Attila (1954 film)

Attila is a 1954 Italian-French co-production historical drama. Originally titled Attila, il flagello di Dio, it was directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti for Lux Film. An early example of the sword-and-sandal genre, it is based on the life of Attila the Hun, with Anthony Quinn in the title role, Sophia Loren as Honoria, and French star Henri Vidal as the Hun's Roman adversary Flavius Aetius. Irene Papas plays one of Attila's wives, Grune, while the mostly French and Italian supporting cast includes Ettore Manni, Christian Marquand, and Claude Laydu; Scott Marlowe made his screen debut in the film.

The production was an independent attempt by its Italian producers to shoot a film with an American lead in hopes of licensing it to an American studio on lucrative terms, a goal that initially failed. Yet when it was re-released three and a half years later under the shortened title Attila, it launched Joseph E. Levine's career as a distributor of international films and became one of Loren's biggest box-office successes of the 1950s.