Atlas

1960's "Atlas" was Roger Corman's impoverished attempt at a Hercules-type epic (shot on location in Greece), without the budget. Charles B. Griffith could always be relied upon to deliver a script very quickly, and the haste is quite evident here, as the dialogue sounds risibly modernistic, and American actor Frank Wolff hilariously dubbed. Judging from his previous work on "A Bucket of Blood" and "The Little Shop of Horrors," one can easily conclude that this was written as a satire, and it does deliver a few chuckles. Star Michael Forest, like Wolff a veteran of Corman's "Ski Troop Attack" and "Beast from Haunted Cave," looked more impressive years later bare chested on both GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and STAR TREK. As the battle scenes come off as anemic, the only visually arresting image remains the comely Barboura Morris, who spent her entire career in Corman's service, until her untimely death at age 43 in 1975. "Atlas" made its only appearance on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater during its first season, alternating Saturday afternoons and Sunday nights, airing Sat March 14 1964, while the Sunday night co-feature (which likewise never repeated) was 1958's "Spy in the Sky!"

Proximates the Tyrant is a brutal arrogant conqueror. Atlas is his personal warrior but eventually, the hero sees the evil within his king.

Roger Corman is trying to do a sword and sandal epic. It's bad. The acting is bad. The writing is bad. They are able to use some nice sets. Most of them are ruins in Greece. Otherwise, it's all rather bad.

Trust Roger Corman to go all the way to Greece, shoot in widescreen against a backdrop of real ancient monuments, and STILL end up producing the cheapest looking sword and sandal 'epic' of them all. If you squint hard enough the battle scenes might start to look vaguely impressive. Only Frank Wolff's ripe performance as the evil Praximedes provides much entertainment.

It'sa Roger Corman flick about how the hero spent his time while Heracles was holding up the heavens. I guess. Apparently he went to Greece and got involved with with a tyrant who liked to dress his soldiers in simply darling short red skirts with matching blouses.

Because it was shot by Corman, the actors speak English. This meant I couldn't amuse myself by noting how every actor sounded like Paul Frees when saying things that didn't match his mouth. I did think about the line from Airplane!, of Peter Graves asking the kid if he liked gladiator movies. Me, I don't. Oh, I like good ones. Ilike the stuff that Harryhausen did the stop-motion for because, while the actors in that average lousy, you still have something by Harryhausen to cheer you up. But like a genre means you like the lousy stuff too.

But not here. Story, eh. FIght choreography, lousy. Actors, didn't recognize any of them and the movie made clear why.

As much as I am a fan of Michael Forest from Star Trek, The Outer Limits,to name a few - this movie is an absolute farce. Frank Wolf who up to this point is really a 3rd rate actor, is the lead bad guy in this movie that plays out like a high school play with just a handful of extras. 1st blunder is when they announce that the wrestling match will begin when the trumpets blow. The trouble is that the horns are never heard. The Wardrobe Designer must have been on break with Barbara Morris wearing shorts that look like she should be on the set of Beach Blanket Bingo and not a Greek sword and sandal movie. The story line is very poor and really makes no sense. Soupy Sales could have played the lead baddie with the same results.