Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon

"Peter Lupus of 'Mission: Impossible' fame stars as the legendary Hercules. He is on a mission to rescue the beautiful Queen of the Hellenes, who has been kidnapped and enslaved by the ruler of Babylon," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. Yes, three thousand years ago in the city of Babylon, popular TV series supporting player Peter Lupus (as "Rock Stevens") had a career in muscle-man movies from Italy. This one, translated literally by American International Pictures as "Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon", is ponderous to a fault. Beautifully shaped Helga Line is the highlight.

*** Ercole contro i tiranni di Babilonia (12/25/64) Domenico Paolella ~ Peter Lupus, Helga Line, Mario Petri, Livio Lorenzon

Peter Lupus (aka Rock Stevens) stars as Hercules in this colorful Italian sword-and-sandal opus, one of four Lupus made in Italy in

1964-65, before rocketing to stardom in the Mission Impossible TV show. We don't really think of any particular manner of dress in Babylon-- at least I don't!--so the costumers came up with some outlandish fashions here, and the art design is also creative! The scenes of intrigue in the palace are dramatically well-done and feature peplum/swashbuckler regular Livio Lorenzon as the ruler of Babylon, dealing with both his queen, the King of Assyria, and Hercules, who has come to reclaim the Queen of the Hellenes, taken as a Babylonian slave. In some scenes in the film Hercules has a over-large club that he both swings at people and throws! It lends a comic-book flavor to those sequences that is not really in keeping with the serious nature of the rest of the film. Lupus has a powerful physique and is one of the best actors in the peplum genre--all four of his Italian films are worth watching and are distinctly different from each other. Domenico Paolella directed three of Lupus' four peplums and also worked with such Amercians as Guy Madison, Lex Barker, Ed Fury, Don Megowan, Richard Harrison, Mark Forest, Ken Clark, John Ericson and John Ireland. Whether a peplum, a pirate film, a spy film, or a western, he seemed to be able to put together a fast-moving and entertaining feature. Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon is recommended to any serious peplum fan. The VHS copy I watched, while a pan-and-scan TV print, is crisp and clear and colorful.

Hercules is a quasi-hero here, overall does the 'good' thing though it's always important to remember that civilians can often be collateral damage when collapsing buildings and empires. I guess finesse isn't a Herculean trait. Along with the strongman sorts of acts, there was a fair bit of fighting to be had as well. Some political intrigue brought about mild interest into how all this was going to unravel.

Plot became very contrived, predictable, and absurd, but am fairly sure this wasn't the point of the movie. Acting was very much lacking by most, especially those who had a lot of screen time. I'm alright with hokey effects, but there's got to be some points of redemption somewhere.

Okay sword & sandal epic. Lupus isn't really that bad; this film portrays the strong man as smarter than usual, which is a plus.

The hero of the film is really the Biblical Samson (the slaves are quite obviously Hebrew, the promised land obvious Isreal). God knows why they bothered to reference Hercules on release - maybe they were afraid of being accused of blasphemy for making a cheap B-movie about the Old Testament hero.

As noted by others, the best scenes in the film are actually borrowed from other films. But the action sequences filmed for this movie itself are pretty much par for the course, but nothing special.

Dull in spots, but not without its occasional flashes of Saturday matinée fun.

Domenico Paolello, an Italian director most well known for films in the genre of Hercules (huge classical folk hero versus miscellaneous hordes of evil-doers), directed this fairly typical Hercules film from the mid-1960s. Paolello often worked with American body-builder Rock Stevens during this time, and Stevens was cast as Hercules for this film. Stevens would later sharpen his acting abilities and develop a charismatic and much more memorable character on the popular Mission Impossible TV show (Willie Armitage). At this point in his career, however, Rock was really just another Hercules - albeit one of the most impressively ripped and tall. Like most of the leading men used for this series, he expends little effort acting, and does a lot of flexing, tossing, punching, lifting, etc.

The plot is a bit more complex than the usual beautiful treacherous woman/mysterious powerful empire/classical times Hercules story. Set in the Middle East, the Queen of Helene has been captured by the tyrannous Babylonian council of three. Herc, whose relationship with his queen seems a bit more devoted than the average Greek's, comes to the rescue and quickly becomes a pawn in a vast, confusing, game of thrones. The plot, which is more sophisticated than the average Herc-flick, had some potential, but execution was a bit underwhelming.

Though epic and formulaic, Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon does not present the standard level of grand action Hercules films typically engender. Stevens' best moments are his few fight scenes - where he can use his remarkable physical presence to the greatest advantage - but these are relatively few and far between. Though the Middle Eastern scenery is adequate, the sets and costumes are not nearly as impressive or detailed as many of the other Herculean adventures. Finally, the film's pace is inconsistent. Just as it threatens to lull you to sleep, a crucial fact is presented or the plot takes a big twist.

Recommended only for Hercules fans.