The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules

Another case of where the dubbing destroys a decent little movie. The subtitled version I saw under the title of Hero of Babylon is much better than the Beast of Babylon with English dubbing. For what ever reason it plays less silly. The plot is the typical muscle bound hero fights and wins the freedom of an oppressed people but its done with just enough conviction of the leads that you do care what happens. The film is a really good action film for most of its run, falling into a bit of silliness as the tries to tie up all the plot threads.

Say what you want about the genre of sword and sandal films. Without any historical credibility whatsoever or any similarities with the historical/mythical characters that give the heroes their names some muscle men, mostly American bodybuilders fight for freedom and glory somewhere in the ancient world. This time around it's Gordon Scott as prince Nippur (name taken from an ancient Summerian city located in modern day Iraq) returning from exile after calls from the oppressed people of Babylon, tormented by their usurper with slavery and human sacrifices. In the tradition of Samson and Hercules prince Nippur has superhuman strength, hence overpowering the evil forces to bring freedom and justice back to the empire. Sounds a bit like Anakin Skywalkers/Darth Vaders monologue before the climatic battle at the end of Star Wars Episode 3, though the story is a little too interlaced for film of that length. I like this cheesy flicks on a lazy Saturday morning like today, especially as I', down with a cold, the downside of this movie is that there are way too many characters, both good and evil,too long scenes of sacrifices and random violence against the slaved populace - I mean we get it, the bad guy is REALLY bad - and stereotypical scenes where the trapped or chained hero overcomes all odds in a heroic display of his power to jump in for the rescue at the end. It is entertaining, no doubts there, but with a dozen women wearing same or similar wigs all guys wearing fake beards and armor it's kinda hard to follow the story in detail. You leave for 5 minutes and you don't know what happened cause all throughout the flick new characters are introduced - or killed. The story itself is very interchangeable, so if you'd put in Hercules and a Greek polis where this stuff had happened, it would have worked just as well. For situations like mine atm, where I can't do anything else anyways this film is good, would have been perfect if the storyline was more simple, but other than that it has most things that makes a cheesy sword and sandal flick so entertaining. Silly costumes, bad acting, bad fake beards, bad wigs, random backdrops from obviously various other productions and lots of scenes where a muscle man can show his biceps. 4 or 10 points, however quite entertaining.

In THE BEAST OF BABYLON AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, the eeevil, Babylonian King Balthazar (Piero Lulli) has decided that he's not oppressing his people quite harshly enough. He soon remedies this..

Enter Nippur (Gordon Scott), who quickly finds opportunity to crush the king's troops with a handy log, while rescuing a slave girl in the process. Not-so surprisingly, our humongous hero is on a collision course with Balthazar.

Infiltrating Babylon, Nippur buddies up with the king, while wearing a fashionable shower curtain, throw rug, and table cloth ensemble. Don't worry, he soon gets to throw Balthazar's men around like sword-wielding coconuts!

QUESTIONS: #1- Can Nippurcules deliver the slaves, and allow the true heir to take the throne? #2- How does Balthazar stand up while wearing that space station-sized crown on his noggin? #3- What exactly is the meaning of the interpretive dance during the human sacrifice? #4- When Hernippules gets wounded, how will he save everyone?

This all leads to the gigantic battle-filled finale, featuring Hippurnules in the showdown of showdowns!

One of the best in the so-called "Sons Of Hercules" series. Just try getting the theme song out of your head!

Invite the friends! Mix the drinks! Get comfortable! Prepare to roar!...

The rightful heir (Nippur) to the throne of Babylon leads a slave revolt against an evil ruler.

In a brightly-coloured, reasonably well-concocted escapist fare, Gordon Scott takes on the Babylons in order to free the slaves thrown in the fire for sacrifice as well as seeking his father. He's excellent as always, exuding energy and the action scenes are exciting and well staged, and rather lifts this adventure. The stunts are impressive such as as the one Nipur's friend, Namar, is being chased by soldiers atop the roofs of the Babylonian city. With nowhere to go, Namar leaps from the top of one of the buildings down onto two of men waiting below. There's nothing to cushion him below.

The villainy is always good in these type of films - Moira Orfei sizzles as the evil and duplicitous Ura and the guy who plays Balthazar is a true nut job. The slave capturing scenes and throwing them in the fire can be grim.

This typical peplum featuring Gordon Scott would like to be something more than what it actually is, since the star is not some muscle-bound historical figure (which he would often get to play) but rather the returning son of a deposed king; even so, an alternate title for this was THE BEAST OF BABYLON AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, adopted for commercial TV screenings! Still, before long, Scott is fighting off the villain's soldiers single-handedly, throwing the latter around as if they were puppets and flattening three of them at once with a log, and removing a series of prison shackles by a mere exertion of his muscles!

As usual, among the members of the rebellion against the tyrant in power (an appropriately sinister Piero Lulli, further distinguished by sporting an elaborate head-dress) is a girl whom the hero contrives to save against all odds and fall for, ensuring that when he eventually gains the throne for himself (since his father, thought a prisoner, is really dead) there will be a Queen ready to take her place by his side!; the villain, too, has a companion in evil i.e. genre fixture (and future circus owner!) Moira Orfei. By the way, the only credits to appear on the print I watched where those of the male lead and the film's very title!