Atlas

In the early to mid-1960s, there was, believe it or not, a major craze for films set in the classical period starring such heroes as Hercules and Maciste. They were churned out by the dozen by the Italians and they made a butt-load of money throughout the world. So much that American director Roger Corman decided to try to get in on the act, though he never made much of an impact on the genre--and after seeing this film, I could see why.

Here, Michael Forest stars as 'Atlas'--a guy who is pretty much like the other muscled heroes of the era (such as Steve Reeves and Peter Lupus). And, like many of the films, he was an American playing lead and the rest of the cast were mostly Italians--especially the extras. In this case, however, more of the supporting cast is non-Italian. Much of the dialog, then, was often dubbed.

By the way, although he was not an especially well-known actor, you may just recognize Forest as the man who guest starred on the original "Star Trek" series as the god Apollo. My assumption is that he was probably picked to play this "Star Trek" character because of his prior film experience as Atlas.

Oddly, despite the American director who was known for action and horror films, this film is amazingly low-key and a bit dull. You'd think he might have breathed some life into the films, but for the most part, the film is just another tepid action flick--with hardly any action. The costumes aren't especially good and the cast seems tiny--even for a sword and sandal epic. If you note the trivia for this film, you'll see that Corman's original army of 500 extras ended up being, at most 50 through no fault of his own and as filming continued the numbers dwindled. Yet, believe it or not, this tiny cast isn't unusual, as I've seen several films not made by Corman in the genre that had equally tiny "armies". A great example is the rather silly film "Maciste vs. the Moon Men".

By the way, I am one of those who has marveled at Corman's ability to do wonderful things with tiny budgets (such as "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Bucket of Blood"). He is a brilliant director, though like most, he has made his share of disappointing films. This one, clearly, is among his worst. This isn't just because it's silly, as I LOVE his silly 1950s horror films, but because the script is so lifeless. It practically puts you to sleep because you keep expecting action and excitement but it just never delivers. Frankly, I wish it HAD been cheesy and silly--that at least would have made watching it fun! As far as fun or funny goes, I had to take what I could find due to bad dubbing. A funny aspect of the film you should look for are the dubbing mistakes. First, there were the trumpeters. When they blow on them, you hear NOTHING--as they apparently forgot to dub this! I especially loved when the boss-man ordered a fight to the death to begin with the blowing of the trumpets. You see the guys blowing away...and absolutely no sound at all!! Yet, miraculously, the guys begin fighting! Another scene consists of dancing girls flitting about...and absolutely NO music!!!! Now that's funny!

Playing the title role of Atlas and certainly having the physique for it is Michael Forest best known for playing the God Apollo on Star Trek prime. He gets himself involved in a civil war where one army is besieging a city state.

When a single combat winner take all duel is arranged the besieger goes out to look for a champion and just by coincidence the Olympic Games are being held. Frank Wolff finds Michael Forest and he will face Christos Exarchos the prince of the city. When Forest beats Exarchos but doesn't kill him, Wolff should have thought right then and there that this will mean trouble for him.

Roger Corman produced Atlas. It was his attempt to make a Peplum, sand and scandal less than an epic. The European players stroll rather listlessly through the film. But Frank Wolff, God Bless him is having a whale of time playing Proximades the tyrant who shows pieces of what Peter Ustinov did with Nero in Quo Vadis and later on Christopher Plummer in the Fall Of The Roman Empire. Wolff is so infectiously evil, he makes a mediocre film worth watching.

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.

Cheap, sure. Corman --- of course. But not the usual fare, not even for the King of the B's. Here's the backstory: Corman was in Europe shooting another feature and supposedly entered into a co-production deal with another company. At the last moment his co-producers pulled out and took their money with them. Now Corman had two choices: abandon the project, or shoot the script he had for half the money he'd budgeted. Which did he choose? Well, the movie got made didn't it? Screenwriter Charles Griffith had also written LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and originally wanted to call this movie ATLAS, THE GUIDED MUSCLE, but Corman nixed that. So we get Steve Forrest (who also played Apollo on a STAR TREK episode) as a slightly malnourished looking Atlas, standing around with a bunch of extras in Greek costumes (including Griffith and Corman himself), looking around at the "grandeur" of ancient Greece, a bunch of the crumbling ruins which the villain explains away by saying "Well, we've been at war so long all the buildings have been demolished" or something like that. I'm not going to pretend this is a GOOD movie, but it's a great example of the unstoppable Corman machine in action.

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.