Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan

Bold as the fiery women of Atlanta, as explosive as Attila bursting out of the Balkans to ram his savage troops against all Europe- filmdom's greatest sword and sandal Titan- Samson(Machiste) faces and wins the cinema's most spectacular battle as he performs his 7 Miracles of the World in Colorscope and Stereophonic sound. Ancient Rome vividly comes alive as every nickle of the 4-million dollar budget is on the screen. enough of the P.R. from 1961, it's a poorly-dubbed overacted absolutely standard muscleman pic from the factory.......after failing with the original title, it was re-released often and often on triple-bills with Samson and 7 Miracles the most successful, and dishonest.

SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD stars Gordon Scott as Maciste / Samson, the bipedal piledriver of the title. Set in China, those Mongols are up to mischief again.

Enter Samson, knocking over a tree, and tossing bad guys like dolls, before teaching a sedated -stuffed?- tiger a lesson. This allows him to save an abducted prince. Samson sets out to right the wrongs of Asia, finding ample opportunity to stand around shiny and shirtless in his red mini-skirt.

It's not long before Sam rescues a princess (Yoko Tani) as well! Needless to say, this involves swinging large objects, and tossing men around like packing pellets. Garak (Leonardo Severini), the Mongol leader, is not amused, and causes big trouble for Big S.

A thrilling adventure involving a hermit, death, and a dramatic resurrection unfolds, leading to the dynamite denouement, when Samson sends Mongols flying like dandelion seeds!

Entertaining throughout its running time, this movie rivals the Hercules epics!...

Its not high art but it is highly entertaining. One of the many retitled Maciste films about a muscle man who wanders the world and helps out people in need. This time he's in China and helps a country find freedom by literally ringing the bell of freedom. It has a couple of good fights, the hero saving men buried up to their heads from having chariots with bladed wheels from running over them and of course the classic causing an earthquake as he frees himself from his burial place in a mountain. It has exotic locals and takes itself just seriously enough that you can buy whats going on. If you get the chance try it.

Not bad as far as peplum goes, with former Tarzan Gordon Scott plying his trade as Maciste (or Samson in the English dub), go-to man of steel helping a Chinese princess (Tani) return to her people after she's captured by the evil Garak (Severini) who then wages war upon the poor villagers and Monks to retrieve her and his pride.

Scott is capable and ably supported by French-Japanese actress Yoko Tani, while French beauty Helene Chanel belies her youth in a physically demanding role of the imperial turncoat who helps Maciste smuggle the Princess out of the fortified compound in which she's held.

Stuntwork is creditable and there's a chariot-execution scene in which big Gordo flexes his frame to save the heads of a few petty thieves, but otherwise, it's very much more of the same. As usual, the sets and costumes are lavish and if you're partial to peplum movies, then this Maciste instalment should be mildly entertaining.

It's Gordon Scott who dons the loin cloth here as he tries to save the young Chinese Princess (Yôko Tani) from a fate worse than death. She is the daughter of the murdered Emperor and a much prized asset for the leader of the Mongols (Leonardo Severini) to consolidate his power. Luckily for her, our intrepid hero arrives just in time to save her brother "Tai Sing" (Chu Lai Chit) from a tiger and together with her imperial feistiness they unite with her late father's allies and set off to regain a throne that was brutally usurped. Naturally, "Garak" isn't best pleased that these flies are in his ointment, and with his own scheming "Liu Tai" (Hélène Chanel) and the burly guards captain (Franco Ressel) on his team it's not going to be a cakewalk for our muscle-bound "Maciste". It's all a bit procedural, certainly, but this has had some thought put into the production and the whole thing is stitched together in a way more technically professional fashion than so many other films from this genre. The story allows for a little more depth from the characters and there's plenty of action and plotting to complement the oriental mythology and the horseplay that this provides. Scott is also not a bad actor. No, he will never win a BAFTA, but he knew what was required of him here and his own limitations - especially when it came to his seriously concrete style of dialogue delivery. He realised that he wasn't employed for his voice but because he could start an earthquake just by thumping the ground! (OK, so some of this is also a bit far-fetched, too). If you like your peplum lively and with some attention payed to the edits and the continuity, and don't mind the odd shot that has crept in from other films, then you ought to quite enjoy this.