MovieChat Forums > Le fatiche di Ercole (1959) Discussion > Guide to Italian Hercules Films?

Guide to Italian Hercules Films?

posted 12 years ago by WatchingYouReadThis
6 replies | jump to latest

Hercules Against the Moonmen.... that title, along with noticing other Hercules films on this sci-fi collection I have led me to digging around the origin and relations of this group of Hercules films I possess.

What I'm finding is, pertaining to these specific films, 1958-sometime in the mid-60s, there were a wopper of Italian Hercules films, thanks to the boom of the sword and sandals genre at the time. Wikipedia is the only place I can find any steady bit of info discussing different aspects to the films. What I'm heaviliy interested in finding out, is that there appears to of been 19 Hercules films? Ones that actually followed Hercules, not ones that were titled Hercules with no relation to the character?

To the people who have a good deal of knowledge over the subject, care to shed any insight to the accuracy of the 19 titles?

Is there a more valid place to obtain better information over the films? Is the current write-up on wiki pretty reliable? Which Hercules DVDs to stay away from? Etc.?

[–] dougo13 12 years ago

For sheer bulk I bought the 50 film Mill Creek Warriors set. My cost was $15 used, so it was a great deal. Many of the films listed here or at Wiki are included, but not all of them. Son of Hercules Vs. Venus (Hercules Vs. Venus) is missing for instance. That one I was only able to find on VHS tape. Also, some of the transfers looked like they came from old VHS recordings but may be the only way to see the films in question. I'd love to see some of the films in their original Italian language with English subtitles but those seem to be as rare as hen's teeth.

Good luck...

[–] lagazza 12 years ago

Here is a book from Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Of-Muscles-Men-Essays-Sandal/dp/0786461624/ref=pd_sim_b_8

Hope it helps

[–] WatchingYouReadThis 11 years ago

Thanks for the replies. I will surely need to take great march forward into such adventures.

[–] Alberto-7 11 years ago

Many, many Hercules films are Hercules films in title only. This was done by American distributors in an effort to get people to see films that were actually about Maciste, Samson, Ursus or some other strongman character as these characters were not as popular or known in North America. Hercules and the Moon Men is actually a Maciste picture(the original title is Maciste and the Queen of Samar. In some cases, like Hercules and the Moon Men, the name Hercules was dubbed in instead of Maciste. In other cases, only the title contains the name. I have Atlas and the Cyclops on DVD, which is really a Maciste film. The character is never referred to as Atlas in the English-dubbed version but as Maciste. I guess the distributors thought the name Atlas would attract more people than Macise, a character that is very popular in Italy but unknown on this side of the world. It's all about good marketing.

In answer to your question as to how many Hercules films were made, I can't really answer. I have a terrific book called Epic films which discusses the most important of these and has an index of others. I see that Amazon is selling a new updated version. If you are interested in this type of film, I strongly suggest you check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Films-Commentary-Historical-Spectacle/dp/0786440813/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374593675&sr=1-6&keywords=epic+films

best regards

[–] dougo13 11 years ago

Thanks. I will. Yes, hard to get info except in obscure fanzines and such. Now if I could find more info on the sex and horror Fumetti in Italy c. Late 1960s to mid 1980s, that would be an awesome find. So little info in English...

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Sometimes it's hard to tell, as in some cases the character was originally Maciste or Samson in the Italian movie, but got renamed to Hercules in international release.