Ancient Fantasies presents
Hercules and the Captive Women (1961)

Director - Vittorio Cottafavi
 

Watch cLASSIC MOVIES

Plot
Commentary
Facts and Fancies
Production Credits

The Plot

Hercules (Reg Park), his son, King Androcles and a dwarf are shipwrecked on the shores of Atlantis. Hercules goes about his business freeing a princess trapped in stone, wrestling a shape-shifting magician monster to the death, romancing Queen Antinea and finally destroying Atlantis. All this was set in motion when the ancient god Uranus was castrated by his son - Kronos; his bloody wounds flowed into a deep, dark cave and became a source of the blackest of magic and a plan to conquer the world.

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Film Notes

A rather complex plot fuels this Hercules outing. Not that it takes much brain power to make your way through this cinematic labyrinth. In fact you are better off not trying to follow the many threads that in the end go nowhere, lest you bump your unprotected movie-mad head on the shadowy walls of this film funhouse of a Platonian cave.

What then is the point of viewing? Queen Antinea (Faith Spain) is very mean and very hot. Hercules busts a bunch of moves and muscles around like a Red Bull in grandma's China cabinet. Slaves are tossed willy-nilly and wooly-bully into flaming pits of Uranus gore. And last, but not least, a magic army of curly blonde soldiers, who look more like Broadway show worshippers than Greek warriors, take the stage in the big climax of a battle with Hercules.

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Facts and Fancies

Reg Park was the winner of the Mr. Universe competition in 1951, and again in 1958 and 1965. This native of Great Britain portrayed Hercules in three films.

Her name might hint at a Latin origin, but Fay Spain was American. She began her film career in Roger Corman's Teenage Doll and Dragstrip Girl. Her last film was Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather III. It is arguable whether the later was a step up the entertainment ladder or not.

– Ed Schneider - Alameda TV

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Production Credits

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For information on Hercules...

Watch Ingmar Ozu-Bresson's experimental film meditation on Hercules - Herculin/Feminin (only on Alameda TV Ch. 31).

Previously on Ancient Fantasies
Hercules Against the Moonmen