Movie Review The Loves Of Hercules

Preston, England
August 18, 2017 11:36am CST
1960 – spoiler alerts There were several Hercules movies made in the 1950’s and 1960’s as part of the sword and sandals B movie cycles. The success of Kubrick’s Spartacus, and Biblical movies like King Of Kings led to a spate of often dire B movies with mythical or religious themes. They promised handsome and sexy actors in togas, burlesque belly-dancers in veils, heaving bosums, body builders with over-oiled chests and hair, engaged in gladiatorial combat, and occasionally, they threw in the (very) odd monster too. Most such movies were dire, having very low, cynical production values. Crumbling cities were clearly built in polystyrene, stunt work was risible and gaffes abound. These were the kind of movies where extras forgot to remove wrist-watches in a story set in 500 BC. The American Hercules movies starring Steve Reeves were very popular drive in features, so Italy decided to cash in with a Hercules feature of their own. They poached Jayne Mansfield from her Hollywood studios, after she finished filming on location there, and she agreed to star in the movie on one condition – they also had to cast her husband of the time(later divorced) Mickey Hargilay, an actor with all the charisma of a bowl of cold porridge. The plot involves an evil chieftain trying to frame Hercules for murder so he will be executed. The villain, played by Massimo Serato, has Hercules’s wife murdered and makes it look as if she was killed by the people of a particular village. The plan is to get Hercules to massacre the village in revenge and then have him arrested for it. Mansfield, playing Deinara, ruler of the village, offers to sacrifice herself as the killer to spare her people, so Hercules fall in love with her in recognition that she must be innocent. Unfortunately, Deinara is engaged to another man but fortunately Serato’s fiendish foe kills him to try to frame Hercules for the murder. To prove his innocence, Hercules is obliged to go to the Underworld alive and fight the Hydra monster (which he does but only after it kills Serato’s character, Licos. Hercules is wounded by the Hydra but rescued by the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, simply because she loves Hercules after seeing his unconscious physique. The trouble with Hippolyta is that any man who loves her turns into a tree, and she has a whole forest of man shaped trees already. Hercules is too in love with Deinara to love Hippolyta, so she makes herself look like Deinara, but with red hair instead of blonde so the audience at least can tell which role Mansfield is playing. Hercules seem unable to tell the difference though until other Amazons warn him, and he escapes as the tree men take revenge on their former lover. Hercules goes back to Deinara for a happy ending. Ludicrous at every step. Oh my wife’s dead, never mind I’ll just get another one. The big bull-wrestling scene with a clearly barely conscious tranquilized bull is hilarious. Mansfield’s ego, and her obsession with being bigger and better than Monroe in every way runs rampant through the film. I think I could have made a better hydra monster from my bedsheets. A masterclass in how not to make a movie. The full movie on Youtube Arthur Chappell
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7 people like this
6 responses
@JohnRoberts (109865)
• Los Angeles, California
18 Aug 17
Yes, but there is Mansfield's heaving bosom which was larger than Marilyn.
2 people like this
• Preston, England
18 Aug 17
@JohnRoberts though not her talent level lol
2 people like this
• Preston, England
18 Aug 17
@JohnRoberts pretty much yes you are right
2 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109865)
• Los Angeles, California
18 Aug 17
@arthurchappell I thought "that" was her talent level!
2 people like this
@SHOHANA (16096)
• Bangladesh
18 Aug 17
when i was a kid I watched the show of hercules as weekly tv program
2 people like this
• Preston, England
18 Aug 17
@SHOHANA The Kevin Sorbo TV series was fun
• United States
21 Aug 17
Are you sure this movie made it as high as B class? Sounds quite terrible, I am glad I missed it.
1 person likes this
• Preston, England
21 Aug 17
@sumofalltears it should be a W or even deeper down the alphabet
• United States
18 Aug 17
haha this is a wonderful review Arthur I do not believe I had seen it, but for sure now I am bookmarking this.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43451)
• Denver, Colorado
19 Aug 17
Never seen it. I think I'll pass.
1 person likes this
• Preston, England
19 Aug 17
@teamfreak16 worth seeing when not sober
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@Kandae11 (53601)
18 Aug 17
Interesting review. Speaking about the movies of that time:"extras forgot to remove wrist watches in a story set in 500 BC" . I do have a few Kevin Sorbo as Hercules DVDs
1 person likes this