HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE (1964)

Roaming through the countryside as he is wont to do, the bare-chested Hercules saves Telca from attack by a (rather tired-looking) lion. It turns out that Telca is the daughter of King Tedeo. The king offers Telca as a wife to Hercules if he will destroy the dreaded dragon of the mountains and bring back one of its teeth, which will become a magical amulet, though its power can only be used once. Hercules kills the dragon but when he returns to Telca's tribe, he finds the village in ruins, most of its people, including Telca, carted off by the warriors of the underground city of Deimos. (Hint as to the film’s climax: Deimos is underneath a volcano.) Babar, a comic relief doofus sidekick, tells Hercules that the Deimosians engage in human sacrifice, drinking the blood and eating the flesh of their victims in order to retain their strength and bravery (and for the women, beauty). They have a wicked and ruthless queen, Ella, who relies on her military leader Kabol for advice. Melissa, Kabol's daughter, resents Ella for usurping what she thinks should be her position, and for a while, it seems like she will be an ally to the captured Telca. Soon Hercules is captured and sentenced to be pulled to death between two elephants, but he withstands the torture and even saves the life of Ella when the elephants go on a rampage. Herc becomes an object of lust for Ella, but Melissa soon kills Ella, blames Telca, and basically takes the throne for herself, with Telca to be bled slowly to death. Herc discovers a way to set off the volcano, leading to a big free-for-all fight as lava flows (looking like strawberry jam the consistency of blood) threaten everyone. 

Very often, the effectiveness of the strongman hero is what determines the effectiveness of a peplum movie. Dan Vadis, as Hercules, pictured, has a decent build and does sweating and straining pretty well, especially in the elephant scene, but he has a flat frat boy face and a wispy Amish-looking beard that is several shades lighter than the hair on his head—he looks a bit better without the beard in THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES made the same year. Though Vadis appeared in several sword-and-sandal films in the 60s, I would place him in the second tier of shirtless hero stars. This movie's bland title works against it; Hercules vs. the Cannibal Women would have been more exciting and actually accurate. Overall, it feels like everyone involved was working at half-speed. The storyline involving the flesh-eating and blood-drinking people of Deimos had lots of potential, but it's not developed much at all. Ken Clark, a tall, blonde, fuzzy, often shirtless hunk who is normally an asset in European films of the 1960s, plays Kabol with dark hair, a Fu Manchu mustache, and fully clothed, and he has little to do—such a disappointment. Jon Simons is completely ineffectual as Babar. The trio of main female characters are not bad but only Carla Calo as Ella stands out. Speaking of which, it's a bit weird to have characters named Ella and Melissa in ancient times, though I assume that this is the fault of the English dub. In the States, this went directly to television (as Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness) in the Sons of Hercules series. Best experienced on a lazy summer day with beer and pretzels. [YouTube]