THE FURY OF HERCULES (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Usually, when two films are crafted back-to-back, they're roughly of the same quality, be that good or bad. But not long after Gianfranco Parolini wrote and directed the banal SAMSON, he followed it up by writing and directing THE FURY OF HERCULES, which also shared many plot-elements and at least three actors. Yet FURY is actually modest fun, so maybe Parolini took a little time to warm to his theme.

The hero actually seems to be the real Hercules (Brad Harris)-- at least, he never denies being the Son of Zeus-- though FURY boasts none of the marvelous phenomena one usually associates with a Hercules film. Old Herc, apparently a rootless wanderer, happens to wander back to the city of Arpad, expecting to hang out with his old friend the king. A bunch of local soldiers try to imprison the stranger, and after he's beaten them up, they reveal that the old king has died and been succeeded by his daughter Cnidia (Mara Berni). Hercules only remembers Cnidia as a young girl, but when he's brought into her courtroom, it's evident that Cnidia is more than a little interested in the Herculean hunk.

Like the cognate figure in SAMSON, Cnidia isn't a bad queen, but she's listened to bad advisors, and that means she's going to meet the same bad end as a really bad queen. Said advisors have been keeping the people down with the usual excuse of "security" against external enemies, and inevitably, Hercules makes common cause with a group of rebels, one of whom  is the movie's good girl (Bridgette Corey) while the other is a lesser muscleman (Alan Steel, recycling a similar role from SAMSON).

Hercules may not lift titanic weights or stab hydras. but he manages some good uncanny feats, like breaking out of a room with a relentlessly descending metal ceiling. However, what makes FURY enjoyable are some of the humorous side-characters: an older married couple among the rebels, who bicker to show their love, and a boastful young Hotspur who wants to emulate the Son of Zeus. Cnidia is more sympathetic than the similar figure in SAMSON, but surprisingly, the good girl doesn't get the guy in the end either. This is puzzling, since the mythic Hercules married four times and no one in the audience would have cared if he'd picked up a fictional fifth wife.