Hercules and the Captive Women (1961)
"Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide" (original title)

Strong yet sleepy Hercules discovers that the Queen of Atlantis is plotting to take over the world with superhuman warriors.

Director:

Vittorio Cottafavi

Writers:

Vittorio Cottafavi, Sandro Continenza,

Stars:

Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Reg Park	...	Ercole (Hercules)
Fay Spain	...	Queen Antinea of Atlantis
Ettore Manni	...	Androclo, Re di Tebe
Luciano Marin	...	Illo
Laura Efrikian	...	Ismene, Antinea's Daughter (as Laura Altan)
Enrico Maria Salerno	...	Re di Megara
Ivo Garrani	...	Re di Megalia
Gian Maria Volonté	...	Re di Sparta
Mimmo Palmara	...	Astor, il Gran Visir
Mario Petri	...	Zenith, prete di Urano
Mino Doro	...	Oraclo
Salvatore Furnari	...	Timoteo, il nano
Alessandro Sperli	...	King with Mother
Mario Valdemarin	...	Gabor
Luciana Angiolillo	...	Deianira, Hercules' Wife

Storyline

The ever intrepid world-trotting hunk of a man Herc (Hercules to those who are not his friends) saves a beautiful maiden from the hands of an evil creature. She takes him to her home, Atlantis. Herc kicks some butt and saves her from her mother who wants to kill her and from some scary looking blond guys but unfortunately the rest of the inhabitants are destroyed. Do not worry because Herc escapes along with his son, the maiden and an annoying midget.

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Plot Keywords:

atlantis | hercules | midget | roman mythology | gorilla | 

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Taglines:

Half Woman! Half Stone!

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

15 April 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hercules and the Captive Women

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comptoir Français du Film Production (CFFP), SpA Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The soundtrack of the American release ("Hercules and the Captive Women") contains several short passages from the score of Creature from the Black Lagoon, in particular the easily recognizable three-note "Creature theme".

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Goofs

Near the end of the film, Hercules swims away from the island to a boat, but when he climbs aboard he is completely dry.

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Quotes

Zantas, Priest of Uranus: The blood of Uranus can never be destroyed!

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Crazy Credits

For the U.S. version distributed by the Woolner Brothers under the title "Hercules and the Captive Women," director Vittorio Cottafavi's name is listed on screen as "Vittorio Cottafani."

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Connections

Featured in Cheezy Fantasy Trailers (2006)

User Reviews

Better than currently given credit for.

This is definitely a better movie than a lot of other Italian Hercules productions out there. Not that the quality of this movie is being exceptionally high though. It still is a movie that brings some nice entertainment, no matter how ridicules the movie often gets.

This was the first time that British Reg Park took on the Hercules role. Park was a multiple time Mr. Universe champion, just like Steve Reeves, who had played the character of Hercules in previous movie productions. His physique of course definitely helped him getting these sort of roles. His career also ended pretty soon after he started to age, like often happens to these types of 'actors'.

Like all these sort of Italian swords and sandals productions, it's a very cheap and often laughable looking movie, even though the movie is also being grand to look at with its enormous and colorful sets. The movie does use some silly early effects, though you just can not accuse this movie of not being creative. It just doesn't always works in the movie its own advantage.

I of course couldn't care less about the story of the movie and all that seemed to matter was that the movie. All that seems to matter for this movie is that it's being entertaining. The movie does really bring some silly fun, also long as you of course don't except a movie with class or of a very high quality.

A better movie than most other Italian Hercules productions and also certainly way better than its current reputation and rating.

6/10

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