Hercules and the Captive Women (1963)

It takes awhile for this Hercules entry to get going, giving a very dull half hour to start the film. These Italian gladiator movies are a mixed bag, but they all seem to have one thing in common. An evil woman is somehow responsible for disparity out of her people or in the case of this film, her own daughter. She has sentenced the princess to death because she believes that if her daughter outlives her, their kingdom will be destroyed. So the young heroine becomes the subject of Hercules and his son's efforts to rescue her from certain death, which means fighting a horny rubber alligator and using a sling to kill the guards who are preparing to test the princess off a cliff. Reg Park takes on the role of the Greek hero in this film, which opens with very attractive credits of suppose Greek artwork which actually looks more Egyptian. Even though the names of the Queens change from film to film, their motivations are pretty much all the same, and the characterizations are one-dimensional and without any sort of variation. The dubbing is better than normal in the print that I saw, but the film remains more chatty in its emphasis to attempt a more solid story. Lacking in action for the most part, this is deadly dull in many moments, and ultimately this leads it to be quite tedious and predictable.

Once again Hercules is back to do what he does in nearly every movie! This time Hercules is played by Reg Park, who just is not quite as good in the role as Steve Reeves was. He looks okay, but something about him is just off. This is the fifth film in the series following Hercules, Hercules Unchained, Goliath and the Dragon and Hercules vs the Hydra. The two films before this one featured two other guys in the role of Hercules; however, Reg Park would make one more Hercules film besides this one. There are a whole lot of Hercules films that were released during this time and there would be several more films after this one as well. I only saw the first and second film before this one so I do now that the first and second film do follow each other; however, I am not sure how this one follows the previous two films. Hercules has a son at this point, but due to the very confusing way this film opened up I literally did not realize it was his son until the thing was nearly over when they were helping people out of the pit. Of course, the fact the opening of this movie was so confusing may point out that it did follow the previous film and that one would of had to seen it to understand what the heck is going on! Hercules Unchained was a bit confusing too, until I watched the original Hercules film.The story is very cluttered, especially at the beginning. All I know is that there is a brawl in a bar and Hercules and his buddies go riding and there is something with the sun before they are in a throne room where a man who is king or something declares that he is going to try and thwart some sort of threat against Greece. Hercules trashes his throne and then they are off on an adventure where Hercules ends up on a piece of driftwood before fighting a monster that turns into several monsters and saves a girl who takes him to Atlantis where he is drinking with another evil queen. Thankfully, he seems to have learned his lesson and does not drink the tainted wine and he has to save the people from a rock that a leper guy lectures Hercules about before being vaporized and there is kind of a volcanic finish as Hercules does not get a really cool battle to end this one.This made for a good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, though watching this Hercules films, they all kind of do things the same way. They riffed three true Hercules films during the shows initial run as they did this one and the first two Hercules films. They also riffed Hercules Against the Moon Men, but that was not a true Hercules film, believe it or not. It was part of a series called the Maciste series, though my guess is kind of an Italian version of Hercules. There were 17 or so Hercules films and several more of the Maciste films and there were others that featured a large muscular guy that was a Hercules type hero. Suffice to say, there was a whole lot of Hercules type films back in the day! They made for some good material for the gang of MST3K.So, this film was just not quite as good as the first two films. Both of those films seemed a bit better quality than this one. Reg Park just did not seem as good in the role of Hercules as Reeves did, but not placing the blame squarely on his broad shoulders. No, the plot was kind of a mess, but as I said that may be due to the fact one needs to watch this series of film in the order presented. Still, a lot of what they were doing in Atlantis was perplexing and it had nothing to do with the strange opening that may or may not have required additional viewing. Also, if you are going to have Hercules in your film, he should figure more in the end of the film rather than just moving a rock or two. He should be involved in a battle, in this film the best battle of the flick was when he fought Proteus at nearly the beginning of the film.

Why this movie has "captive women" in the title I'll never know. Only one woman is captive, and she is rescued just 15 minutes into the movie - but the film does have a whole bunch of captive men though.Hercules rescues the movie's only captive girl, he dutifully brings her back to her family - only for them to immediately try and kill her! This must be one of the more legendary idiotic plot-twists in MST3K's rich history. Soon thereafter, the Evil Queen (the captive woman's angry Mom) tries to have pretty much everyone killed, and for reasons that are quite vague. Perhaps the viewer is simply expected to assume that an Evil Queen kills all the time, randomly even. Motive shmotive. Who needs it? This is an Italian movie.There is even ample mention of "Uranus", and if you thought this cheesy word-play has outlived its funniness or is way past its prime - think again: "the blood of Uranus can never be destroyed!" This is not an MST3K riff, but an actual line from the movie. I couldn't believe I could still find "Uranus" funny.And I promise you, you WILL laugh at the scene when Hercules throws a stuffed lion toy over a cliff only to have a vulture thrown back at him.

One of the greatest films of the genre with Park in the title role doing what it says on the packet, with some stunning set pieces, beautiful cinematography, gloriously silly monsters, and (unfortunately) the customary annoying dwarf sidekick (Salvatore Furnari). British-born Park, in his first film role, is perfectly cast, in great physical shape (bulkier than Steve Reeves ever was and keeping his torso on show throughout), and is also a reasonable actor. Former Hollywood B-movie starlet Fay Spain is also terrific as the evil Queen of Atlantis in her only peplum appearance. Mimmo Palmara is all but unrecognisable under a mask (shamelessly "borrowed" directly from Atlantis, The Lost Continent), while genre regulars Ettore Manni and Mario Petri provide their usual dependable support. There is definitely something a bit gay about the three-way relationship between Park, Luciano Marin (supposedly playing his son) and Furnari (whom Park sits on his knee at one point), and Park is frequently told that things have happened because of "Uranus" (which, no matter how you look at it, still sounds like "your anus"!).The English language and European releases feature completely different openings, the European release featuring a much longer version (7 minutes) of the opening bar room brawl complete with exotic dancer going on behind the credits and without the voice over, and there is also an additional scene in the countryside before everything turns red. The scene where Hercules destroys the throne is also several minutes longer in the European release, as is the storm at sea sequence. There are numerous other slight editing differences throughout which account for approximately 8 minutes difference in running times.