GLI AMORI DI ERCOLE (THE LOVES OF HERCULES or HERCULES vs THE HYDRA)

1960/Director: Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia/Writers: Sandro Continenza, Luciano Doria

Cast: Mickey Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield, Massimo Serato, René Dary, Moira Orfei, Gil Vidal

AKA:
Hercules and the Hydra
Les amours d’Hercule (France)

This film has the dubious honor of having remained in my draft folder the longest of any post draft ever. I would have to double check the date but I am sure it goes back to June or July. In fact the post was the last post I had made before my site was hacked back then and a three week nightmare began. I still have the PDFs and pics in a folder on my hard drive and tried to put the post back together and after I had finished this and a couple other posts lost during the hacker period I sort of forgot about them. The others have been completed and this is the last of the old posts that have been locked up in my draft folder since summer time. Another problem here is that I cannot find the movie file. It is burned on a DVD disc somewhere but I have so many I gave up looking for it for now. Typically I would prefer to fast forward through a film I have not seen in a while to refresh my memory before reviewing but in this case that will not happen. I will refer to the PDF files I made of reviews and my memory of the film, since it did leave and impression. In fact, I want to see it again as it is a fine camp classic and Mickey Hargitay’s beardless Hercules is one of the more unique Peplum/Sword and Sandal performances in the history of the genre. Couple that wit the fact that his co-star in the film is none other than Mrs. Mickey Hargitay herself, Janyne Mansfield, and how can a person go wrong if his inclination is to spend a lazy night on the sofa watching some fine Italian made cheese.

MORE OF MICKEY HARGITAY AND JAYNE MANSFIELD IN THE LOVES OF HERCULES HERE >>

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN

A brief mention here about this remarkably odd movie called Colossus and the Amazon Queen (La Regina delle Amazzoni) directed by Vittorio Sala who also co-wrote the script with six other writers. If you brave this piece of cheese you may wonder why it took a total of seven men to scramble this story up. The general gist of the story is about a couple heroes named Pirro (Rod Taylor from The Birds) and Glauco (body builder Ed Fury) who wind up being tricked into becoming house boys on the island of the Amazons. The woman of the island are led by the lovely Amazon Queen herself (Gianna Maria Canale) and her bevy of beauties (Dorian Gray and Daniela Rocca among them). The warrior babes are supplied by cunning rogues with unwitting men who eventually evolve into effeminate acting house slaves. Clashes develop between some of the gals over who will be queen and who get what man, especially hunky Glauco whose presence has set the cold Amazon hearts all a flutter. The usually macho acting Rod Taylor has one the strangest roles of his career here as he plays the prissy acting brains of the duo. His voice is dubbed by another English speaking actor who makes him sound like a real sissy boy.

MORE AMAZON QUEENS HERE >>

HERCULES UNCHAINED (Ercole e la Regina di Lidia)

1959/Director: Pietro Francisci/Writer: Ennio De Concini/Cinematography & Special Effects: Mario Bava

Cast: Steve Reeves, Sylva Koscina, Sylvia Lopez, Gabriele Antonini, Primo Carnera

Also Known As:
Hercule et la reine de Lydie
Hercules Unchained
Hércules e a Raínha
Hércules encadenado
Hércules y la reina de Lidia
Heracles y la reina de Lidea
Hercules and the Queen of Lydia
Hercules and the Queen of Sheba
Herkules ja Lyydian kuningatar
Herkules und die Königin der Amazonen
O iraklis kai i vasilissa tis Lydias

Boy, I’ve been waiting to start this new sword and sandal category for a long time. Also called peplum or pepla as a term that covers the entire category, the Sword and Sandal genre is one of the most ridiculed and maligned in the whole film division of cult cinema. The overly harsh criticisms range from everything like worst movies of all time, inept and amateurish to just downright being ‘homoerotic’. It is as if a film being homoerotic means it will be a bad film. I have seen plenty of great homoerotic films but maybe we can go into that another day. Well, who knows, maybe all these criticisms are true to some degree or another but I have found these films to be some of the most entertaining low budget B-films, long with old serial westerns, I have ever sat down to watch and I have seen quite few. Lately I have been able to locate scores of these online and have around a dozen or so queued up for viewing. I actually began watching these as a wee lad in the late 60’s on Saturday afternoons, at about the time the movement was losing its steam to new genres like Spaghetti Westerns and spy films. They were shown on a afternoon show that was called The Mighty Sons of Hercules and I can still hear the macho theme music in my head as I type this. We had a crappy b/w TV with ‘rabbit ears’ back then and I never saw any of these films until only recently in color.

MORE OF MARIO BAVA AND HERCULES HERE >>