GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *naturalistic* 
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological* 

Until I saw the above poster, with Gordon Scott's heroic Marcus on one cross and flanked on either side by two hot crossed babes (sorry, couldn't resist), I didn't notice that the same scene in the film had been intended to crudely replicate the familiar Christian scene of Jesus between the two thieves. I'm not saying that director Mario Costa was using the visual allusion for anything in particular. Although there's some plot-elements in which the good guys are being persecuted by Emperor Caracalls for being Christians, there's almost no Christian or anti-pagan polemic in GLADIATOR. And as other reviewers have noted, there's not even much gladiator-action either.

  If anything, GLADIATOR is a little more of an anti-slavery thing. Two Silicians, Marcus and his princess Nisa (blonde Wandisa Guida) are taken to Rome as slaves, with the former being trained for the arena and the latter becoming a house-slave. It's also in Rome, though, that both of them, who are not romantically involved, pick up romantic partners. Marcus becomes infatuated with a barmaid named Aglae (brunette Ombretta Colli), while a Roman noble, Valerio, becomes enchanted with Nisa. There are a lot of talking-head scenes in which the slaves plot to gain their freedom, with occasional interruptions by Gordon Scott beating up Roman soldiers. Before getting put up on a cross, Marcus is threatened with having his eyes burned out so I guess that's a little more exotic than the usual tortures.     

So, are there no bad women in this particular peplum? Female villainy does get representation from a tertiary character, Tullia (Eleanora Vargas) wife of Anno, both of whom join in tyrannizing over slaves, though I'm not even sure they cared about persecuting Christians. Actress Vargas appears to be significantly older than the other two female performers, though I don't have access to her birthdate. I heard, but did copy down, one line in which she seems to be disapproving of the younger Valerio wasting himself with a commoner female. There are no Mrs. Robinson moments as such though. In a fair number of peplum in this period, I have seen oppositions between good young women and bad older woman, so the writers of this otherwise unremarkable movie may have been playing around with that familiar trope, but not really doing much with it. Anno ends up getting killed in an end-battle that liberates Marcus and the hot crossed babes, Tullia ends up mourning him, and all the good people are freed by the auspices of a brand-new Emperor in town.     

THE INVINCIBLE BROTHERS MACISTE (1964)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*                                                                                                                          Despite BROTHERS' coming out at the end of the sixties peplum cycle, it's a decent little flick of its kind. Director/co-writer Roberto Mauri-- best known, perhaps unjustly, for the lively bad movie KONG ISLAND--   possibly took some elements from the 1961 MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, such as an underground civilization, visually dominated by a gigantic mill and politically dominated by an immortal queen. However, Mauri didn't just copy from the next student but took his creation in some interesting mythic directions.                                                                           

 In a loosely Greek-seeming domain, Prince Akim (Anthony Steffen) and his fiancee Diana (Ursula Davis) attempt to consecrate their impending nuptials by building a temple to "the gods" near a mountainside, not far from the famed "Waterfall of the Gods." In this endeavor the royal couple are aided by two local strongmen, the titular Brothers Maciste, Elder Maciste (Richard Lloyd) and Younger Maciste (Tony Freeman). The script offers no clue as to why the name Maciste, usually applied to a mysterious hero able to appear in any era he pleases to dispense justice, is used by both of these men. Perhaps both brothers are by-blows of that time-traveling hero, after he made a romantic conquest in that era. However, the attempt to lay the foundations of the new temple-- an activity that archaic peoples often considered a perilous endeavor-- the side of the mountain caves in. This damages the temple and seems to be a bad omen. While the menfolk investigate what look like ancient ruins within the mountain, Akim sends Diana back to her father's palace. (It's a little obscure, but I think the region is within the scope of Diana's kingly father, while Akim is marrying into the family to unite his realm and hers).                                                                         

 However, as Diana drives her chariot back in the company of two guards, all of them are ambushed by men wearing leopard costumes. The attackers kill the guards and drag Diana into the mountain, going in through some different access point. Inside the mountain Diana sees a huge mill being pushed by slaves, more leopard men, and the ruling queen of the domain, Thaliade (Claudie Lange). After some minor chat, Thaliade offers Diana some liquid refreshment. Diana is then drugged into submission, and she's sent back to her father's palace to work Thalaide's will. The brothers follow Diana's trail to the waterfall, and Elder Maciste tells his younger sibling to inform Akim of their progress while he the Elder One enters the mountain through the waterfall. Leopard men attack Maciste and he beats them down, but he's caught in a metal cage whose bars he can't break. A ceiling studded with spikes descends to perforate Elder Maciste's deltoids, but just when the hero's about to collapse from holding off the death-trap, Thalaide turns it off remotely and he simply collapses from the strain. Slightly later Thalaide drugs him and makes Elder Maciste her new consort, which displeases her previous consort, formerly one of the leopard-men.                               

  The mesmerized Diana appears at her dad's palace and uses a drug given her by the queen on Younger Maciste, sending him into a deep sleep. With that hero out of the way, Diana talks her fiancee into holding a parley with the ruler of the underground world, whom she claims speaks for the gods. She sells him a line about building the consecrating temple elsewhere, but this is apparently just a deception to get Akim to enter the queen's underground domain. Meanwhile back in the hidden world, Thaliade sets Elder Maciste to work turning the giant wheel, whose purpose, we later learn, generates a stream of water that confers immortality upon everyone in the hidden world. One of Thaliade's maidservants, Nila, takes a shine to Elder Maciste, gets him alone and makes love to him while expressing her desire to escape this twilight existence and enter the human world once more.                                                                                                   

As it happens, this is also what Thaliade wants, though on her own terms. When Prince Akim ventures into her court as instructed by Diana, Thalaide relates her origins. She was once a mortal princess like Diana, but one of the gods spirited her away. She enjoyed her existence in the gods' world for a time, but Venus became jealous of Thaliade's beauty. The gods' solution to this conflict was to create the underground realm for Thaliade to dwell in, along with a huge retinue of maidservants and leopard-costumed guards, all made immortal by the streams of "immortality water" dispensed by the mill. However, for some unspecified reason, Thaliade can escape her velvet prison if she marries Akim-- which she proceeds to bring about, with the mind-controlled Diana coolly observing.                       

However, back at Diana's palace her father engages a sorceress to bring Younger Maciste out of his sleep-spell. The young hero rides to the waterfall, enters the hidden world and begins thrashing every leopard man he can find. Thaliade must interrupt her wedding, sending the elder brother to fight the younger one. Elder defeats Younger and binds him to the wheel for punishment. However, while Thaliade becomes preoccupied with the wedding once more, Nila steals an antidote, uses it on Elder Maciste and brings him out of his obedient stupor. The two brothers then join in wrecking the kingdom of Thaliade, she dies in one of her own traps, and apparently most of the queen's retinue, evil or not, perishes except for Nila. At the end Akim is reunited with Diana, Elder Maciste gets Nila, and Younger Maciste gets no nookie no how.                                                     

  INVINCIBLE has some minor story flaws, such as the question of where Thalaide's retinue comes from, and why the guards dress like leopards. But there are some good mythic tropes here, arguably stronger than the ones in MOLE MEN. The emphasis upon the flowing water may remind one of the river Styx in the Greek underworld, though the Styx could confer healing, not immortality. The underground world should remind anyone of the underworld itself, though the denizens have simply put off death rather than actually having died. Most impressively, Thalaide's attempt to take Diana's place by usurping Diana's groom bears some resemblance to the Sumerian myth of Ishtar's descent to the underworld, wherein the goddess of sexual bounty loses her powers when she enters the domain of her sister Ereshkigal. The two narratives are not identical, since Ereshkigal does not have any means or intent to escape her death-realm. But there is a substitution motif in most versions of the Sumerian myth, where Ishtar can only escape her imprisonment if another entity takes her place. In addition, there's a suggestion that Thaliade's from another mortal generation than that of Akim and Diana, so she, more than a goddess might be, signifies a transgression of clan-boundaries; i.e., a "clansgression." Thus, even though INVINCIBLE seems to have fallen through the cracks in the annals of favored peplums, it deserves some serious reconsideration.      

THE TITANS (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*                                                                                                                         SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS                                                                                                                                                           THE TITANS-- given the spoofy title MY SON THE HERO in an American release-- isn't representative of what the Italian peplum-subgenre was, but I sure wish it had been. Duccio Tessari hit this one out of the park in his first directorial outing, though to be sure he had scripted or co-scripted about a dozen historical-adventure movies before TITANS. Possibly he decided he was going to throw his best efforts with respect to action, comedy and pageantry into this film, which ended up being his last real contribution to the subgenre. It's possible that Tessari's collaboration with long-time writer Ennio de Concini, who'd also labored in peplum-fields, resulted in the superior script. (They'd also collaborated, along with several other authors, on the above average GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON in 1960, but IMDB lists only De Concini and Tessari as co-writers for TITANS.)                                                                           

 In my peplum-reviews I've often picked at movies that jumbled mythological motifs. However, TITANS messes with a lot of archaic stories but produces a story that's logical on its own terms. In Greek mythology, Cadmus is a culture hero who founds the city of Thebes, and he marries Harmonia, a female occasionally given associations with ill luck. In TITANS, we first see Cadmo, King of Crete (Pedro Armendariz) and Ermione (Antonella Lualdi) in a subterranean cavern filled with mists. This is apparently the legendary Cave of the Sibyl. The two newly married royals have brought along two others: the dead body of Cadmo's previous wife and the infant daughter she birthed before Cadmo murdered the mother. The Sibyl knows exactly what the sinful couple have done and asserts that the gods of Olympus will destroy them. Further, the Sibyl claims that when the king's daughter Antiope grows to womanhood, her lover will slay Cadmo. Also, the king will die if he kills his daughter, so he, like the villains of the Jason and Perseus myths, must allow the seed of destruction to grow-- though Cadmo plans to keep Antiope cloistered so that she cannot meet men. (Parenthetically, in some variations Antiope is the name of Cadmus's mother.) And to block the possibility of immediate vengeance from Jove on high, Cadmo and Ermione bathe in the waters of the subterranean cave, becoming invulnerable to harm, as Achilles was rendered by the waters of the River Styx. (Incidentally, a minor character in TITANS is named Achilles.)                                                                                               

 Though Cadmo compounds his crime of murder by setting himself up as the God of Crete, Jove in his heavens tolerates this impiety for the next twenty years, until the babe Antiope grows into a nubile princess (Jacqueline Sassard). At this point Jove decides to liberate one of the heroic Titans whom he Jove condemned to Tartarus. Said hero is the youngest and cleverest Titan, Krios (Guiliano Gemma), though he isn't told that he's supposed to fall in love with Antiope.                 

  To get close to Cadmo for the purpose of wreaking holy vengeance, Krios becomes one of the king's gladiators. This allows him the chance to "meet cute" with Antiope. The young Titan wins the court's favor by overcoming a boulder-shouldered Black African combatant named Rator, but the generous hero also asks the King to spare Rator's life. But then Evil Cadmo decides he wants to stage his own version of "The Most Dangerous Game" with Rator as the quarry, and though Krios seeks to temporize, Cadmo's pursuit finally corners Rator near a cliffside. At this point Krios has to reveal his mission to condemn the king to Hades. Ermione shows up with reinforcements, and since Krios' sword just breaks on the flesh of the invulnerable king, the Titan and his new buddy are forced to jump off the cliff to escape, seven years before Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did the same. (By an odd coincidence Gemma and Tessari collaborated that same year on a western comedy, and an American marketer retitled it "Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid.")                                                                                         

  Since Krios has taken his best shot at doing things the mortal way, he then starts seeking to use supernatural weapons. From Tartarus he acquires an invisibility helmet and infiltrates Cadmo's castle, but his main mission is to find Antiope. Krios learns that his love has been moved to an island guarded by a Gorgon, complete with petrifying gaze, so Krios has got to do a Perseus to get past her. Krios rescues his princess, but Cadmo and Ermione get the upper hand again. Krios prays to Jove for help, calling Jove his "father" (maybe metaphorically?), and Jove releases the other eight male Titans from Tartarus to render aid. The big confrontation returns to the Sibyl's Cave, as Cadmo mounts one last defense, and Krios essentially performs the function of Jove by sending the evildoer to Greek Hell. Before watching TITANS, which I only saw once before some thirty years ago, I would have said Tessari's 1975 ZORRO was his best work. But now TITANS is my fave Tessari work, my favorite peplum, and will henceforth appear on my list of the hundred best magical-fantasy films, if I ever compile one. (Addendum: I included the category "clansgression" for this movie because of a line in which Antiope claims to be "consecrated" to her father the God of Crete, but this doesn't imply any incestuous intent on Cadmo's part, as I don't even think Cadmo and Antiope even have scenes together.)                                  

GOLIATH AT THE CONQUEST OF DAMASCUS (1965)

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

One or two online reviews tagged this late peplum movie as the reason the genre died off in the mid-sixties. Though it's a very minor example of its species, in terms of simple entertainment value DAMASCUS probably isn't much worse than a lot of lesser efforts, including the 1959 movie that initiated the often-inappropriate use of the name "Goliath" for various muscleman heroes. It's also no worse than the companion film writer-director Domenico Paolella made around the same time with many of the same cast-members, not least star "Rock Stevens" (Peter Lupus) as the hero. Some eagle-eyed reviewers spotted that DAMASCUS re-used some cavalry scenes from HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON. 

The rightful ruler of Damascus (apparently "Bagdad" in the original script) has been deposed by a usurper with the unusual name of "Thor" (Piero Lulli). When the ruler sends his beautiful daughter to be married to the prince of another realm, possibly with an eye to making new military allies, a gang of bandits abduct Princess Meriem (Anna Maria Polani). These Bedouin-looking bandits, who sport another curious name (Kara-Ghitai, which sounds like Kara-Khitai, an archaic name for China), hold Meriem prisoner, and though her father summons the help of strongman Goliath (who has no backstory), the hero arrives too late.

Skipping over a lot of boring conspiracy conversations, Goliath begins the process of infiltrating the bandits so that he can liberate Meriem. The princess' father sends Goliath to Damascus to make contact with a couple of loyalist spies, Yassour (Mario Petri) and Fatma (Helga Line). For some reason, Yassour tests Goliath's loyalty by instructing Fatma to tempt him with pleasures of the flesh, and though Goliath seems to be more intrigued than most peplum-heroes, he refuses lovely Fatma's enticements and passes the test. In due time Goliath joins the Kara-Ghitai by the unusual strategy of getting into a fight with them to prove his mettle, and surprisingly, they accept this complete outsider. They almost brand Goliath with their insider facial mark, but they get interrupted, so that the star doesn't have to spend the rest of the film with an appliance on his face.

DAMASCUS doesn't have many spectacular battle-scenes, not counting those recycled from the earlier film, and the closest thing to a demonstration of uncanny strength comes near the end, when Goliath and another muscleman force open the gates of Damascus by sheer glute-power. Goliath by himself has a scene where he stabs an enemy with a stone thunderbolt taken from the statue of a local pagan deity, but the concluding sword-battle is between secondary hero Yassour and a traitorous Bedouin. Meriem is reunited with her groom and Damascus is saved. Lupus/Stevens projects a certain degree of charm in his stolid role, but the movie's main assets are the two Euro-babes, though they don't get to do much of anything. I've seen eight of Paolella's directorial efforts (dubbed of course), and the only one I found exceptional was an isophenomenal spaghetti western called HATE FOR HATE, which genre was probably a better fit for the raconteur than that of peplum.        

TOTO CONTRO MACISTE (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

This is the second subtitled Toto comedy I watched recently, and though the mythicity of this one is no better than IL MONACO DI MONZA, the latter film is more entertaining despite being filmed in black-and-white. 

CONTRO, in addition to spoofing the peplum genre when it was still fairly popular, has a good setup. Two schemers, the wife of the Pharaoh Ramses (Nadine Sanders) and her male ally, want to overthrow Ramses. The Pharoah is served by the hulking Maciste (Samson Burke), in part because the hero is in love with Ramses' daughter Nefertiti (Gabriella Andreini), to whom the aforementioned queen is stepmother. The queen, also a witch, has poisoned the Pharoah's mind against faithful Maciste, and then offered Maciste shelter from being imprisoned. When he shows up at the queen's sanctum, she asks the hero to lead Egypt's enemies the Assyrians in an invasion to overthrow the Ramses regime. After Maciste refuses, the queen gives him a drink that immediately bends him to her will, so that he agrees to lead the Assyrians. He also swears his love to the queen and adjures Nefertiti, though in contrast to most evil queens, the Pharoah's wife isn't interested in Maciste except as a military pawn.

While Maciste runs off to join the Assyrians, two small-time entertainers show up in the Pharoah's capital city: Totokamen (Toto), who does a phony strength-act, and his manager. Through a series of misapprehensions, the Pharoah comes to believe that Totokamen is the son of the god Amon, and that he alone possesses the strength to quell the enemy Maciste.

So Totokamen and his manager get treated like visiting lords. The situation is perfectly set up so that the two plotters can make attempts on their lives to kill time before the titular confrontation. However, after one lousy test of Totokamen's strength-- which he passes only by accident-- the script instead yields loads and loads of silly banter, a lot of which is based on Italian puns. Probably the native audience liked this sort of thing. I did not. The final confrontation redeems the film a little, with Maciste tossing around boulders while goofy Totokamen uses a few acrobatic tricks to avoid being squashed. A stray boulder knocks Maciste on the head, so that he regains his regular personality, denounces the plotters and is reunited with Nefertiti. The two entertainers then take their leave, returning to their usual trade.

Since Totokamen doesn't have any real strength or skill, I judge CONTRO a subcombative work. All of Maciste's feats are uncanny, but I deem the brainwashing potion magical because the queen is showing making it out of various ridiculous ingredients, so the film is marvelous. 

VENUS MEETS THE SON OF HERCULES (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

The VENUS title is less representative of the actual movie than the Italian one, which translates as "Mars, God of War," but I'm using the English-language "Son of Hercules" name this time because it's more amusing. VENUS seems to be the only peplum on the resume of director/co-writer Marcello Baldi, though his two billed co-writers had considerable experience on other such fantasy-adventures. Nevertheless, Baldi produced a story that had a fair amount of potential, but missed the mark, possibly because of his inexperience with or disinterest in this subgenre.

Of course, since I watched an English-subtitled version, it's possible that the movie's biggest failing, that of exposition, is the result of someone cutting vital scenes. But I doubt it. VENUS just seems incoherent in too many scenes, ergo my "disinterest" remark.

A Greek city, Telbia, is besieged by invaders from Black Africa and in danger of being overthrown despite the best efforts of the ruler Antarus (Massimo Serrato). Then, as if heaven hears the desperate please of the Telbians, a single man in golden armor descends to Earth and routs the enemy forces. This warrior proves to be none other than Mars, God of War (Roger Browne), but he doesn't explain himself to the local bigwigs. He beholds enemy soldiers threatening a beautiful young vestal virgin named Daphne (Jocelyn Lane), and rescues her. Mars and Daphne exchange a few sentences and he runs off.

Now, though a lot of peplum-films may be bad overall, usually they're pretty good about explication, about explaining who's laying evil schemes and who's presenting noble resistance. But though Baldi finds time to establish that Antarus wants to seduce Daphne despite her consecration to Venus, he never establishes just why Mars decided to come to Earth. The broad implication is that he saw Daphne from afar and saved the city just for her benefit, though no one actually says this.

Instead, after various time-wasting scenes in which Antarus' mistress shows her jealousy of Daphne (though this "bad girl" never does anything truly evil), Mars seeks out Daphne at the Temple of Venus. Mars appears to still have godly powers, for he approaches the temple as an invisible man. But when he enters the shrine and encounters Daphne, he makes a vague statement about having surrendered his immortality. The poor girl barely has time to process all this when the other vestals learn that a man has trespassed upon their sacred grounds. Mars and Daphne try to hide, but suddenly phantom versions of Daphne manifest, confusing the war-god. These turn out to be sendings from Venus herself, and she spirits Mars away to her celestial palace. This puts Daphne in dutch, for Antarus is happy to condemn her for violating her virgin status.

Venus finally confronts the "son of Hercules," though she continues to keep the image of Daphne. It's not clear what relationship Venus and Mars have in this story, though one presumes that they've had sex, as in at least one famous myth-tale. She tries to seduce Mars in that form, and at least one online reviewer thought she succeeded, though I did not. However, as long as he's in Venus' palace, the mortal-ized Mars doesn't seem to be able to do anything to get free. Eventually Venus sends Mars back to Earth, some time after Daphne's been tormented in a closing wall-trap with spikes, and then condemned to be devoured by a monster plant. Mars finally crosses swords with Antarus and his men, but Daphne is accidentally slain. However, the actual father of Mars in myth, Zeus/Jupiter, takes pity on his son. The high god sends a heavenly chariot to Earth, transporting both Mars and the spirit of Daphne to Olympus, where one presumes they will become Olympian deities.

The poor execution of the story doesn't keep me from rating the movie "fair" in mythicity, since the basic idea seems to be that of a goddess manifesting through her worshiper, a frequent trope in Greek myth. The sequence of Mars held captive in Venus' chamber is well-handled, with Venus claiming to be "all women." It's just a shame that this is the movie's sole effective scene.

GOLIATH AND THE SINS OF BABYLON (1963)

 

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

I'll note in passing that one online review asserts that this was a better funded peplum that most films in the subgenre. That said, I still found that the SINS here were pretty dull.

The city of Babylon has a bad habit of demanding from vassal state Nefir thirty virgin females a year to sacrifice to their gods. Princess Rezzia (Jose Greci) would like to rebel against the evil practice, but she can't assume the throne of Nefir until she's married. However, Rezzia can only marry whoever defeats her in an arena-bound chariot-race. Wandering hero Goliath (originally "Maciste" and played by Mark Forest) takes exception to the sacrificial ritual and tosses around a few Babylonian soldiers. Some local members of a Babylonian resistance induct Goliath into their ranks, and eventually the rebels set Babylon on fire and depose its corrupt ruler.

There's so much emphasis on ordinary sword-battles (including one at sea) that there's barely any room for the usual muscleman feats of strength. There's an insidious death-trap, in which Goliath is chained to a table while numerous spears drop from the ceiling, either to hit him or torment him with near misses, but there's no big payoff to this. The best action-scene is that when Goliath goes to Nefir for whatever reason, he ends up racing Rezzia in the arena, and of course he wins. But it lacks dramatic impact because Rezzia's in love with another man, so Goliath bows out and-- I guess everyone's just okay with her marrying the guy who didn't win? There's some novelty to seeing a female character race a chariot, and I wondered if the script took a little inspiration from the Atalanta myth, in which an athletic woman races men trying to claim her hand in marriage. But if there's no real consequence to the chariot-race, so what?

The best thing in the movie might be Fabrizio, playing a comic relief midget. For a true rarity, the little hero even gets a bride his own size at movie's end.

SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *naturalstic*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

If one's not too demanding, the movie sometimes advertised as NEL SIGNE DI ROMA (translated as "Under the Sign of Rome") is probably an OK time-killer. But for a variety of reasons I found that it was more notable for all the odd things that went wrong with it-- though none of them are sufficient to make this a "so bad it's good" film.

The U.S. marketing is the first odd thing, for apparently it played here under two separate titles. The better known one is SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR, in which some marketing guy decided to stick in a random reference to someone being a gladiator (even though there are no actual games or combatants in the story). A second retitling is SHEBA AND THE GLADIATOR, which is more amusing. I hypothesize that some marketer noticed that the cast list included a character named "Bathsheba," and thought he could put more butts in seats if the title implied that the movie was about the Biblical Queen of Sheba.

There is a queen, though a lot of 1959 Americans might not have heard of Zenobia (Anita Ekberg), who ruled the land of Palmyra (modern-day Syria) in the third century. Naturally, SIGN does not seek to reproduce exact history, but it seems that the real Zenobia did rebel against the dominion of Rome-- and this is also the main conflict of the movie.

SIGN is not primarily an adventure-movie like various other "gladiator films" of the era, but a romantic drama. After Zenobia defeats a Roman legion, Rome sends more soldiers to quell the revolt. However, before Roman forces engage with the Palmyran army, Roman consul Marcus (French actor George Marchal) seeks to treat with Zenobia, though his real purpose is espionage. Zenobia doesn't deign to meet with this envoy and sends him to work in the mines, where he's punished by being hung upon (not nailed to) a cross. Then Zenobia changes her mind and invites Marcus to her court. With ridiculous ease Marcus manages to convince the queen that he's willing to turn his coat to her cause, and she promotes Marcus over native Palmyran officers.

All of this would satisfy the usual romantic formula if one could believe for an instant that Zenobia had fallen for Marcus in the early scenes. There are some more sustained romantic moments halfway through the movie, but Ekberg and Marchal have zero chemistry. Possibly stories of a chaotic shoot contributed to this basic problem.

Two other subplots are lumped in. One concerns a Palmyran plotter named Semantio (Folco Lulli), a heavyset chap who intends to take advantage of the rebellion to usurp Zenobia and bring in Rome's rivals the Persians to take over the realm. Semantio is aided by a comely dancer played by Cuban beauty Chelo Alonso, who'd soon become a celebrated peplum actress, and who bears the unusual Scandinavian name of "Erica." Erica is there just to trade lines with Semantio and do one sexy dance, after which she disappears.

The other plotline is more confusing. The aforementioned Bathsheba is a virgin dedicated to the temple of Vesta, whose worship apparently infiltrated Palmyra due to Roman influence. Bathsheba falls in love with a guy and flees her temple, so the religious authorities seek to find Bathsheba and execute her. The writers make a lame attempt to sync up Bathsheba's story with that of Semantio, as the usurper is killed by Marcus when Semantio attempts to sacrifice Bathsheba. There's not a lot of time devoted to describing the religion of Roman Vesta or its social functions-- though one online source claims that the Vestal hierarchy was somehow related to confirming Roman emperors-- but the sacerdotal references qualify in my book as a naturalistic version of the "weird societies" trope.

Though Marcus frets about betraying his newfound love, he follows through on his true mission and undermines the Palmyran forces in the field, bringing about the triumph of the Roman legions. In the movie's one memorable scene, Zenobia-- portrayed as commanding her troops in the field, though not actually fighting-- takes issue with Marcus' betrayal and impales him with a handy spear. There's a  funny line in which a doctor says such a thrust would have slain anyone less manly than Marcus, or something like that. Palmyra becomes a vassal of Rome once more. Yet Zenobia seems okay with it once she knows of the Persian threat, so she and Marcus end up in a concluding romantic clinch.

Despite Ekberg's impressive assets, her lack of chemistry with Marchal-- who isn't that great either-- isn't her sole problem. Ekberg had her positive aspects as an actress, but she couldn't put across the sense of being regal, in contrast to a few dozen actresses who labored in the vineyards of heroic adventure flicks. Yet it's hard to grade Ekberg harshly given the data that main director Guido Brignone was sidelined by illness, forcing some replacement direction from none other than Michelangelo Antonioni. I didn't see any signs of New Wave artiness in this thoroughly ordinary period flick, though. Long time Italian journeyman Riccardo Freda handled the battle scenes.

For me the film's main interest lies in its giving Ekberg her only starring "femme formidable" role. For those viewers not already devoted to period-films of the period, I don't imagine that SIGN will show any "signs" of earning a better reputation.

THE LION OF THEBES (1963)

 

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

LION OF THEBES, produced in the waning days of the peplum craze, was a loose sequel (though with none of the same actors) to 1961' s THE TROJAN HORSE, also directed and co-written by Giorgio Ferroni. This indebtedness to a slightly more reputable historical film, concerning the Fall of Troy, may be why LION didn't follow the usual "paint-by-the-numbers" formula as did so many other strongman-films.

In one variation on the story of Helen of Troy, after the city's fall she somehow ends up in Egypt, where her great beauty once more causes political complications. THE WORLD'S DESIRE, an 1890 fantasy-novel by Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang, is, aside from LION, the only other fictional story I've seen based on the archaic legend. In this version of the story, Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) escapes Troy in the company of her Greek bodyguard Arion (Mark Forest), who, despite having been in the service of her husband Menelaus, apparently followed Helen to Troy when she was maybe-abducted by Paris. Understandably, to play down the image of Helen as a faithless woman, the script doesn't dwell on that part of the story.

The two fugitives end up in Egyptian Thebes, taken in by the court of Ramses II (Pierre Cressoy). Though the Pharaoh already has a favorite named Nais (Rosalba Neri), he makes intimations that he wants to marry Helen. Arion is clearly in love with Helen and is willing to protect her against all comes, though Helen's feelings are not immediately clear. Ramses susses out his possible competition by inviting the strongman to compete in a wrestling-tournament. When Arion wins, the Egyptians dub him "the Lion of Thebes."

Ramses faces a political threat from rival pharaoh Menophis, whose soldiers have gathered near the city. However, evil usurper Tutmes steals a dagger from Arion and uses it to slay Ramses, intending to frame the Greek for the crime. Nais, knowing nothing of this plot, seeks to peacefully rid herself of the competition for "Pharaoh's favorite" by showing Arion and Helen to a tunnel  by which they can escape the city and Ramses' unwanted attentions. Tutmes foils the escape, trapping Arion between two cell-doors that descend from the ceiling (handy, in a deserted tunnel) and taking Helen prisoner.

Arion frees himself from his prison by bending the bars with his uncanny strength, after which a nice-guy Egyptian priest, not wanting Tutmes in control, guides the Greek warrior out of the city. (He also takes charge of Nais after she finds the dead body of Ramses, saying something about keeping her safe, but the would-be Pharaoh's favorite never appears again.) As Arion departs the priest tells him that among the troops marshaled by Menophis is a Greek ally, none other than Menelaus, fresh from the sack of Troy.

Arion makes his way to the camp and reports to his former commander and the husband of his beloved. To the hero's chagrin, Menelaus has zero interest in rescuing his wayward wife; he just wants to loot Thebes. Nevertheless, the forces of Menophis and Menelaus assault Thebes, and thanks to the frontal assault, Arion is able to sneak into the city and rescue Helen from a descending stone slab designed to crush her slowly. Menelaus kills Tutmes and is killed in turn. Menophis assumes control of Thebes and generously allows the two Greeks to depart in peace, with Helen pledging her love to Arion at last.

Though there are a couple of well-choreographed fight-scenes in LION, the movie is more noteworthy for Ferrone's fluid direction and well-lighted sets, and for solid melodramatic performances from the cast. Forest probably turns in the most nuanced acting seen from any boulder-shouldered hero in one of these films. The only discordant note is purely a matter of personal opinion-- why would a Pharaoh want the merely pretty Furneaux if he could already had Rosalba Neri, who had a body capable of launching a thousand, uh, ships?

URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE (1963)

 

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

LAND OF FIRE was the sixth Ursus film but the third and last to star Ed Fury, who originated the role in the initial 1961 movie, easily the best of the nine. FIRE, though, proves nearly forgettable.

One big problem with the script is that the title seems to promise some big conflict stemming from the hero's encounter with some entities in the "Land of Fire." Maybe there are some nuances left out of the English translation, but I doubt it, because the Land of Fire is just this volcano region neighboring an unnamed kingdom. For some reason the inhabitants consider the volcano-area taboo, but they don't seem to worship the volcano or anything. The taboo territory barely even affects the plot, which, as you might guess, is once more about who controls the kingdom.

Ursus belongs to some tribe of shepherds living nearby the Big Kingdom. He has a meet-cute with Princess Diana (Lucianna Gilli) when she falls from her horse into a lake. Not far away, Diana's cousin Mila (Claudia Mori) and the king's general Hamilcar (Adriano Micantoni) watch but make no attempt to succor Diana. They take custody of Diana after Ursus rescues her, but later Hamilcar misrepresents Ursus' actions as an attempt to kidnap the princess. The king sends soldiers with Hamilcar to apprehend Ursus, but he takes refuge in the taboo Land of Fire. However, this has a down side in that he gets buried in a landslide.

Hamilcar then gets condemned by the local priest for having let his men transgress on the taboo terrain, and the king seems okay with letting his general get executed. Hamilcar then kills the king and enacts a coup with his soldiers. In an attempt to legitimize his sudden ascendance to the throne, he marries Mila for her connection to the royal bloodline.

However, Ursus survives the landslide and makes common cause with Diana to usurp the man who killed her father. Though Hamilcar is unpopular with his people, Ursus has no army to call upon. Then Hamilcar and Mila put on a tournament to distract the populace with bread and circuses. Ursus disguises himself and contends with other gladiators at the tournament, hoping to undermine the new king by exposing his crimes to the people. But Mila spots Diana in the crowd and smells a rat. Hamilcar forces Ursus to try a game of tug-of-war with chariots pulling him in opposite directions. Being the hero, Ursus wins and challenges Hamilcar to combat. The ex-general simply forces Ursus to fight five warriors, but he wins this game too. However, Hamilcar simply imprisons Ursus (in a cell with a huge stone block pressing down on him) and Diana. 

During this section of the film Mila gets her big scene, relating to Diana a deep envy of her cousin's royal prerogative, and then she punctuates her enmity by whipping Diana. But Hamilcar decides he can placate the people by marrying the legitimate princess, and that's it for poor Mila. Diana's only hope is for Ursus to break free and destroy the usurper.

Fury doesn't get any outstanding fight-scenes, and both he and Gilli come off like stock characters. Mori and Micantoni aren't really any better drawn, but perhaps because they're the villains, they show a little more verve in their performances. FIRE was director Giorgio Simonelli's only peplum (though he may have done one or two period-historicals outside the strongman-genre), and I get the impression he rushed through the assignment as quickly as possible, just as the script cobbles together all the expected cliches. Simonelli probably found his true metier directing farces for the Italian comedy team of Franco and Ciccio, including the effort best known in English-language circles, THE TWO CRAZY SECRET AGENTS.

THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

I'm not sure who the "Gigantes" of the title are. Toward the middle of the movie Jason and his Argonauts fight a beast-man who's supposed to be somewhat bigger than they are, though the illusion isn't in the least convincing. Did the Italian filmmakers, including director/co-writer Riccardo Freda, mean to imply that the "giants" were the heroes in Jason's retinue, since they all depart from Thessaly on their quest? I could buy this if the crew included the many legendary names from the ARGONAUTICA of Apollonius. But the only "big name" in the crew is that of Orpheus, who doesn't perform any great musical feats. There's no Hercules, though there is a crewman with the name of Hercules' symbolic brother Eurystheus, but he like the other sailors of the ARGO is just a guy. So I suppose whoever decided on the film's main title was just choosing whatever sounded cool.

Freda's film starts out by radically simplifying the reasons for Jason (Swiss actor Roland Carey) to leave Thessaly to seek the Golden Fleece. (To be sure, the more famous 1963 adaptation by Ray Harryhausen tried to be truer to the epic, with the result that the film didn't manage to finish even an abbreviated version of the story.) In GIANTS, some random volcanic activity, supposedly sent by hostile gods, threatens Thessaly. Jason, the king of the realm, must desert his kingdom, wife and child to seek the Golden Fleece in far-off Colchis in order to end the gods' curse. (It is mentioned that the Fleece originally came from Thessaly, which is roughly true in the archaic myths, but the Fleece's extended absence seems a poor reason for the gods to devastate the whole country.) As Jason departs with his heroic men, he leaves his cousin Adrastus in charge. And in due time, Adrastus shows his true colors, making it clear that he covets both Jason's throne and his wife Creusa. (FWIW in archaic tales Creusa is best known as the name of the wife of Aeneas.)

After the Argo has been at sea for some time, the ship is becalmed and the sailors run out of water. The men campaign to turn back and go home, but Jason refuses to give the command, but also refuses to fight them. The moment he overmasters his retinue by sheer moxie, they get life-saving rain.

The next episode-- and it's a much more episodic film that the Harryhausen effort-- comes closest to the prose epic. The ship docks at an island that's never called Lemnos, but it might as well, since the isle is inhabited only by women. Queen Gaia (Nadine Duca) explains that all their men went off to war and were lost, while all of their sons died of disease. For a few minutes the sailors are beguiled by the available females, though I have to say that Freda handles the sequence so sloppily that there's barely any erotic charge. Then Jason encounters a sheep that talks like a man, one of his own transformed men. A little later he comes across the chained-up sister of Gaia, and she reveals that both sisters are the spawn of Apollo, though Gaia became an evil witch who used her powers to transform men into rocks and animals. But Jason doesn't have to fight Gaia to free his men, for conveniently Gaia simply perishes from having failed to conquer Jason's loyal heart. I guess all the women were under her control too, since they're not destroyed, and one of them stows away on the Argo to be with the sailor she loves. This sequence is obviously modeled after the "Circe" narrative in THE ODYSSEY, right down to Circe being the offspring of Helios the sun-god (a role later allotted to Apollo in Roman myth).

The Argo makes another port, and the heroes generously help the locals get rid of their ravening, Cyclops-like beast-man. Back at sea once more, one of the men discovers the stowaway Atalanta (an unbilled Moira Orfei). This revelation causes some tension against Eurystheus, the man she followed, and he nobly tries to take the blame for her actions. Then the script more or less drops the matter, and Atalanta only appears in one or two more scenes. (In some versions of the epic tale, the famed huntress Atalanta joins the crew of the Argo, so that's where the scriptwriters got the name, even if the island-woman has no relation to the famous figure.)

Finally, the ship lands in Colchis, but the heroes encounter none of the monsters familiar from the epic or from other cinematic renditions. Jason simply climbs a high wall to reach the fleece and manages to steal the prize without any of the Colchians being the wiser. Then back the ship goes to Thessaly.

Interspersed during these episodes, Freda gives the audience a few scenes of the regent Adrastus consolidating his power. He orders Creusa to marry him, threatening to sacrifice her young son if she disobeys. (This trope is another ODYSSEY-borrowing, with Adrastus as an importunate suitor trying to force Penelope, wife of the long-absent Odysseus, into marriage.) But I guess the evil regent only gets around to hatching his evil plot during the final phase of the Argo's return trip, for when Jason and his men arrive in Thessaly, the wedding is just about to commence. The heroes somehow hide themselves in big golden statues that are transported into the wedding-hall, and then the warriors burst out of them to attack Adrastus and his guards. This big finish, which may owe something both to the Trojan Horse and to the story of Ali Baba (with the thieves hidden in large oil-jars), is certainly the most energetic scene in the whole film. Oh, and bringing the Fleece back to its native land does indeed quell the nasty volcano, allowing Jason to resume his just rule alongside his wife and son.

Even if I was making a "best 100" list of magical-fantasy films made on the cheap, I wouldn't include GIANTS on the list, due to the many ways Freda and his fellow scripters blew so much of its dramatic and mythopoeic potential. But the film earns a "fair" mythicity rating just because of the Lemnos sequence. Unlike Circe in the ODYSSEY, Queen Gaia morphs into an ugly old woman when her identity as a witch is disclosed, and that motif certainly reflects the venerable trope of "woman as deceiver of man." As a side-curiosity, one of the myths of the Greek Earth-godddess Gaia is that, when she becomes perturbed at Zeus' imprisonment of her children the Titans, she tries to overthrow the King of the Gods by giving birth to a race of huge beings called "Gigantes"-- which as already mentioned is just another word for "giants."

Also, while the ARGONAUTICA is an early example of a "crossover story," the non-legendary nature of Jason's crew nullifies that aspect of the original story. Since the only action taken by Orpheus, the one "big name" in Jason's crew, is that of moaning over his lost Eurydice, I see no reason to equate this character with the master minstrel who sang his way in and out of Hell.

FIRE MONSTERS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1962)

 

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

A quick classification matter: though FIRE depicts an Ice Age in which cavemen exist alongside weird variations on dinosaurs, I don't consider this type of film to be marvelous, for reasons I explained in my review of THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR. All of the flick's monsters, as the above Italian title shows, originally had no "fiery" context, and the only flaming menace in the movie is an exploding volcano, which actually works against the villains, not the hero.

Said hero was named Maciste in the original, and this seems to be the chronologically earliest adventure of the do-gooder, who as in most other movie-iterations just pops up out of nowhere to help the oppressed. The (very bad) American dub devotes one line to giving the muscleman the name "Maxxus," and claiming that he was the son of Hercules and a goddess, though throughout the film none of his feats of strength are truly "Herculean." So I'll call the hero Maciste instead.

Fleeing the frozen wastes of migrating glaciers, the shaggily-clad Sun Tribe finds its way to an uninhabited valley and decide to build their new home there. There's a tiny bit of badinage between young chieftan Idar and his impending bride Raya, mostly regarding his lack of urgency about their marriage, but then the two are threatened by a big lake-reptile. Maciste (Reg Lewis) appears on the scene and from many miles away hurls a spear that transfixes the nasty beast, thus earning the tribe's gratitude. Then off goes the stalwart fellow, seeking other wrongs to right.

While he's conveniently absent, the equally-shaggy Moon Tribe attacks the Sun Tribe, killing many of the men and absconding with the nubile women. Whereas the noble sun worshipers dwell out in the open, the devious moon worshipers inhabit a series of caves adjacent to a volcano. At first it seems that the bulky Moon chieftain Fuan (Andrea Aureli) wants to enact a Rape of the Cave-Sabines by letting his men ravish the females. But then Fuan relates that the true purpose of the captives is to serve as sacrifices to the moon-god.

Maciste, alerted to the raid, finds his way into the caves via a waterway, but he's wounded by a water-monster. He emerges in one of the caves, where he's found by Moah (Margaret Lee), who is the one maiden whom Chief Fuan most desires. Maciste later moves a big stone to admit the vengeful Sun-People, and a battle breaks out between the tribes. Once the women of the Sun Tribe are freed Maciste again moves the big stone and most of the good primitives escape.

Maciste himself is captured and buried up to his neck in the ground. While the Moon-worshipers sleep, Moah tries to rescue Maciste, but Fuan catches her and subjects her to the same torment. However, as if in sympathy with "rock-born" Maciste, the volcano erupts, shattering the ground that imprisons the hero and his new GF. The Moon-People are forced to flee the caves, but this makes Fuan determined to take over the home of the Sun People after killing them all. Fuan even enlists an even more primitive tribe to help them out, but it avails him nothing against Mighty Maciste. When all the slugging is done, Maciste starts to fade into the sunset, but Moah shows more gumption than some other leading ladies by following her man wherever he chooses to go.

FIRE was Reg Lewis' only entry into boulder-shoulder heroics.

BEAST OF BABYLON AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1963)

 

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

This peplum benefits from a better-than-average grounding in real history and at least three charismatic players, though none of those assets keep the film from devolving into the usual cliches at the end.

The "Babylon" of the title is the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the sixth century, and the "beast" is named Balthazar (currently rendered "Belshazzar") and played by Piero Lulli. There was a crown prince of that name at the time that the Neo-Babylonians fell to the invading forces of Cyrus the Great, but it will come as no great surprise that the script for BEAST plays fast and loose with history.

The Persian king Cyrus gained great repute as a liberator of imprisoned peoples, not least because he released the Jewish slaves kept captive in the Babylonian Empire. The scripters for BEAST, one of whom was the director, turn Cyrus's wave of conquest into a crusade to abolish the ancient custom of slavery, in line with the narratives of liberation common to the strongman-films.

BEAST's strongman-- who of course is not any "son of Hercules"-- is Nippur (Gordon Scott), natural heir to the Babylonian throne. Nippur has been gone from his native city for many years, which he refers to as his "exile." However, since Nippur is said to have enjoyed a close relationship with Persian lord Cyrus in his absence, it seems likely that the script implied that he was gone due to a system of royal fosterage. This comes in handy when Nippur returns to Babylon, doesn't like how things have gone, and whistles up Cyrus to invade and overthrow the bad rulers.

His father the rightful king Sargon is absent as well (apparently imprisoned and kept hostage, though he's never seen). In the absence of both king and prince, Nippur's cousin Balthazar rules as regent, assisted by the high priestess of Ishtar, Ura (Moira Orfei). The script asserts that at some time in the past Babylon had banished both the custom of slavery and the corollary use of slaves for human sacrificial rites, and so Nippur is furious to see that Balthasar and Ura have brought the bad old days back.

Despite his uncanny strength, Nippur can't kick Balthasar off his throne, so he contacts an underground rebel alliance as well sending messages to Cyrus, who shares Nippur's progressive antipathy toward slavery and human sacrifice. Nippur also gets some possible help from Ura, who falls hard for Nippur's nipples and tries to persuade the hero to kill off Balthasar and rule a kingdom of evil beside her. However, Nippur's already fallen for a sweet young slave girl, so Ura gets nowhere with her seductive wiles. 

Once all that has been established, the rest is predictable routine, and only the principals Scott, Orfei and Lulli distinguish themselves from the dullness. Genevieve Grad plays the nice slave girl, but she has nothing much to work with even if she does get the hero in the end.

HERCULES AGAINST THE SONS OF THE SUN (1964)

 

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

Some of Italy's "Maciste" films were given "Hercules" marketing in the titles alone, while the hero's original name was used in the English dub. This time, the dub is consistent with the title, so that the Caucasian warrior is called Hercules throughout the movie, and at one point he even claims kinship with a heavenly father. However, this version of Hercules shows only an uncanny level of strength.

Hercules gets shipwrecked and ends up in South America. He meets a friendly Inca warrior, Maytha (Guiliano Gemma) and they hang out while Maytha, a prince of a local province, tells the stranger all about how he's leading a small army in revolt against the realm's capital of Tiahuanaco. The leader of the sacrificial cult is King Atahualpa, and Maytha hopes to end the evil monarch's practice of blood sacrifice. Hercules, who immediately decides that Maytha must be a good guy, decides to lend his expertise to the revolt.

Maytha also happens to have a pretty sister, Hamara (Anna Maria Pace), whom Atahualpa hopes to marry even though he already has a queen (a distinctly minor character who gets tossed aside very easily). In this routine film's only good scene, Hamara, marked for sacrifice after refusing the king, lies positioned on a slab while brightly feathered archers shoot arrows at her. Then Hercules rescues her, earning the love of Hamara and the enmity of the Inca king.

SONS is pedestrian in the extreme, and even ideologues looking to carp at such films for "white savior" tropes would barely find anything to rant about. (There is a scene in which Hercules introduces the rebel Incas to the use of wheels, the better to build mobile siege engines, but the script doesn't exploit this development.) Performances are ordinary, with Pace distinguishing herself as one of the least charismatic peplum-heroines ever. Only a handful of fight-scenes provide some diversion from the tedium.

SON OF HERCULES IN THE LAND OF DARKNESS (1964)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

In Italy this film was released as HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE. This seems a bit odd, given that there's not really any Hercules-mythology in the film, aside from the fact that the actor playing the hero (Dan Vadis) wears a beard that resembles that of the archaic model. Vadis's Hercules doesn't seem to have the marvelous strength seen in other iterations, given that he strains to perform measly feats like bending iron bars or tossing boulders. But there's plenty of marvelous content in the film retitled (for the American market) as SON OF HERCULES IN THE LAND OF DARKNESS, and, for a change, a plot-twist that departs from the usual peplum template.

Almost all of the film's action takes place in the titular "Land of Darkness," which is an underground city inside a volcanic mountain. (Guess what effect that location's going to have on the movie's climax.) The establishing action, though, takes place in some small kingdom neighboring that of the underground city, whose name (as pronounced in the English dub) sounds the Greek cognomen "Deimos." In that neighboring kingdom, protagonist Argoilis (Vadis), who remains a blank slate from start to finish, happens to come to the rescue of a princess, one Telca (Spela Rozin), Telca and Argolis fall for each other, but Telca's father says that although usually it's enough for a man to rescue a woman to lay claim to her in marriage, a special challenge is necessary to win a princess. There just happens to be a marauding dragon nearby, so off goes Argolis to slay it.

Before finding his way to the monster, Argolis stumbles across a weird old woman, (billed on IMDB as "the prophetess.") The old broad generously tells the warrior where to find a spear to kill the beast, and she asks only that Argolis should bring her one of the dragon's teeth. The hero thanks the oracle but confesses that he's already promised the teeth to Telca. The prophetess isn't upset by this development, but cautions Argolis that a dragon's tooth can protect one from harm (like the dragon's blood in the Seigfried saga), but only once. This foreshadowing sounds important but in the dubbed version the subject doesn't come up again until movie's end.

Argolis returns to the nice little kingdom but finds that many of its people, including Telca and her father, were carried away for human sacrifice by the people of Deimos. While Argolis makes his way to Deimos, the story briefly shifts to Telca's POV in the court of Deimos' evil queen Etel (Carla Calo). Imperious Etel doesn't know Telca's princess identity, but she automatically does what most evil queens do: she makes the nice girl into her servant. Slightly later, Telca gets the lowdown on Etel from her stepdaughter Melissa (Maria Fiore). Melissa holds Etel responsible for all the evils of the underground city. One of these was ascending to the queenship after marrying Melissa's father King Kabal (Ken Clark). This information seems dubious because throughout the film Kabal is always seen standing near the throne but never sitting on one, so the original character may have been a simple counselor whom the dub chose to upgrade. Melissa also claims that Etel initiated the Deimosian's sacrificial rituals, which appear to vary between cannibalistic consumption of flesh or the drinking of victims' blood. This too is a little dubious, as one doesn't expect healthy habits of people living underground in a slumbering volcano. But at any rate, Telca seems to have made one valuable ally in Melissa.

Argolis, accompanied by a comical sidekick, attacks the city. The hero is captured, while the clownish fellow escapes. Etel sentences the strongman to be torn apart by two elephants in the local arena. To the surprise of all Deimos, Argolis, though apparently just a really powerful mortal, resists the opposing pull of the two beasts. A rope breaks and a mad elephant charges the queen's seat in the stands. However, chivalrous Argolis grabs the elephant's leg and prevents the creature from trampling Etel.

Etel decides to cultivate Argolis as her lover, little realizing that her own serving-girl has a claim on him. Argolis plays a waiting game by flattering the glamorous monarch and watching for his chance to rebel. I'm not sure what happens to his dragon tooth during this time-frame, but since it's referenced later, maybe he gives it to Etel as a keepsake. Later he finds Telca's father imprisoned in Etel's dungeon but can't free him just yet.

Then the twist comes in. Up to this point, the viewer would have tended to assume that Melissa was going to be an ally to poor persecuted Telca. But while Etel is waiting for an assignation with Argolis, Melissa sneaks up behind the queen and stabs her to death. (She may also take the dragon's tooth; not sure.) With Etel dead, Melissa goes to Kabal-- again, supposedly both the king and her father-- and tells him to make her the new queen. One might assume this involved the "king" marrying his "daughter," but since Kabal doesn't bat an eye at Melissa's claim to the throne, this would seem to prove he's not her relative in any way. So Melissa is the new boss, same as the old boss, and one of her first acts is to have Telca hooked up to some device that drains her blood for future consumption. Argolis is too busy fighting soldiers to help the heroine, but to Telca's good fortune, the blood transfusion wasn't intended to be fatal, for she's still alive, albeit a captive, when she's next seen. 

There's some comic business in which the sidekick enters the story again and poses as one of the Deimos soldiers to help Telca's father and his men escape. The good king escapes but dies trying to save his daughter. With the help of a local, Argolis learns that there's a method of unsealing the furies of the volcano to destroy the city, so the hero journeys to the belly of the beast and does the deed. Then while the ground shakes and the populace flees, the hero goes looking for Telca. He finds Melissa alone in her throne room and offers to help her escape the volcano's lava if the queen helps him find Telca. The hero also mentions that the dragon's tooth in Melissa's possession won't help now-- did it help her avert death in some deleted scene?-- and then he goes off and finds Telca on his own. If you have any doubts as to who escapes the volcano and who doesn't, you've never seen any kind of adventure-movie before. Oh, and Argolis also kills off Kabal in battle, thus leaving no loose ends.

There's not enough development of Deimos as an "anti-civilization," where the people drink blood and eat flesh to absorb the qualities of proper living people, but even the undeveloped idea is better than just the average old corrupted kingdom. The action seems to set up Etel as an "evil stepmother" type of villain, out to poach on the guy committed to an age-appropriate lady. But then Melissa gets rid of her stepmother to become the new queen, and the new villain has no interest either in Argolis or in The Character Who's Probably Not Originally Her Father. That means the Electra-theme doesn't apply here, while any potential "Phaedra-theme" goes off the rails. It's a shame that visually director Alvaro Mancori-- usually a cinematographer-- relies most of the time on long-shots and middle-range shots, which blunts a lot of the action scenes. Flaws aside, though, I would have to consider LAND OF DARKNESS for my list of top 20 Italian peplum-movies of the period.