is simply that there is no other choice (like No Stars), and I couldn't give 3 or 5 Stars to something I did not get to see.

Great quality picture and audio and excellent movie

Sign of the Pagan is not quite the embarrassment you might expect when you combine Douglas Sirk (who wanted to film Tamurlain the Great instead), Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance in one of the few films set in the Eastern Roman Empire. This time it's not Chandler but Palance who blacks up as Attila the Hun, and surprisingly good he is too, making the most of the sometimes surprisingly literate dialog in one of his more controlled performances. History barely gets a look in - you can take it as read that there was an Atilla the Hun and a divided Roman Empire and ignore absolutely everything else, including the final battle that never happened - and the Universal backlot gets more use than does the film much good (Rome is represented by Falworth Castle - as in The Back Shield of - while anyone who's ever taken the Universal Studios tour will recognise the Mexican village standing in for a Roman settlement), but somehow the film remains resolutely watchable amid all the hokum. Strange to note of a Sirk film, but here it's the women in the cast who come off worst, although only Palance really shines among the C-listers with an intriguing portrait of Attila as much a liberator as a conqueror, at once riven by superstition but defying his destiny as he cannily reinterprets omens of doom as signs of impending victory to rally his men on his path to destruction. The Spanish DVD is only a fullframe version, but it's worth seeking out the German release from Koch Media, which offers both the CinemaScope version and the simultaneously filmed 'flat' fullframe version with English or German soundtrack options. Rather than a panned and scanned version, the flat version was shot in fullframe at the same time for cinemas that had yet to convert to CinemaScope and is made up of different takes that are sometimes edited quite differently to the widescreen version, making for an interesting comparison. While the `flat' version has much better picture quality, the performances are generally fresher and better in the Scope version, making it the stronger of the two. There's been some criticism of the non-anamorphic transfer of the widescreen version, but since Universal could no longer find a widescreen copy in their archive and Koch had to source it from a print, it's probably as good as we're likely to get at the moment, especially since Universal had no interest in releasing this themselves. The original theatrical trailer is also included (taken from the fullframe version of the film but promoting the CinemaScope version) as well as the German trailer and a stills and poster gallery.

Might not be historicly correct but I still enjoyed it

Jack Palance makes a great Attila the Hun and Jeff Chandler is always a good leading man. Better than average quality for this type of film, kind of pre-peplum. Directed by Douglas Sirk

Ce film est plaisant à visionner, malgré les invraisemblances qui n'ont rien à voir avec la réalité, de surcroit, ma chère épouse n'a pas pu voir ce film, car uniquement en VO, et qu'elle ne peut pas lire les sous-titres. Donc, Amazon à mal été informé. Ni le BRD, ni le DVD sont en audio français, uniquement en anglais. Pourtant l'éditeur Eléphant Film, précise bien sur la jaquette que le DVD est en audio français. J'ai appris par un de mes amis que les premier exemplaires édités comportaient ce "problème, et que de nouvelles éditions ont été éditées avec cette version en français. Donc, si vous désirez vraiment cette dernière, adressez vous à votre vendeur, qui doit absolument vous reprendre l'article ayant ce défaut, et vous le remplacer avec cette fois la version en français. Par contre pour le Blu-ray, il parait que c'est normal qu'en VO.

Good old film worth a watch.

Finally a both Cinemascope and Standard copy of Sign Of The Pagan,each were filmed separately because Universal was unsure that Cinemascope would be a hit with Movie Theaters.Needless to say Cinemascope became the standard. Both versions are in fine shape,just too bad the Cinemascope version does not come with the 4 track Stereophonic soundtrack.I know it had a Stereophonic soundtrack because I saw it in 1954 in Cinemascope and Stereophonic Sound.

A gift for a relative bringing back memories of those famous actors

Good color, but poor resolution . In the right aspect ratio , but we expect more Blu-ray. It is also puzzling why there are no French language track (not that I need one). Is the distributor of this title are waiting for the buyers to read French subtitles ? Bonne couleur , mais une mauvaise résolution . Dans le bon ratio d'aspect , mais on attend plus de Blu-ray . Il est également déconcertant pourquoi il n'y a pas de piste de langue française (pas que je besoin d'un ) . Est-ce que le distributeur de ce titre attendent les acheteurs français à lire les sous-titres ?