User reviews

When leading-man Rod Taylor passed away last year, I remembered his excellent performances in 'The Birds' and 'The Time Machine', and how his charm, good looks and manner could lift very good films such as those to greatness. I was also pleased that for his final role, he got to be in a very fine picture such as 'Inglourious Basterds', playing Winston Churchill--that he was able to end his career on a high-note, which sadly, is the exception rather than the rule. 'Colossus and the Amazon Queen' is an example of where he made an otherwise fun but terrible movie watchable--and that's another fine quality of a gifted thespian. Especially if you are a fan of Taylor's work, the intriguing way that Italian actors made swords-and-sandals' epics ad nauseum from the late-50's to early-60's, when they would become infatuated with the 'spaghetti western', these 94 minutes will be time modestly well-spent.

Taken within the confines of the genre this is a humorous silly adventure. What sets it apart slightly from the usual run of the mill toga films is an odd jazz flavored score and the presence of Rod Taylor at the beginning of his career. Within a few years he's be working for Hitchcock starring in The Birds as well as appearing in other big budget films like The V.I.P.S. and The Time Machine something that no one else in the cast or any other of these sex and sandal flicks ever got remotely close too. Taylor was always a big beefy guy but he is positively dwarfed by Ed Fury, who physique is as usual in awe inspiring shape. Loaded with homo-erotic subtext and dreadful dialog watch this for its camp value and a star on the rise.

"Ed Fury stars as Glauco, the strongest man in Greece who finds himself the unwilling member of an expedition across the seas. His pal Pirro (Rod Taylor) accepts money from a band of pirates in return for Glauco's undeniable muscle. When they land, they are drugged and captured by a race of Amazons. Only Glauco escapes and falls in love with the fair Antiope. After considerable action and intrigue, the Amazons and Greeks learn to get along," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Re-titled "Colossus and the Amazon Queen" for English language listeners, this "sword and sandal" epic benefits by not taking itself too seriously. Bulging in all the right places, Mr. Fury is a blond Adonis-like hero. While Fury strikes the correct light-hearted tone, the more accomplished co-starring Mr. Taylor seems uncertain about the sexual preference assigned his character. He acts gay, but goes for breast-popping Daniela Rocca (as Melitta) over Fury, who digs delectable Dorian Gray.

***** La regina delle Amazzoni (9/8/60) Vittorio Sala ~ Ed Fury, Rod Taylor, Daniela Rocca, Dorian Gray

The music score, which ranges from boogie-woogie to a sort of sleazy Vegas romance music, cues you in right away that this is not a movie to be taken seriously. Rod Taylor (as a sort of low-life grifter) and Ed Fury (his muscle-man pal) find themselves prisoners of a tribe of man hungry amazons. Gender bending comedy abounds (male prisoners who've grown accustomed to their fate exchange recipes and complain about not getting their laundry "sparkling", all with swishy mannerisms and camp voices --- very un-PC and funny as hell) along with low-brow slapstick. Viewers tuning in to a movie entitled COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN expecting thoughtful, serious drama will of course be disappointed. Those with more realistic expectations may find this a delight.

This is horrible.

I've seen pretty much every muscle man movie made in the 1950's and 1960's and this is at the bottom of the list.

First off the dubbing is terrible. The cliche of Japanese monster movies are nothing compared to this.

Secondly its suppose to be a comedy. It appears to have been written and acted as one, unfortunately there is nothing funny about it. The problem is that these films run so close to parody as is that its pointless to make fun of them. The only one that ever worked was the original version of My Son The Hero, which was a good movie even without the humor.

Lastly the sets, costumes, ect are overly bad. Again these films run the fine line between reality and parody. Its all of a style that took hold and effectively killed off the genre about five years after this was produced where spandex, beehive hairdos and Max Factor make-up made everything look silly.

The plot, concerning two muscle men and their encounters with the Amazons is stupid and comes from the low sex comedies that rarely traveled outside of Italy because they were more juvenile than funny.

Its over acted and under done.

One out of ten. Its just bad.

This film is strikingly similar to (and, incredibly, even worse than) Terence Young's THE AMAZONS (1974), which I watched only last month. Rod Taylor, who had just become a star thanks to George Pal's screen version of H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE (1960), unwisely chose to follow it up with this turkey; his performance is embarrassing – especially the lamentable attempts at comedy – and, in fact, comes off like a cut-rate Tony Curtis! Likewise, Ed Fury makes very little impression as the proverbial muscleman (and, presumably, the Colossus of the title – though his character is actually named Glauco, even in the English-dubbed version!).

As for the women, here we have: a rather unattractively made-up Dorian Gray (a regular fixture of Toto' comedies, though she also appeared in one film apiece by Fellini and Antonioni!); Daniela Rocca (best known as the mousy wife Marcello Mastroianni wants to get rid of in Pietro Germi's DIVORCE – Italian STYLE [1961]), whose character is constantly falling flat on her face for no apparent reason!; and Gianna Maria Canale (who appeared in countless sword-and-sandal titles but also starred in the first Italian horror film, I VAMPIRI [1956], co-directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava), who's been saddled with the rather thankless role of the Amazon Queen who must fulfill her destiny by remaining a spinster!

Truly, this has to be one of the worst films ever - which prompted director Bertrand Tavernier, then a film critic, to call it "one of the funniest of Italian comedies"! - which, from the very first shot (in which a trumpeter loses his grip on his instrument!), gives you an idea of the clumsiness you are about to witness – with the inappropriate 'modern' score (including the dance routines that are a cross between Busby Berkeley and WEST SIDE STORY [1961]!) and the hilarious dubbing (particularly during the one scene where Tiberio Murgia, so memorable as Claudia Cardinale's jealous elder brother in BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET [1958], appears) featuring prominently among its highlights…er…lowpoints!

Seeing this film credit for Rod Taylor sandwiched in between The Time Machine and The Birds made me wonder just who was this guy's agent at the time and how come Rod Taylor got roped into this one? He had the look of a man who was happy with his trip to Italy for Colossus And The Amazon Queen and the satisfied look of a man whose paycheck for the film just cleared the bank.

Rod Taylor and Italian muscle dude star Ed Fury are a buddy team in this film, Rod does the thinking and Ed the heavy lifting when needed. Rod unfortunately cons Fury the way Crosby used to con Hope and thanks to Rod's machinations, the two of them and a whole lot of other guys who were galley slaves on a ship wind up slaves to a tribe of Amazons.

Now this race of woman does occasionally have need of men and their services and for that the hunkier they are, the better purchase price they get. In fact Rod can't close the deal unless Fury is part of the package.

Unfortunately after a night of bliss the men get themselves taken to slave in the salt mines. The ones who don't quite measure in the hunk department end up as house servants. This was one really lame attempt at gay stereotyping.

Colossus And The Amazon Queen plays like an overlong episode of the old Hercules series with Kevin Sorbo. As we all know Rod Taylor still salvaged a career after appearing in this. That in itself was the biggest miracle associated with this film.

Comedic sword and sandal attempt has Aussie Rod Taylor playing a cheeky swindler, conned into travelling to an island on the promise of treasure, discovering that he and his companions are actually man-cargo being delivered to a race of lusty Amazon women for domestic and sexual servitude. Doesn't sound all that bad really. Trouble emerges when the warrior-who-would-be-Queen (Gray) falls for the burly Glauco (Fury), deepening a rift between her and nemesis Melitta (Rocca) that spirals into an internecine contest, further compounded when pirates discover the secluded hamlet.

It's frolicking fun with a high camp quality that you'll either find amusing or dull. Taylor and Fury rarely have a moment without some form of slapstick or situation comedy, while beauties Gray and Rocca have an hilarious rivalry of which Rocca always seems to be on the wrong end. I thought her frequent stumbles were pretty funny in a corny sort of way, and Gianna Canale's horny Queen Regina constantly bemoaning her chastity vow ("does a kiss have a flavour?") also hit the right note. The three female leads also happen to be exceptionally attractive women to boot, which both Taylor and Fury seem to fully appreciate.

Overall, it's a comedy without pretense, featuring a glamorous cast, some witty dialogue, epic sets and the usual colourful costumes. A funny take on domestic role reversal that's politically incorrect but unlikely to offend (e.g. the smug looks on the faces of Taylor and Fury after cheap attempts at groping their masters are rebuffed). Incidentally, there's also a great scene in which a portly, balding and bearded slave plays a kissing Casanova to an endless queue of frisky Amazons that shouldn't be missed for pure ham value.

I hate to say it but I believe Glauco has really done it this time. Zeus took away his wits already and now Glauco had the nerve to show up in this terrible "comedy". I don't think Zeus is amused with this film and neither am I.

It is so bad that I had to hurry up and skim through it just to find out if it was going to get at least a little bit better but it did not. This might have been funny in 1960, but I found zero humor at all.

This is an unfunny "comedy". I doubt if I ever try watching this mess again. At least there are 3 other movies on the same disc.

1/10

I've seen some bad Italian films in my time but this one sure was painful. Y'see, this is a parody of Hercules films, but as those film are so campy and cheesy in the first place, it's pretty hard to make fun of them, so what we get here is a mixture of the usual Italian slapstick mixed with a war of the sexes type film. It's enough to make your eyes bleed.

Muscle bound, Glacchus and his friend Paris are tricked into travelling to an island, are then drugged and find themselves prisoners of a bunch of Amazonian Warrior Women - and it's pretty hard for them to comprehend that the woman are in charge to! Plenty of 'but you're a girl!' dialogue follows.

These girls may be tough, but they have needs to and the two main candidates to be next Queen are getting a bit itchy in the presence of our males, which is going to complicate things. The Queen herself (dubbed to sound like Elizabeth II for some reason!) is wondering why she's remained a virgin all her life and wants someone to describe what the 'flavour of a kiss' is. Also the Amazons have men working woman jobs (doing the washing, sewing, cooking) which somehow makes them act extremely camp.

I hope that gives you an idea of what to expect from this one. I know we're talking about a different culture and a different time but the Italians were still making films like this about fifteen years later. I asked my wife if the old slapstick humour was still around today in Italian film and she shrugged her shoulders and said 'probably' in a disinterested fashion. So that's that.

Only notable for a very early appearance from Mariangela Giordano (from Zombie Dead and Satan's Baby Doll) and the only time I laughed was when a tiny Greek guy grabbed two women and said in a very deep black man's voice "Y'all is my woman now".

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN is one of those painful Italian attempts at comedy, made during a time when Bob Hope/Bing Crosby films were the height of fashion, slapstick was considered the pinnacle of humour and sexism was...well, everywhere. While I really wanted to like this movie, I couldn't, and one of the reasons was the absolutely awful American dubbing that makes the whole film irritating (at one point, one of the men refers to the fact that he's a Greek before speaking in a Southern drawl!). It doesn't help that this film has no plot after the first fifteen minutes. A bunch of guys are taken to a remote island where they become the slaves of a female warrior society. Some escape and recaptured, others are put to work mining. There's time for romance, a few fights and lots of the so-called 'comedy'. If seeing somebody trip over on their face is your idea of a belly-laugh then by all means check this out.

I half-wondered whether they'd dubbed a serious film into a comedy but the silly acting from the entire cast rules this out. Aside from Rod Taylor and Ed Fury, the two leads, the male cast members are frankly embarrassing. Fury, known for his appearance in the Ursus films, is a stereotypical muscleman, a nice-but-dim hulk who picks up pillars and does strongman stuff every now and then. Taylor supplies more of the comic relief, but this is a huge comedown from the guy who was so great in THE TIME MACHINE. The female cast, aside from Gianna Maria Canale and Dorian Gray, aren't great actresses but they're certainly easy on the eye, so if watching plenty of beautiful women in skin-tight costumes sounds good, then go for it. One thing that made me sad was the realisation that by Hollywood standards of today, all these women would be classed as 'fat' because of their curves. Bring back the old days! I'll admit that the film held my attention initially; the direction isn't as bad as some I've seen. There are some good ingredients in the plot, like the bear fight scene (watch the huge, hulking chained bear transform into a skinny buy in a bear suit!), but other moments, like the pirates vaulting over the castle walls, are ludicrous. The film is also packed with historical inaccuracies; watch as the women joust together (a medieval sport!). All said and done, COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN is definitely a 'bad' film, there's no denying it. Only suckers for cheesy B-movie will get a kick out of the antics on display here.

Just as his Hollywood career was shifting up into high gear, Australia's Rod Taylor took a brief and utterly bizarre sidetrack when he went to Italy to shoot a sword and sandal (or, as it could be more accurately described, a "sword and shambles") debacle titled Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960). It was probably the weirdest and most incongruous entry into Taylor's long and extremely varied CV; a film so unlike any other that he ever made (thank goodness). Indeed, he later tried to avoid even discussing it when the subject arose - a situation that anyone could understand after they had seen it.

To start with, there is no "Colossus" anywhere in the picture, not even a passing reference to such a character. "Our Rod" (as he was fondly referred to in his homeland) co-stars opposite muscle man Ed Fury as the duo play a couple of gladiators (Pirro and Glauco respectively) who are captured by Amazon women. They quickly fall in love (with the Amazons that is.... not with each other... although..) and save the girls from some evil pirates (as distinct from the usual variety of good, well-meaning pirates).

Dubbed into English (even the obviously English - speaking stars were dubbed !), it's a genre-crossing, gender - bending, role- reversing hodgepodge of the most head - spinning type. Apparently intended to be some sort of action/ thriller/ comedy, it features a partly boogie-woogie soundtrack, a modern jazz ballet , an orgy scene and a Western style cavalry charge at the climax (complete with covered wagons). The Amazons have gay male servants who spend much of their time tut-tutting about the mess that their female superiors make around the villa and even Taylor and Fury have some fun with a few fruity bits along the way. Presumably, it was supposed to be a send up of.....something.... But, unfortunately, most of it is about as funny as a serious outbreak of cholera. However, it does seem that Rod was there to provide the comic relief. Not that it was a big job given the fact that it's frequently near - impossible to tell where the laughs are meant to end and the drama begins. But it's only Taylor's knack for visual comedy and his priceless double takes that make the whole thing even remotely watchable. The two stars couldn't speak a word of Italian and none of the girls spoke English. Years later he explained his reason for taking the job to a magazine writer ..." I was having an affair with Anita Ekberg at the time and it gave me an excuse to get a free airline ticket to go over to Italy to see her ".