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Italian (Maciste e la regina di Samar), 1964. Alpha Video DVD Cover
Directed by Giacomo Gentilomo
Written by Arpad DeRiso, Giacomo Gentilomo, Angelo Sangermano,
Nino Scolaro
Produced by Luigi Mondello
Music by Carlo Franci
Cinematography by Oberdan Troiani
Special Effects by Ugo Amadoro
Cast
Sergio Ciani (as Alan Steel) (Maciste {Hercules})
Jany Clair (Agar)
Anna Maria Polani (Selena/Billis)
Nando Tamberlani (Claudis)
Delia D'Alberti (Queen Samara)
Jean-Pierre Honoré (Derax)
Features
Scene Selection
Theatrical Trail
Poster Gallery
Listed Running Time: 90 minutes (88 minutes for U.S. video version)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated.
Reviewed by C. Demetrius Morgan
SUMMARY
In this nearly historical sword-and-sandal epic meteors streak out of the sky and crash into the mountains of ancient Greece bringing with them a alien race of villainous silver Owl beings bent on world domination! What, you don’t remember any of the Greek myths, legends, or historians you read about in history class mentioning that? Well then buckle up because you're in for a ride!
The Setting: In the dubbed version they are in a distant land called Samar, supposedly located in Greece. But, if you backed me into a corner, I’d say the setting is really the guy playing Hercules as more camera time is wasted focusing on him and his muscle flexing antics than anything else.
The Story: The usual clichéd tale of a hero returning to his homeland after years spent abroad
only to discover his homeland has fallen into the dark thrall of an evil monarch who has entered into a devil's bargain with alien entities,
thus forcing the hero to do battle against the forces of evil
when he'd rather be kicking back sipping some sex on the beach.
The Pace: This movie is moving along at ludicrous speed. Actually it's just ridiculous, but it sure feels ludicrous at times.
The Characters: There is Hercules and an evil Queen, who appears to be in cahoots with the Moon Men
and a number of beasties, in addition to the usual background characters.
The evil queen has her loyal henchman
and Hercules, to be just a tad flippant, has his loyal bulging biceps.
However the one character that really sticks out in my mind is this one old guy from the beginning of the film. It looks like wardrobe was scrapping the bottom of the costume barrel for his outfit. You won't believe this but, Scout's honor, it looks like he is wearing a Christmas tree skirt around his shoulders! His name? Does it really matter?
The Moon Men: There’s not a whole lot one can say about actors dressed up like giant silver owl creatures or Styrofoam rubber rock monsters. Aside from: Wow!
Worth Renting: Sure. Then again it's usually in the bargain bin for real cheap.
Moral: Heroes who leave their homeland for years on end to go adventure seeking will return to find their city-state has been taken over by evil.
PERSPECTIVE
What we have here is an Italian Maciste (Ma-CHEES-tay) sword-and-sandal flick, Maciste e la Regina di Samar (Maciste And The Queen Of Samar), that was re-dubbed and re-titled into a Hercules movie by American distributors decades ago.
There were actually a series of Italian Hercules movies, of which Hercules Against the Moon Men is a late addition. These movies were produced largely as Italian cinema's response to Hollywood's big budget costume epics.
It all began circa 1957 with Le Fatiche di Ercole (The Labours of Hercules),
known more simply as Hercules to American audiences.
However, when the Hercules movies were imported to American cinemas, they became very popular. Movie goers wanted more. Thus, when American distributors went looking for fresh titles to import for their theaters, they had to bend the truth a little and purchase movies that had virtually no relation to the titular hero. After all, dubbing them as Hercules movies wasn't that difficult. So what if the character hadn't originally been Hercules? What would the viewers of the dubbed movie know?
For instance, the Maciste character was a popular heroic strongman from Italian folk legend, with a number of peplum - the Italian name for sword-and-sandal movies - already in existence. To distributors' eyes here was a character that looked like Hercules, acted like Hercules, and so why not just call him Hercules? And that is exactly what they did after securing the rights to the films.
These old Italian peplum are actually fun to watch, although THIS movie was so bad it was showcased on MST3K, so you know this is a right-rare gem. Seriously, you have to see this to believe it.
Videophiles take note, the Something Weird version is reported to have better picture quality than the Alpha Video release but it’s about impossible to find on the shelves of brick and mortar stores.
Even so the Alpha Video version, which is the same video version you're likely to find on most bargain bin releases, is serviceable.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Where were the dancing girls? Where were the lush sets? Why did I sit through this? Oh, yeah, it’s funny and vastly entertaining! Granted, that may just be the dubbing. The plot is spread thin and barely two steps away from ridiculous. True B-movie aficionados will probably want the Something Weird release as that version is listed as offering the best video quality and a widescreen transfer of this forgotten eh... gem.
While the video of the Alpha DVD is not in black and white, the color is washed out. In fact, it looks like this version was sourced from an abused 16mm source print, as it is full of scratches. Too, what little color remains becomes more of a distraction. Alas, it is unlikely any major studio is going to release a title like this. That leaves B-movie aficionados pretty much stuck with we can find. In the case of the Alpha Video DVD, that appears to be a public domain print of an edit probably originally intended for television broadcast. The upside is there are extras included--not many, but it's something.
For those curious just how bad the picture really is, remember those silver owl creatures I mentioned? Most stills I’ve seen show them to be gold. I don’t know if that’s just how the stills and lobby cards were mocked up or if the creatures are really supposed to be gold in color. Sadly, I’ve not been able to find a copy of the Something Weird release in a brick and mortar store to make a proper comparison. Sadly, color is not the only problem. There are video artifacts that look suspiciously like the source print was recorded off of television or cable.
Something else to consider is that while stores like Borders and Best Buy used to stock lots of Alpha Video titles in their bargain DVD sections and only a few select titles from the Something Weird label, they appear to have done away with their bargain sections. If this trend is industry wide, and not just localized to stores where I live, that may make finding even a budget label version difficult. And stay away from those multi-movie pack that squeeze two or more movies to a disc side. They can manage to get that many movies on a disc because, for the most part, such outfits don't care about quality. There are exceptions but they are few and far between. Caveat emptor.
This movie, Hercules Against the Moon Men, could appear under several other titles, which is not unusual for sword-and-sandal films:
Hercules vs. the Moon Men
Maciste vs. the Moon Men
Maciste vs. the Stone Men
Maciste and the Queen Of Samar.
This title is available in a budget priced DVD version with great cover art from Alpha Video for $5.95 and as a double feature chock full of extras release from Something Weird Video for $19.99.
There was also a version available from Retromedia which has since gone OOP but may pop up on eBay.
Please note that this review is based on the Alpha Video release available through Oldies dot com.
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| Friday, May 16, 2008 Copyright 2008, SWORDandSORCERY.org |