Herkules, Samson und Odysseus

This is another film directed by Pietro Francisci of Hercules and Hercules Unchained with Steve Reeves. This time Kirk Morris fills the role adequately but not quite like SR. It has the same style and some of the scenes are quite entertaining. Hercules and Samson battle with 1 ton blocks like they were rocks in the ruins. The palace in Gaza with the bolting doors is interesting. It is an Italian classic B movie, the type they used to show on a Saturday morning. There are some pretty scenes of ancient greek beautiful classical women waiting for their men to return on the beaches. Entertaining if you take it for what it is, another Italian muscleman fantasy. Not bad but not on video, look for it on the cable channels.

In Ithaca, Hercules (Kirk Morris) lives leisurely at the court of King Laertes, father of Ulysses. Fishermen come to court begging for help to fight a sea monster. Hercules sets off on a ship and Ulysses eagerly joins the expedition. Their ship sinks and the survivors land in Judea. They get mixed up in a fight between ruthless ruler Saran of Gaza and Jewish rebels championed by Samson. Delilah is the manipulative Philistine Queen.

It's an Italian sword and sandal epic. It's also a mash-up of Greek and Jewish stories. It reminds me of Batman v Superman. It is very much a movie of its B-genre. It's actually enjoyable as an action B-movie. I am certain about one thing. Samson needs longer hair. A stumpy ponytail is not enough.

And just caught it again on television this morning, 1 May 2018. Fifty-five years later, it's still classic high camp. Ah, memories.... One detail that escaped me the first time is that the Philistines are all wearing World War II German helmets. I guess there were a few of them available in Italy in 1963.

This movie, like all its Italian muscleman predecessors, is so good-natured, sincere, and well- meaning that it's impossible not to be charmed by it. The windy, overblown score makes every little thing anyone does sound like the most majestic, wondrous thing ever experienced. Whenever Samson or Hercules throws a spear or a lasso it makes a cartoonish whistling noise to show that this was a SUPER throw, not some puny mortal toss. It makes one with he could move to Ithaca, wear one of those manly costumes (and fill it out properly), and bask in the sunshine and the smiling benevolence of Hercules and his companions. Best not to hang out with Samson though, You can tell by the look on his face in the final scene that he senses things are about to go badly wrong for him. Beware of Delilah!

TCM often shows films not available on video, and this, such a film, is most interesting.

As the sword and sandal craze dwindled this was unloaded onto the matinée market by MGM in 1965. Strongman Kirk Morris plays the lead Hercules, assisted by crafty Ulysses and equally powerful Samson against the evil ruler of Gaza.

This is actually a weirdly absorbing movie, as I found myself wanting to see it to the conclusion. The plot is rather complex, with double-crosses, duels to the death and some attractive scenery. As is to be expected, dubbing makes all of the action somewhat hard to follow. The larger-than-life characters are acted with gusto. I hope we see a DVD of this someday...