The Queen of Sheba (1952)

I think the fact that this is in black and white helps it enormously. So often the poor quality of the image distracts from these Italian-made adventure films and tends to render them all but unwatchable. This one benefits also from decent story to underpin the, admittedly, pretty mediocre acting. The young prince "Rehoboam" (Gino Leurini) finds himself posing as an agent of Gad (not God) at the court of the legendary Balkis, Queen of Sheba (Leonoro Ruffo) who has sworn never to feel the touch of man. Of course the two fall in love, much to the chagrin of her army commander "Kabaal" (Franco Silva) and from now on in, the film follows a fairly predictable route of deceit, revenge and plotting. I could have done with a little more action and Leurini looks faintly ridiculous with a moustache that looks more like an early example of botox gone wrong; but the whole thing is actually quite well paced with some decent attention to the look of the film. The ending is a bit flat - be warned, but it passes 90 minutes amiably enough.