Hercules the Invincible

Sword and Sandal films are perhaps the most nerve-wracking movies to try and track down. They usually have numerous different titles, versions and edits. This one is a prime example. Many of the reviews here trashing it for "stealing scenes" from other flicks (including the iconic 1958 Hercules starring Steve Reeves) are actually reviewing the more commonly available US TV Edit by Joseph E Levine which did in fact replace scenes from this flick with that previous one, which he also did US distribution for. In such a case when you are literally viewing half the movie, not just the edits but the chopping off of half of the screen to get a cinemascopic picture to fit to a 4x3 TV, one's assessment can be unfairly ravaged because you are only seeing fragments of what a movie is meant to be! I was fortunate enough to catch the original and superior Italian version which is likely to please anyone who finds a title like "Hercules The Invincible" tantalizing enough to merit a watch in the first place. Although the Italian version is missing the groovy narration added to the US Version - guaranteed to take you back to your childhood living room floor in front of the old TV set - it is an overall better viewing experience.

Take all the "Hercules" movies and boil them down to a series of plot essentials and you'll come up with something close to this movie. It has the muscular hero whose hairless chest is almost constantly on display and whose favorite wardrobe items are mini-mini-skirts and lace-up boots. The hero fights a few real beasts -- a lion and a bear -- as well as a mythical one: a dragon. He acquires a chubby, timorous sidekick who provides comic relief. He falls in love with the daughter of a king whose kingdom is taken over by a wicked queen. The hero becomes this queen's captive. She orders him to be pulled apart, wishbone-style, by teams of wild animals. (Elephants, this time, instead of horses.) The hero emerges unscathed from this ordeal. The queen falls in love with him but he remains true to the deposed king's daughter. The queen's slaves rise in revolt and her city is destroyed by a wave of lava. The hero and the king's daughter walk hand-in-hand to the cheers of the liberated citizenry.

So, if you see this movie, you've seen virtually all the other "Hercules" movies!

Dan Vadis lacks Steve Reeves' looks and charisma but he's in his physical prime here, looking appropriately brawny but not muscle-bound. Particularly noteworthy are his silver-dollar-sized nipples which punctuate his chest like a pair of decorative decals.

Ken Clark lists this movie on his filmography and the credits list a "Ken Klark" but if he's in here, he's hard to spot. Possibly he plays the evil general with the Fu Manchu make-up?

Super-buffed bodybuilder, Dan Vadis, as Argolese, certainly made for a mighty impressive son of Hercules, even though, according to ancient legend, Hercules never had any sons.

As our story in this Italian import unfolds - Argolese falls head-over-heels in love with Telca, daughter of King Tedaeo, whose great kingdom is being held in thrall by the fierce army forces of the evil queen, Etel.

Somewhere along the way Argolese (accompanied by his chubby, comic sidekick, Barbar), manages to fight off attacks from lions, bears, and even a nasty-tempered dragon, too.

Following his brief stint as a son of Hercules, chiseled muscleman Dan Vadis (1938-1987) went on to appear in 3 Clint Eastwood films - "High Plains Drifter", "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way You Can".

Son of the great man - Argolese (Vadis) - saves heiress Telca (Rozin) from the clutches of a fearsome bear and is granted her hand in marriage by her father the king (Sasso). Before they can marry, Argolese must recover the tooth from a dragon - which he duly does, but discovers on his return that the kingdom has been overrun by bandits and his wife-to-be, kidnapped and enslaved by the evil Queen Ella (Brown). Argolese must overcome not only the Queen, but her trusted right hand man (Clark) and his scheming daughter (Fiore) who has designs on the throne.

Vadis is a behemoth (and looks like he's just performed a thousand hack squats before each take), although not as anatomically gifted as Steve Reeves or Reg Park, he still towers above the rest, dispatching men, horses, bears, boulders - he is apparently impervious to just about anything (except a pair of elephants trained to tear his limbs off). Rozin is innocent and sweet, whereas Fiore is the smouldering siren, but with a megalomaniacal streak that makes her both feisty and attractive. Me thinks Argolese, the great chastity-breaker, should re-consider his choice of damsel.

If you're accustomed to the peplum genre, then this "Son of Hercules" tale will be no more, no less what you'd expect with another amiable muscleman, scantily-clad babes and the ubiquitous comedian covering all the bases adequately.

Hercules (Dan Vadis) strangles a lion to save Princess Telca (Spela Rozin). Her grateful father promises him the hand of his daughter, but only if Hercules can slay a dragon, too. Hercules falls in love with Telca's beautiful blue eyes and decides it's worth trying. He makes the acquaintance of a witch in a cave. After a few evil 'Ha! Ha!' laughs, she provides Hercules with a spear that can kill the dragon - actually a clumsy dinosaur who lives in a remote valley, doing no harm. When Hercules returns, Telca and the king have been abducted by people from the 'Land of Darkness' who always need victims for their blood rituals. Of course, Hercules follows the raiders, determined to rescue the princess. Evil queen Melissa has other plans, though...

Colourful adventure with a lot of action and just enough comic relief. Sometimes movies of this genre drag on and on with pathos and too much dialog, but this is not the case here. It was good fun watching it. I'd like to see the Italian original though, because the American version seems to be re-edited and several minutes shorter.