Ulysses Against Hercules

Ulysses - or Odysseus - vas an Achean adventurer-king who probably lived in the Aegean area around 13th century B.C., battled against the Asian city of Troy and reportedly destroyed it with the Trojan horse stratagem. Hercules was the mythical hero of an entirely different Greek civilization, the Doric one, who established itself on the ruins of the Achean kingdoms from the 11th century B.C. on. So the two men could have scarcely met in history, but in film they did! The result was a true Clash of the Titans: the cunning, seafaring king of Ithaca against the muscle-bound son of Zeus, here without the typical Steve Reeves evenly-trimmed beard. According to screenplay the father of all gods asks the strongest man ever to capture Ulysses and give him for revenge to the blinded Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of another offended divinity. While Hercules, always the zealot, promptly embarks on his errand to punish Ulysses, the latter reacts as a true hero of the human condition against evils that come from the gods. He is captured by Hercules, but in the end the two men will have to join forces to escape the bloodthirsty race of the Bird-men and battle the evil Troglodytes of king Laro, a madman who enjoys torturing women. With the aid of Ircanus, king of the eponymous city, they will defeat the villain along with his monster-cavemen; Hercules will have his beloved Helen while Ulysses will finally return to Ithaca. Mario Caiano, future director of "Amanti d'oltretomba", a minor cult classic in the Gothic vein, toys here with a good Ulysses (Georges Marchal) and a despisable Hercules (Mike Lane), a man who is truly softer than butter, capable of leaving a friend in the hands of his worst enemies and always eager to play the "amoroso", or young man in love. This ill-assorted but funny couple moves in a scenario which makes you think of future spaghetti-westerns, what with well-photographed ravines and desert beaches, & with the addition of fancy extras in "monster" make-up. The Bird-men dance better than they kill, but the Troglodyte cavemen will really impress a band of captive young women. Screenplay is mostly missing and direction may seem casual, but the fable has a better look than the average muscleman epic and its fantastic quality is not altogether spurious.

Hilarious mythological fantasy movie which is helped a lot by the excellent performance of Georges Marchal as Ulysses, the rare case of a good actor in the genre of muscles and blank expressions. Ulysses is chased by his enemy Heracles (Mike Lane) after he sank his ship, but once they spend a night captured together to become food for a vulture god, they have plenty of time to talk to each other, realize that they are not so different after all and decide to face more adventures together, fighting an evil king of ugly Neanderthal men. The movie may border on the ridiculous with the dancing bird-men for example, but it is really enjoyable. Director Caiano manages to get me on the edge of my seat with scenes like the stone platform slowly coming down towards Ulysses to crush him (or not). Mario Caiano went on to make more watchable genre flicks like "Erik the Viking" with Giuliano Gemma or "Two Gladiators" with Richard Harrison.

I only needed to hear the "Mighty Sons of Hercules"-song in the beginning to get in a good mood from this film. A really pulpy and entertaining peplum with some fantastic ingredients, my favorites being the vulture-people and their bigbreasted queen (who of course falls in love with both Hercules and Ulisses). The non-plot is basically that Hercules is on a mission from the gods to find and capture Ulisses for blinding the Cyklops. Ulisses outsmarts Hercules and manages to escape, encounters some fantastic creatures or evil queens, is captured again, outsmarts Hercules, escapes, encounters creatures etc. in absurdum. Of course the two heroes finally becomes the best of friends and joins forces to defeat the evil king Lagos (wonderfully played by Gianni Santuccio), a sweaty, sickly and rambling madmen who likes to torture women and uses his army of neanderthal men to pillage the nearby villages in quest for total power. Great silly fun.

Right from the very start we are treated to high adventure as Hercules chases down the hero Ulysses. After sacking Troy, Ulysses returns home and happens upon the Cyclops Polyphemus and after witnessing him eat his comrades, Ulysses blinds the giant. Hercules is sent to capture Ulysses at the Cyclops' request. This movie starts with the chase by 2 enemies who later become friends. They land in a strange land ruled by Bird Men and later escape and join the war to free their homeland. I first saw this movie in the mid 1960s and it still holds up as entertainment even today. A fabulous tale of heroic adventure. All the outdoor scenes were filmed in the Canary Islands (part of Spain). Note the desert scenes and the "staircase" which can still be seen today in 2022. Watch this movie if you require a great adventure tale.

ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES is not an easy Peplum to review. It does stand out from the endless batch of Italian action films starring beefy actors. ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES has a definitely different tone to it though, a more French feel to it than most Sword & Sandal films. There's a lot of action and there are monsters and weird creatures and such. You know, typical Peplum ingredients but the film is very wordy. It relies a lot on dialogue and word play between the characters, which is typically French. Also the actor who plays Ulysses, French actor Georges Marchal, is unmistakably French looking. These differences actually makes this one stand-out from the rest of the pack.

But even with these original aspects, is it great? Well, good but not great (maybe with a better DVD transfer, it would fall into the great category). It IS very entertaining, rarely boring and sorta admirable that these guys did try to do something different but the whole package is most definitely uneven.

The story is about Heracles(played by 6'8" tall Mike Lane) trying to bring Ulysses to justice, for some actions which took place before the film began. At one point, Heracles has Ulysses "handcuffed" to him and the two men go through their journey bound together, like in THE DEFIANT ONES.

There are some moments which are thrilling unto themselves but there are a lot cheesy ones too. The stand out "bizarre" scene here is a dance number (what's with Sword & Sandal films and kooky dance sequences?) where the two heroes, tied to a tree, are being terrorized by an army of effeminate looking men who are dressed up as birds and do these peculiar dance moves. Imagine those scary flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ grouped together and they start dancing like they're in a Buster Berkley number and they try to kill the beefy heroes by pecking and scratching them to death. The dance sequence is out of this world bizarre. One has to see it to believe it. It's so bizarre that I love it.

There are other stand-out scenes but nothing beats that one. As I already mentioned, some fighting scenes are pretty good. For instance, the one at the climax between Marchal and exploitation great Gabriele Tinti is remarkably effective. The one on the boats is also good (the special effects are obvious though). There's also a fairly suspenseful "walls coming down to crush the hero" bit. But even with all the action, the story relies more on dialogue than action. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad, certainly during love scenes. The two heroes trying to woe that beautiful but out-of-place playboy bunny Bird Woman; the romance scenes on a whole are embarrassing, including the one when Heracles and Ulysses talk about love. But other bits of dialogue are actually clever and even thought provoking (a Peplum that's thought provoking?). The battle of wits between Ulysses and King Laro is truly memorable and fun.

The production values are not the greatest. The makeup fx of the cavemen is pretty bad. There are only a few sets. The set for King Laro, with that huge face behind Laro's throne, is memorable. The continuity is filled with errors, but this might be due to US distributors editing the original version for US audiences. The direction sometimes creates suspense and tension, which is no mean feat considering we're talking about a Peplum here. The score is good. Another plus is Georges Marchal as Ulysses. I really like Marchal as an actor. He's one of the best actors to play a mythical hero and has a truly striking presence.

Like I said, not an easy film to review, ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES is different than the usual Sword & Sandal stuff and I appreciated it for its many original aspects. Personally speaking, even with all of its obvious faults, at a certain level, I find this much more satisfactory than the much heralded COLOSSUS OF RHODES. It's worth watching.