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.

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.

The tyrant Balthazar (habitual nasty Spaghetti Western , Folco Lulli), usurper of Babylone , rules the city with violence and atrocities . He organizes continuous sacrifices of maids along with the priestess (Moira Orfei , Peplum usual , along with her sister Liana Orfei) of Astarte . Nippur (Gordon Scott , here one of the few movies to show him with chest hair) , legitimate heir of throne , returns from exile with aim to retrieve the kingdom left by his father Sargon , kidnapped by Balthazar . During his journey , Nippur frees Tamira (Genevieve Grad ), a Jewish girl prepared to be sacrificed for Goddess Ishtar . Nippur is imprisoned by the usurper , but he escapes and is helped by king Persian Cyrus (Mario Petri).

This is an agreeable Sword and Sandals movie with noisy action , extraordinary adventures , usual dancing scenes and spectacular final battle . Gordon Scott is nice as the mythical hero who finds several dangerous situations while attempting save his lover and recover the throne . He acted as a bouncing hero in great number of films and was randomly assigned the identity of Hércules , Goliath , Samsom for US viewers . Scott usually playing historic characters , such as ¨Coroliano¨, ¨Mucius Scevola¨ and ¨Remo¨. He was one along with Ed Fury, Dan Vadis, Alain Steel , Mark Forest, Reg Park , among others, whom the seek fame and fortune acting absurdly muscle mythological figures, but nobody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity.

The film follows a similar plot to famous film ¨Intolerance¨ (1916) by D.W. Griffith , about fall of Babylone , though here appears a pretty malicious Balthazar , well played by Folco Lulli , but not the biblical history about 'prophet Daniel and the lions' . However , the movie has not mythological accuracy , neither expecting historical . Other pictures about these Babylonic events are the followings : ¨I Semiramide (1953)¨ by Primo Zeglio with Ivonne Furneaux and John Erickson ; ¨Semiramis, slave and Queen¨ by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia ; and ¨Seven thunderbolts(1962)¨ by Silvio Amadio with Jackie Lane and Howard Duff .

Among other disappointments with The Beast Of Babylon was the fact that the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon were nowhere to be seen. It was one of those 7 wonders of the ancient world and I thought that at least we'd get a depiction. Probably not in the budget.

It's the last days of the Babylonian Empire though few want to talk about it. Mostly because they are ruled by a genuine nut case Balthazar played in ancient Snidely Whiplash fashion by Piero Lulli.

The hero of the piece is Gordon Scott formerly a big screen Tarzan with pecs to die for. He's been spending time at the Persian court where among other things they have adapted a monotheistic religion courtesy of Zarathustra and they've developed a toleration policy for religious and ethnic minorities.

Not so in Babylon where minorities if they're young and beautiful women are tossed into a fiery pit as sacrifice to the head Deity Ishtar. With the emperor getting appropriate jollies.

A lot of recycled material from other Peplum films gives The Beast of Babylon a rather tired look to it.

And in a film centered in Babylon I figured to see those hanging gardens.

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!...