Bartolomeo Pagano -- here credited as simply Maciste; his calling card verifies this -- is in Austria on the day war is declared. He is interned, along with other Italian subjects. After tormenting the giards, he leads his fellow Italians to freedom, aided by kindly Count Enric Gemelli. As soon as he's back in Italy, Maciste enrols in the Alpine regiment. He captures nasty German Fido Schirru, who crows that Gemelli is now a prisoner of the Austrians. But the Alpines are valiant, and they clear the Austrians out of the mountains, and then attack Gemelli's castle which is held in overwhelming number by the rotten Austrians. But then, the Italians have Maciste on their side.
There are lots of amusing bits for Pagano to do, but the highlight of the movie is the stuntwork, with the men playing the Alpines transporting men and material up the mountains and across vast chasms Although the Mountain movie would reach its heights over the next couple of decades under directors like Fanck, here Giovanni Pastrone and his cinematographer Giovanni Tomatis show they know what it's all about.
