User reviews

Don't look for an Oscar moments here as the acting is wooden for the most part and the special effects a bit far-fetched, but this is a film that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Mr. Universe 1950, Steve Reeves became a star with this film. People didn't come to see acting, they just wanted him to take his shirt off. He would be the role model for future Hercules like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who gave him his due.

After performing all the stunt he is famous for, he saves the day for Jason (Fabrizio Mioni, who went on to a long TV career in America) and rowed off into the sunset with Croatian beauty Sylva Koscina.

This is the stuff epics are made of.

Those impressive sets built in Italy for some major productions like Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur were not wasted. The Italian cinema found serious use for them with a series sand and sandal epics that lasted through the 60s. This film brought to our shores in America by Joseph E. Levine and it started a craze for these peplum films. I am told that this is the accepted term for these films, the peplum being the kind of tunics the male characters wear.

Steve Reeves wore as little as possible the better to show off that muscular body that it took years to perfect. The success of Hercules internationally led to a series of muscle dudes from Europe mostly taking Anglo names for our markets doing films if not with Hercules in the title we would Samson, Goliath, Maciste, etc.

The plot here interweaves several of the legends of Hercules plus the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece in which Hercules was a supporting player. Sylva Koscina plays a Greek princess and Luciana Paluzzi a couple of women who did have careers on this side of the pond will probably be the only other names we know.

Back in 1958 this got a considerable juvenile audience. Today we get a more sophisticated Hercules from Kevin Sorbo, etc. Reeves is not the greatest actor in the world, but really who cares.

The movie that launched the career of muscle man Steve Reeves.... In the late 1950s Italian director Pietro Franicisi wanted to do a film about the exploits of the famous muscleman, "Hercules"...he had scoured actors all over Europe looking for a handsome, musclebound actor who could complement the role...soon his daughter who had seen Reeves in a couple of B films recommended Reeves to her father....the rest was history. Reeves was an out of work muscleman actor who reportedly took the role for about $40,000 US cash - quite a sum at the time for an unemployed actor. The rest as they say is history. When first released it was panned by the major US studios until a film producer named Joseph E. Levine took a big chance and bought all the rights to the film's USA release. After a major US advertising campaign on television and in the newspapers the film confounded the experts and for some strange reason became an international hit. The timing was right for some unknown reason for this cheaply made muscle man movie to become a hit. At the time fantasy films, such as the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and others were big at the box office. Reeves incredible physique and handsome face were big attractions to the young boys and ladies who went to see the film. Levine hit the jackpot again when Francisi made "Hercules Unchained" a few months later after the release of "Hercules". "Hercules Unchained " made even more money, in fact an astounding amount in 1960 and became one of the year's biggest grossing films. Soon, Italian directors jumped on the bandwagon and starting churning out these muscleman epics by the dozens.....Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest,Reg Lewis, and Kirk Morris all tried to duplicate Reeves in these "epics".....and the public loved them. Reeves went on to make several more muscleman epics in the late 50s and early 60s playing Morgan the Pirate, The Thief of Bagdad, Goliath, The White Warrior, The Son of Spartacus and other muscleman epics. An odd twist to Reeves career was the fact that he reportedly turned down two roles that became international sensations: He was offered the role of James Bond by producer Cubby Broccoli and "The Man with No name" made popular by Clint Eastwood and made by Sergio Leone....for whatever reason Reeves turned the roles down....hard to understand. Reeves retired to ranching, his first love in the late 60s and raised cattle and horses until his death in 2001. The greatest physique ever seen on a man....probably the most admired bodybuilder of all time.

When I was a boy I thrilled to the exploits of Steve Reeves and his cohorts with the massive pectoral muscles performing feats of strength and derring-do in ancient times, but as an adult I found it a lot slower going. There are all sorts of legendary characters here--Herc himself, Ulysses, Jason, the Amazons--and a classic story about the pursuit of the Golden Fleece, but I found it hard to follow and worse than that, just plain dull. It's amazing, though, how much more interesting I found Sylva Koscina this time around than I did when I was a kid.

This is actually two stories in one: the first is about Hercules trying to find his niche in the world as a rugged adventurer and champion of the oppressed, the 2nd is about Jason and the Argonauts and Herc looking for the Golden Fleece.

Longer and slower than some of the successors and with quite possibly less fight scenes, these are still the best due to the respect and attention given to the characters. Reeves, looking like a pumped up Jonathan Frakes, is probably still the best of the lot, though we only got to see him fight lions, tigers, bulls, monkey people and Primo Carnera as opposed to monsters, but maybe it was better this way. Made things more serious and real world like.

So in other words, don't count this one out!

It's amazing that this first 1950s Hercules film was the stimulus that led to bazillions of Hercules and Maciste films over the next 15 years. Why is this so hard to believe? Well, you'd expect that this film would be really, really good since it was such an important film--and you'd be 100% wrong. This mish-mash film was just as bad as many of the later films and is only marginally watchable. Not surprisingly, it has passed into the public domain--after all, who would want to renew rights to this film?!

Some of the film's problems may or may not exist in the original Italian print. I don't know, as I have only just watched one of the English dubbed versions. The biggest and most obvious problem are the voice actors--their voices are too mechanical and bigger than life--so much so that they seem nothing like real people at times. The original Italian voices might be a lot better. Another problem (mostly for history freaks like myself) is that the films are a bizarre melange of both Greek AND Roman mythology--with Roman and Greek names interspersed throughout the film and the stories often bear little semblance to the originals. This is very sloppy but could also be the fault of the dubbers--perhaps the original film was based only on Greek or Roman characters--not both. Maybe in the original Italian it all made more sense.

However, despite the sloppy dubbing, another major problem is that the film has too much in the way of plot. There are enough stories for two films. Why they chose to combine the story of Jason and the Argonauts seeking the golden fleece (a Greek tale) AND Hercules (Roman) dealing with an annoying king and his really annoying son is beyond me--especially because both characters could easily have several films of just their own adventures. In fact, with the story of Jason, huge portions of the tale are missing (such as the most important part--his relationship with Medea and her father) and the Hercules one simply doesn't look anything like the classical tales--nothing.

The film has a few fun moments, but overall it looks cheap and sloppy--like most Hercules films. Some of the characters make no sense at all (such as the princess who loves Hercules but fights with him when Herc sets out to do EXACTLY what she'd asked him to do) and some are so one-dimensional they looked like they were written by a 3rd grader. If you LIKE cheap and sloppy films (I know I sure do), then this is definitely for you. If not, then see the Disney version. It's also very bad history and bastardizes the story terribly, but is still much closer to the original source material than this silly film.

I saw this film in Brazil when I was 10 and I never could forget it. It is amazing even today. Well produced and directed, it is may be the best of all the Sword and Sandal genre. Steve Reeves was not the awful creature the critics said. And Gianna Maria Canale, the queen of the amazons, deserves the title she once had as the most beautiful woman in the world.

¨Huge and immortal was the strength of Hercules as the world and the Gods to which the belonged , but one day men crossed his path . They were ready to sacrifice their brief treasure , life for knowledge , for justice, for love..¨ Greek mythology in Peplum style with a musclebound Steve Reeves as Hercules. First Hercules saga with lots of action and some nice special effects and colorful lighting by Mario Bava. A cheerful script fillets Greek legends and adds action to the fast-moving narrative. Hercules goes to the court of king Pelias (Ivo Garrani) located in Iolco for teaching his son Iphitos (Mimmo Palmara) the use of arms. The gorgeous daughter of Pelias , the princess Iole (Sylva Koscina), explains Hercules the story about the killing his uncle , taking over by his father and the greatest robbing of the kingdom , the Golden Fleece. Some people think the king Pelias has usurped the throne by means of fratricide. Hercules along with Jason (Mioni) , Argos, Ulysses (Antonini), Castor , Pollux , Laestres (Andrea Fantasia) sail on the Argo-ship to the land of Colchis looking for the Golden Calf in this mythological romp. This is one of the best Peplum or sword and sandals film from the history, retelling the legend of Hercules or Herakles in Greek language and Jason in search of the famous fleece for uncharted sea. The film deals about the myth Hercules ,he travels in search for the fabled Golden fleece located in the Colchis. It's based on poem of Greek poet named Apollonio of Rhodas written in third century titled ¨The Argonautika¨(250 B.C) , it's freely adapted by Prieto Francisci with screenplay by Ennio De Concini .In order to stifle the anger of Pelias , Hercules and Jason must retrieve the magical calf housed from distant land of Colchis and bring it toward city of Iolco. Hercules and Jason assemble a motley, brave crew formed by valiant band as Castor , Orpheo, Esculapio and the traitor Euristeo (Arturo Dominici),among others. Jason must fight an enormous monster that protects the Golden fleece. Hercules successfully leads his crew of would-be heroes throughout a series of outstanding adventures .They sail unharmed along sea storm, suffering risks and incredible adventures, encountering a giant monster, scheming witch and Amazons (Gina Rovere)led by Antea (Giann Maria Canale).

This exciting story deals with superhero Reeves-Hercules must use all his strength to save Jason and woman he loves from Pelias and Eristeo .The one that began it all and created the Peplum with multitudes of mythological issues . Steve Reeves is magnificent as the mythic hero who finds several risked situations while attempting to win over his true love, fighting against Eristeo and Pelias for his own survival . Pietro Francisci hired Steve Reeves , being Mr. America and Mr. Universe , who previously had worked for Ed Wood in a lowest thriller called Jail Bait (1954).It is widely considered to be one of the top 10 greatest Peplum films of all time. This great film will surely attract a whole new generation of classic movie fans. And for seasoned cinematic connoseuirs, Hercules will rekindle an era of film making at its best. This is Steve Reeves' first film portrayal of Hercules , it is followed by ¨Hercules unchained¨ that is in certain ways, better than his first . For others who simply enjoy watching timeless pieces with icons such as Steve Reeves. The corpulent Steve Reeves was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨. Luck's Reeves changed when Italian director Pietro Francisci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Hercules¨ and sequel ¨Hercules and queen of Lydia also titled Hercules unchained ¨ that served as the prototypes of all cloak-and-sandal movies to come and both of them became a surprise US hit smash . Later on, he followed with ¨Goliath and the Barbarians, The giant of Marathon, The Trojan horse, The son of Spartacus and The Avenger¨ among them The film even rips off from Homero's Odyssey with participation of the mythic Ulisses . As usual in Musclemen films appears the choreographic girls dancers and lots of action with several adventures including spectacular fights ,storms, and some good effects by the expert Mario Bava. The sets and production design impress too . This elaborate recounting is well directed by Pietro Francisci though with little relation with the poem by Apolonio of Rodas . The film contains an evocative and spectacular music by Masset well conducted by Carlo Savina .Fun for the whole family though it tends toward the ponderous at times but for the most part, it's a marvelous movie . Other adaptation about this classic story are: ¨The giants of Thesalia¨(1960) by Riccardo Fedra , Jason and the Argonauts(1963)by Don Chaffey with Todd Armstrong and for TV(2000) by Nick Willing and with Jason London . Rating : Good , high recommended for Peplum fans .

If I had seen this one first, I may have been a bit kinder to it. It does look all right considering it was made in the 50's, but by the time I watched this one I had seen three other Hercules films from this era and after watching this one I can honestly say, they are about all the same. They all follow the same basic flow and have almost the same plot points as I do believe there is always a strange interlude where the heroes are captured or something by beautiful ladies. This one does do some things differently than the other films in that Hercules does not factor in to a lot of the scenes. There is a part where a fairly decent looking monster arises, but Hercules is nowhere to be found. He also is not one of the men who ends up charmed by the island of lovely ladies. Of course, this is not necessarily a good thing as I would have liked to see him and his awesome strength battle the monster. No problem with him not being enchanted by the ladies, saw that way too much in the other films.

The story has Hercules saving a girl who turns out to be a princess of the man he is coming to assist, who may or may not be behind the murder of a king and whose son lost the golden fleece and something or another. Like other Hercules films, a lot of stuff is going on in the plot while not all that much stuff is going on as far as action on the screen. Hercules agrees to train the acting king's son and soon finds himself holding the man's son as he is killed by a lion which enrages the king, but soon Hercules finds the king who was murdered son and they embark on a quest to find the golden fleece that will reveal the identity of the killer. Meanwhile, they stop at an island for Amazon women by chance and Hercules has a strange relationship with the acting king's daughter.

I saw this movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I have to say they edited this one almost too much. I know there are time constraints, but man it was hard following this one at times due to the cuts. It was also an okay episode, but nothing special as I have already seen three other Hercules riffed by the gang on the satellite of love and like I said right from the beginning it follows the exact same formula as other Hercules films so we are getting similar jokes. I notice that Joel did a lot more sequels and such during his run as the shows human hostage than did Mike as he also did nearly all the Gamera films and Master Ninja I and II and a couple of others. It made for a funny episode, but nothing I have not seen before.

This was the best of the Hercules films, even with the cuts one could tell more effort was put into this one than the others. It was the first one so that is understandable, back in the day when a sequel was made it had a lower budget as the series progressed with films like these as they usually saw diminishing returns. Sure, there were exceptions like the James Bond films, but for the most part sequels never did quite what their predecessors did. Unlike today where the sequel for a hit gets a larger budget. It had its moments, but like all the other Hercules films there just is not enough action going on to keep me entertained for its entire running time.

It's hard to believe that this movie is now 43 years old. Certainly this is a classic and a must see for all diehard Herc fans.

The movie starts off with a runaway chariot carrying a damsel in distress, Jole, princess and future bride of Hercules (played by the beautiful Sylvia Koscina) next we see and hear a tree being uprooted and the next scene we see Hercules carrying the tree and throws it in front of the chariot stopping the horses. The exhausted Jole faints in the arms of Hercules.

In the next scene, we see Hercules make his first pass at the beautiful Jole by offering her first take on the meal that he had hunted and then feared burned while rescuing Jole. She obliges and Hercules says; "I'll take my first bite right where your lips have touched." Jole stunned by her rescuer makes some unkind comments to Hercules at which point Hercules says; "I'm too hungry to help it."

We see Hercules perform the Labors of Hercules, defeat the Cretan Bull, the Nemian Lion and help Jason find the Golden Fleece and then coming to Jason and his Argonauts rescue as they are being defeated by the evil king. We see Hercules pull chains from the wall and then use them as a weapon to defeat the Kings army first by taking out the evil adversaries one by one and then by wrapping the chains around two pillars supporting the Temple and pulling the Temple down, killing the remainder of the Kings men.

Overall, a good, fun movie. To the critics of this movie, no you won't find a great plot or academy award acting but I am reminded of comments made by the great Kirk Douglas, that people come to movies to be entertained and have fun and not necessarily just to see the movies with the best plot and greatest acting.

Hercules went on to become the biggest box office hit of its time and Reeves went on to become the highest paid actor and box office champion (tied with Sophie Loren) in his time.

This movie started it all. For bodybuilding fans, this is the closest you will ever get to seeing Reeves anywhere even close to top physique shape. The slimmed down Reeves became even slimmer and slimmer as his movie career continued

I would also recommend Last Days of Pompeii and The White Warrior. Son of Spartacus (a sequel to Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas) and Duel of the Titans are also interesting Reeves movies.

In 1977, NBC showed Hercules on network television as the Monday movie of the week followed by Hercules Unchained as the NBC Sunday movie of the week, 20 years after their release in theatres. Reeves movies have become classics and well worth your time to watch, even now 43 years later. Steve Reeves was the first and the best.

Basically this a movie about Hercules falling into the one adventure after the other, without some times feeling an obvious connection between those events. It makes this a pretty disjointed movie to watch at times. If this movie was being made this present day in exactly the same way it would be an absolutely terrible movie but the fact that this was made in 1958 makes it a good and defining one for its genre.

It's sometimes laughable how fake this movie is looking, for instance when Hercules is fighting a lion and later a buffalo, who are both obvious puppets in the close-up scenes with Steve Reeves. You can call it part of the charm of these old type of adventure movies but it still looks ridicules, regardless.

But besides that all it's a rather good looking movie, with its sets costumes and of course settings. It's an Italian movie, so it features lots of beautiful landscapes.

The story is simple and perhaps not as action filled or fast paced as it could had been but it still is an adventurous one. The swashbuckling and adventure genre had pretty much died already when it was 1958. This is a movie that obviously tries to revive a genre, with some new more 'modern' changes and elements in it. After this 'historic' and mythological movies such as "Jason and the Argonauts". "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and "Spartacus" were made. It's hard to say if this movie influenced any of those movies but fact is that this movie was a popular one at its time, also in America. Therefor it's a really thinkable that this movie played at least some part in redefining the genre.

Not great, most especially not by todays standards but considering the time it was made, a good genre movie that is adventurous and therefor also has entertainment value in it.

6/10

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Joseph E. Levine's timing when he decided to capitalize on this low-budget Italian epic was so right that it has become a legendary example of film promotion. That aside, it's amazing still how the dynamic image of Steve Reeves and a multimillion dollar saturation campaign was able to make this one of the most profitable films of it's time. That bad word of mouth didn't kill this picture's boxoffice only goes to show you that kitsch can be appreciated when it delivers, and HERCULES is colossal kitsch that delivers sensational, fetishistic, sexist spectacle in it's cheapest, most primitive form. Tastelessly tasteful.

This hokey and somewhat campy (look out for those sound effects!) concoction was the first Hercules movie, and apparently it made quite an impression, since it was followed by several sequels and remakes. Today, it is little more than a badly dubbed Italian time-passer, with uneven special effects (the dragon looks very phony, but the demolition of the palace at the end is well-done) and a muscular but not very compelling Steve Reeves as Hercules. By the way, Jason and the Argonauts seem to have more prominent roles than Hercules himself, and many facts of the legends (for example, the death of the evil king) are distorted. (**)

Being the film that really cemented the appeal of the peplum subgenre – to say nothing of the reputation of one of its most popular icons, the muscle-bound Steve Reeves – this film has much to answer for but, unfortunately, I have to say that the archetype (and its sequel) didn't exactly live up to expectations! I had watched both Hercules adventures as a kid on Italian TV and this recent re-acquaintance came via the R1 Goodtimes DVD, which presented the American-dubbed version (as prepared by Joseph E. Levine) in a washed-out, lamentably panned-and-scanned print!

Mind you, the film is still enjoyable along the way but also rather juvenile and uninspired – centering as it does around the famous mythological tale of the search for the Golden Fleece (whose definitive screen rendition remains the splendid Ray Harryhausen extravaganza JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS [1963], a personal childhood favorite of mine, where Hercules was portrayed by Nigel Greene!). Two other Italian adaptations of Greek legends, both originally by Homer, proved altogether more satisfactory – the template for HERCULES was clearly the lively ULYSSES (1954), an Italian/US venture involving the likes of Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn among the cast and Ben Hecht and Irwin Shaw as co-writers (that film's titular figure actually appears here as a brash youth!), while THE Trojan HORSE (1961) gave Steve Reeves himself a more mature role in Aeneas and survives as possibly his best vehicle.

Throughout the course of the film, our 'immortal' hero is seen performing several athletic feats (the original title, in fact, translates to THE LABORS OF HERCULES), romances "Euro-Cult" favorite Sylva Koscina, resists the temptations of the Amazon women (led by Gianna Maria Canale from I VAMPIRI [1957]), fights a lion, a dragon and a tribe of monkey men(!), routs the traitor among his shipping crew (BLACK Sunday [1960]'s Arturo Dominici) and, finally, brings down a temple by pulling at its columns a' la Samson (thus paving the way for Jason to assume his rightful place on the throne).

I watched this movie because of the fond memory I had kept of it when I watched it when I was 12 and that peplum movies were my favorite genre.

Needless to say, it did not look quite as good today than it did 40 years ago. It is still quite watchable, with plenty of heroics deeds, good production values and adequate acting for the genre. Steve Reeves is actually quite good in the title role and he outmuscles Arnold any time.

The film that launched a thousand sets of muscular pecs and biceps and made a household name of American bodybuilder-turned-actor Steve Reeves, "Hercules" (original Italian title: "Le fatiche di Ercole," "The Labours of Hercules") was an international box-office smash that spawned several dozen imitators in the mid-20th Century known as "peplum," for the tunics characters often wore. Collectively, these films were a return to silent-era commercial successes of Italian cinema -- the original Peplum films featuring Italian folk hero Maciste that were popular from the mid-1910s through the mid- 1920s -- and were an attempt (successful, as it turned out) to capitalize on the popularity of American-financed sword-and-sandal epics like "Quo Vadis," "Spartacus," and "Ulysses." Reportedly, director Pietro Francisci had wanted to make a Hercules film for several years but couldn't find a leading man until his daughter spotted Reeves in the film "Athena." Reeves wasn't necessarily an actor of particular subtlety or nuance, but he was incredibly handsome and had a championship physique that set the standard for mid-century bodybuilding. His imposing physical presence and blustery he-man forcefulness made him the perfect actor to embody the legendary strongman and Reeves makes the most of the role. He sets a high bar for portraying the mythological hero and in many respects has never been equaled, though a few actors like Dwayne Johnson have successfully managed to play off Reeves's legacy by modifying the direction of the character. The rest of the cast doesn't fare so well, in part because of the blunt English dubbing and also because the story is a mish- mash of myth that doesn't gel into anything particularly coherent. It's as if Francisci, who's credited with the adaptation, put "Hamilton's Mythology" into a blender and layered in the odd legendary labor wherever it could conceivably fit. We get Ulysses as an eager protégé, Jason's quest with his Argonauts as background, and a confused princess Iole as sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes reluctant love interest. (I'm not sure Sylva Koscina really knew what to make of this role.) Still, the scenery is beautiful and is matched by the attractive cast, and some of the action is amusingly low-tech in an endearing manner. I do feel bad for the drugged lion (never identified in the English-dubbed version as the Nemian Lion) Reeves has to tangle with, and bad for Reeves when it's clear in some shots that he's wrestling a stuffed prop. Had PETA been hanging around Cinecitta in the late 1950s, I suspect film history would be quite different. Despite its clunky storytelling and questionable treatment of animals, there is a lot of entertainment value here still, almost 60 years after it single-handedly spurred a renaissance in Italian epics. If you want something visual that's not too abysmal, you could do a lot worse than this old Steve Reeves movie, though this is one case where the direct sequel, "Hercules Unchained," surpasses the original.

Hercules – hybrid of greek mythology and cheesed dubbing. It does add to the campiness of the film, but I'm biased having already seen Hercules Unchained.

Herc randomly comes to aid the luscious Iole (RAWRRR). Steve was born to throw freshly torn-from-the-ground trees. He runs around with greek guys (played by beefy Italian guys) and does battle, rows. Herc won't even sing good old-fashioned oar songs! There's your typical dark side in this epic schlock, but time starts to drag at scenes when you'd rather see the Herc bending iron bars across his skull.

I used to think Hercules Unchained was plain goofy and dumb. It's actually much less of a yawner than the original. What is with Hercules and the lions in both movies? Where was PETA when this happened?

`YO-LAY!!!'

I have always enjoyed these type of fantasy/adventure/'historical' films and this version of Hercules was no exception, despite quite a few shortcomings. The cast - Steve Reeves as Hercules in actually pretty good and his closest allies all offer acceptable performances as well. Several of the minor characters however fail to the point of being kind of humorous. Then there's the story, there were so many things thrown into this story with the Amazonian women, the giant dinosaur/creature, the man/ape/bigfoot creatures, the argonauts, it was just a lot going on with not enough context to support most of it. Despite the shortcomings I was still able to find it mildly entertaining, but only really for lovers of this specific type of film.

I thought this would be a pathetic sub-titled movie, but it wasn't!!!

It is typically low-budget, & on the low budget-TV channel, which struggles to survive for a FRAGMENT of what the big-networks have access to!

This movie is understandably of limited talent & basic in props & plots! ... Especially compared with the likes of 21st century "The War of The Worlds"! ... That I viewed last weekend!

... But I saw Tom Cruise character there, playing a disagreeable character! ... Irritated repeatedly by his family who understandably didn't want to listen to him! ... With a pathetic plot I thought anyway would have seen MASSIVE holes in! ... But it was supposed to be a Spielberg production!

... By contrast, here, I watched a scenic, dramatic attempt at quality cinema! ... A serious attempt made at a credible plot! ... In a fantasy-type scenario many people would like to find themselves lost in! ... That was not surely out of its context, for time & place!!

... But of course, it doesn't have 21st century side-effects! ... That seem to often be substituted for plot!!!

... I didn't expect much! ... But got much more!!

Well worth a viewing!!!

Those from animal protection should act somehow, because a poor lion and an innocent bull are being killed! OK, the movie is not really bad, especially if it's watched in the cinema, on a big screen, it's one of those types of movies that should be watched that way. Thus, the muscles of the one who interprets Hercules can be seen much better. Well, this is also evident on a smaller screen, the respective performer being the most massive of the entire cast. A cast in which we have Sylva Koscina, very young and very beautiful, in the role of Iole, the daughter of King Pelias and the one for whom Hercules does everything we see in the film. Then we have a bunch of Italian actors of the dozen, of which only Gianna Maria Canale stands out, in the role of Antea, the queen of the Amazons (her best film being "Il Boom" from 1963, directed by the brilliant Vittorio De Sica, along with the most great comic actor of all time, the incomparable, the one and only Alberto Sordi). By the way, the time spent at the Amazons gives us the most pleasant scenes in the film, the rest, all the fight scenes, including the ones with the lion and the bull, are like big pieces of cheese. About Pietro Francisci, the director of the film, it can only be said that he has made other films of the same genre, plus a modest SF, "Star Pilot" Original title: 2+5: Missione Hydra, 1966. And about the one who tries to convince us that he is actually Hercules, Steve Reeves, we can only say that he is another Arnold Schwarzenegger, something a little bit better than the embarrassing Austrian "actor" before the time of that one. One star for the beauty of Koscina and another for the beauty of Canale.