Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi (1961)

Director:

Antonio Leonviola

Writers:

Oreste Biancoli (screenplay)
Oreste Biancoli (story)

Release Date:

14 April 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy

Plot:

Strongman Maciste must battle the one-eyed Cyclops monster that is ravaging the land of Sadok, while at the same time fending off the advances of the evil Queen Capys, who wants to do a little ravaging of her own.

Plot Keywords:

Cyclops | Monster | Rock Fall | Change Of Heart | Muscleman

Cast

Gordon Mitchell	...	Maciste (as Mitchell Gordon)
Chelo Alonso	...	Capys
Vira Silenti	...	Penope
Dante DiPaolo	...	Ifito
Aldo Bufi Landi	...	Sirone
Giotto Tempestini	...	Aronio
Raffaella Carrà	...	Eber (as Raffaella Pelloni)
Paul Wynter	...	Mumba
Massimo Righi	...	Efros
Tullio Altamura	...	Un ufficiale
Antonio Meschini	...	Un soldato
Fabio	...	Prince Agisander II (baby)
Germano Longo	...	Re Agisandro
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pietro Ceccarelli	...	Warden
Moira Orfei
Aldo Pedinotti	...	Ciclope (as Aldo Padinotti)

Also Known As:

Atlas Against the Cyclops (USA)
Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (USA) (TV title)
Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops
Maciste vs. the Cyclops
Monster from the Unknown World (UK)

Runtime:

100 min | Italy:94 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Panda Film

Trivia:

The symbolic design on the large rayed solar disk which can be seen on a wall in the queen's palace imitates the font and spiral design found on the mysterious Phaistos disc (~1700 B.C.), which remains yet to be deciphered.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Maciste saves the small child from the lion, the shots of the real lion (with Gordon Mitchell's stand-in for the sequence) show that the claws are not out and the paws are not being used to strike but rather happily returning the hug it's receiving.

Quotes:

Ifito: [having captured Maciste] Now we'll have some entertainment. Take him to the pit!

ONE OF THE BEST OF A MALIGNED GENRE.

Sword and sandal movies are much derided today but in their time were looked forward to immensely by pre-teen boys looking for good solid action adventure. We didn't care about cheesy dubbed dialogue and stilted acting.We wanted battles,monsters and heroes who could uproot a tree without batting an eyelid.Gordon Mitchell was perhaps the most rugged of these celluloid titans and this was his first foray into Italian muscle movies. It was not to be his last."ATLAS etc" is as good example of any of his work and is indeed one of his very best.He actually plays Maciste here not Atlas but changing the name of the hero for international distribution was commonplace in these movies. Who cared anyway? His ordeals and battles until he finally reaches the lair of the (quite convincing)cyclops are excitingly presented and the movie as a whole is an enjoyable one and even now is worth a look. Mitchell is still around and probably had the longest career of any of the stars who were active in this much maligned genre.He was also effective in the later "GIANT OF METROPOLIS".