Vulcan, Son of Jupiter

This medium-scale peplum has a problem: Venus. And the problem with Venus is that she's a no-good tramp, whom no man or god can resist because she's so beautiful. (It's actually kind of hard to tell just how beautiful the actress is; one suspects she really would look rather ordinary if you scraped away the ton of makeup.) Apparently even the gods can only take so much scandalous behavior, so in order to "tame" Venus, it is decided to marry her off. Yeah, that'll work. The main candidates are Vulcan and Mars; Mercury, played rather conspicuously as gay, is obviously not in the running. When the squabbling between these rivals (not helped by the meddling of Gordon Mitchell's scheming Pluto) gets to be too much, Jupiter banishes the lot of them to Earth, where they must contend with mortals, Lizard Men, armies, barbarians, and so forth.

This isn't exactly a "good" movie, but it's a fun peplum, in large part because much of it takes place in the realms of the gods, where modest but nice sets, garish colored lighting, and lots of dry ice make a stylish impression a la (if hardly in the same league as) Bava's "Hercules in the Haunted World." Some will argue there's not enough "action," but things move fast enough. And frankly I think the dullest thing about these movies is that they often spend so much time having extras march around and have unconvincing sword fights in interchangeable desert-type settings. So this movie's emphasis instead on fantasy and intrigue is an improvement, in my book.

As Vulcan, Iloosh Khoshabe (who had a career in Iranian films before and after his run of Italian muscleman roles) has a fine physique, but he's a pretty colorless actor. Perhaps to make up for that lack, most of the other actors ham mercilessly, abetted (in the dubbed print I saw) by some comically stilted English dialogue. As Mars, Roger Browne also spends the whole movie shirtless to good effect. Annie Gorassini's Venus pouts and poses (albeit with a very 1960s hairdo) in an entertainingly campy fashion. As the "nice girl" Vulcan ultimately prefers, buxom Bella Cortez nonetheless performs a "dance" where she just kinda struts around in a bikini, at one point simply lying down in front of our hero and writhing.

Well, nobody watches a movie like this for the choreography...or the acting. Given the leads' natural attributes and minimal clothing (plus the whole plot being motivated by Venus' allure and insatiable appetites), this is a slightly sexier peplum than most.

I wonder if this movie was shot back-to-back with "The Seven Tasks of Ali Baba," because it involves the same director and much of the same cast. In any case, I saw there were several versions of "Vulcan" on YouTube, and watched the one that had the best-quality print in terms of definition and color (though it wasn't the most complete re: running time). That was a good decision, because this movie's silly charms are almost entirely visual. I wavered between giving this a 5 and a 6, but if it had been seen in a washed-out, 3rd-generation TV print, it probably wouldn't have earned more than a 4.

Once again, blue-eyed blonde Venus (Annie Gorassini) has fled from the Olympus to Earth - to enjoy the company of a man. Jupiter sends a dart against Adonis, who falls dead at Venus' feet. Mars insinuates that Jupiter is afraid of Venus, "the most beautiful woman on Earth". Juno, Jupiter's wife and Mercury insist with Jupiter (Furio Meniconi) that Venus herself should be punished. But Jupiter hesitates about to whom Venus should be married. Jupiter decides she shall marry her soon to one of the candidates: Maciste (Iloosh Khoshabe as Rod Flash), a mortal working in Vulcano's cave, and Mars (Roger Browne), the god of War. But when the two get into a fight about this, Jupiter postpones the decision; first they are both to live without their divine powers for two months as punishment. Then Mars abducts Venus, allied with Pluto and Eris, and works out a plan involving a bamboo tower high enough for the soldiers of the Thracian King to attack Jupiter in the high Olympus.

The movie starts really fun: At the beginning Vulcan has to go through on Earth is to deal with "lizardmen" who are normal people in the cheapest costumes. But after that, unfortunately, it goes steeply downhill. Funny encounters and fights are also missing; it's just enough to beat up a few cavemen. The "plan" of the villains never makes any decisive progress, so that they are degraded to a completely static existence, and Vulcan's ramblings also seem senseless and aimless. Here is a real peplum fight between giants of strength and evil. Usually, in peplums, the gods tend to be background characters, influencing and directing the destinies of the heroes of ancient times. This time, it is the opposite; a story about battles between the most powerful in the universe. The leading role was by the hunk Iloosh Khoshabe was born in in Iran (1932-2012). He was a mediocre actor, known for The Seven Tasks of Ali Baba (1962), The Invincible Brothers Maciste (1964) and Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (1963). Costars by Sword and Sandals regular Roger Browne who was a popular as well as untalented player at the time, a mediocre actor who couldn't carry a rickety product like this. He starred some spy movies , such as: Rififi in Amsterdam, Operazione poker, Operation Mogador and 'Superseven chiama Cairo' that was the previous entry of Superseven also directed by Lenzi. And special mention for the foloowing: the ever gorgeous Bella Cortez who shows off in the usual dance, in fact the Cuban Chelo was a cabaret artist when she was discovered for the cinema; the very beautiful and erotic Annie Gorassini (8½ by Fellini) , the American actor and bodybuilder Gordon Mitchell (Maciste the Colossus,), who starred in many Speghetti Westerns, and comic relief is provided by the little guy Salvatore Fumari who played several Peplum in similar roles.

Vulcano, figlio di Giove(1962) stans out the brilliant and luminous cinematography by Mario Parapetti shot on location in Iran and Lacio, Rome, Italy. As well as the evocative and catching musical score by Marcello Giombini. The motion picture was average but professionally directed by italian filmmaker Emmimmo Salvi .This craftsman wrote and directed all kinds of genres , such as : Peplum/Adventures : Seven Adventures of Ali Baba or Le 7 fatiche di Alì Babà , Titan versus Vulcanus , david and Goliath , Giant of Metropolis or Il gigante di Metropolis , Treasure of the Petrified Forest , Sinbad and the seven Saracens ; Spaghetti : Wanted Johnny Texas , Three bullets for Ringo ; Monster movie : Un gangster venuto da Brooklyn ; Eurospy : None But the Lonely Spy . Rating : 5.5/10. Regular but acceptable Peplum , only for hardcore aficionados and completists. It remains an overall unfortunately mediocre overall impression.

The Roman Gods take center stage in this one with an old fashioned Olympic triangle taking place at the home of the Gods. Venus, the God of beauty and love is making a play for Vulcan and she's got him panting hot and heavy after her. That upsets Mars and Jupiter banishes all three to earth to sort it all out.

Vulcan finds himself a nice earthly mortal who rivals Venus for her beauty, but he still doesn't like Mars. And Mars has got himself a Tower of Babel like scheme whereby he allies himself with some earthly despots to build a tower as tall as Olympus. Can Vulcan stop him in time from challenging Jupiter himself?

The Greeks and Romans did not believe in one all seeing and all pervasive spirit like Deity. They liked their immortals with all the, dare I say it, human frailties built in. The idea for the film is an interesting one, but the roles would require some classically trained actors, not people who are used to peplum spectacles.

Cheap Italian 1960s sword & sandal "epic" about Greek God Jupiter tiring of his daughter Venus' wildchild promiscuous ways and decides it's time to marry her off. This leads to many potential suitors and much infighting among the gods. Badly dubbed, ridiculously cheap special effects, and generally poor production values make this a far cry from "Jason and the Argonauts" or "Clash of the Titans," but there is something endearing about these sorts of awful films and "Vulcan, Son of Giove" is a pretty respectable entry in the disreputable Italian muscle man sub genre (i.e. remember that SNL skit where Bill Murray played Hercules? "That boulder is too large. I could move a smaller one."). Although not a good film in the conventional sense, I was very much entertained.

This movie was mostly unavailable until the 1980s when it was released on video during the "put everything onto video" craze. It was made in 1962 during the Peplum era and then sort of disappeared. It has an OK story but is only 1 h 16 mins long which didn't fit the mould for TV or theaters. However, it has musclemen, great female stars , lizard men and lots of action. There are many good copies on Y/T, so watch and enjoy. Roger Browne told me this should have been distributed better. Larry Anderson.