La vendetta di Ercole

Broderick Crawford is a slimy politician in a toga and Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) is muscleman Goliath in this kitsch epic from Italy, exploited to the max in the U.S. by American International pictures during the drive-in heydays of the late 50's and early 60's. This one's quite a potboiler, with a various assortment of cheesy monster creations (including some very brief stop-motion footage by Jim Danforth), the usual buxom babes with big Roman hairdos and, of course, the solid and stiff muscleman hero performing various feats of strength (like wrestling a bear suit and, rather impressively, genuinely warding off a real elephant!). It's all a lot of nostalgic fun and the new DVD release is a revelation in quality, bringing back the bright color and widescreen TotalScope ratio of the original theatrical presentation. The DVD is also packed with campy tributes to the whole muscleman, sword-and-sandal genre, including a gallery of trailers, shorts and even an entire second strongman feature, the truly ridiculous CONQUERER OF ATLANTIS! Get ready for a great late-night schlockfest with this package!