Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961)
"Maciste, l'uomo più forte del mondo" (original title)

Maciste arranges for himself and his new friend Bangor to be captured by a mysterious band of white-clad marauders and taken to an underground city. There the two are forced to turn an ... See full summary »

Director:

Antonio Leonviola

Writers:

Marcello Baldi (screenplay), Stephen Garrett (English version),

Stars:

Mark Forest, Moira Orfei, Paul Wynter

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mark Forest	...	Maciste, the Son of Hercules
Moira Orfei	...	Queen Halis Mosab
Paul Wynter	...	Bangor
Raffaella Carrà	...	Princess Saliurà
Enrico Glori	...	Kahab
Roberto Miali	...	Loth
Nando Tamberlani	...	King of Aran (as Ferdinando Tamberlani)
Carla Foscari	...	(as Carla De Foscari)
Rosalia Gavo
Graziella Granata
Janine Hendy	...	Black slave girl (as Jannin Hendy)
Cinzia Cam
Bruna Mori
Anna De Martino
Franca Polesello

Storyline

Maciste arranges for himself and his new friend Bangor to be captured by a mysterious band of white-clad marauders and taken to an underground city. There the two are forced to turn an enormous wheel along with other captives as part of a gold-and-diamonds mining operation. The underground city's queen, Halis Mosab, takes note of the handsome, muscular Maciste and chooses him to be her consort if he can meet such challenges as saving the kidnapped Princess Saliura from a gigantic ape. Maciste kills the ape and carries Saliura back to the aboveground world. The white-clad marauders can't follow them if it means being caught in the sunlight which instantly dissolves them. Maciste then returns to the underground city to save the other captives. Meanwhile, high priest Kahab informs his son, Katar, that their queen is not one of them but, unbeknownst to her, was kidnapped as a small child from the "world above." If Katar can marry her, their children can be "normal" and can live in the ...

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Plot Keywords:

underground | queen | sunlight | princess | ape | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

10 October 1961 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Gross:

ESP 19,874,368 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Interfilm, Leone Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Since Greco-Roman society had neither the knowledge nor the means to cut and polish diamonds into jewels, the evil Queen's diamond-mining operations are pointless.

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Quotes

Regina Halis Mosab: [to Maciste] Yours will be a splendid death.

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Connections

References Jungle Moon Men (1955)

User Reviews

The Total Package

One of my favorite low budget science fiction films is The Mole People with John Agar and Hugh Beaumont. This team of modern scientists discover an underground albino like people. That film must have inspired this uninspiring peplum epic, Mole Men Against The Son Of Hercules who in some countries is Maciste. Personally I think Hercules should have objected to the billing.

One thing Mark Forest might have objected to, Hercules has a friend in Paul Wynter who's actually better built than him. I can't believe the producers let that one go.

On his journeys Hercules comes upon a pretty barren countryside where a group of mysterious people make night raids, though mostly in the twilight of dawn, the better for cameras of surrounding villages, killing a few, but dragging the rest off as slaves. They can only operate above ground at night because they dry up and blow away just like The Mole People in the fire of Ishtar in that film.

The albinos doing this are ruled by a Queen who doesn't quite have the pasty complexion they do. Of course there's an obvious reason for it, but no one in this film figures out until the very end.

I will say this Paul Wynter is quite the total package, he's the best reason for watching Mole Men Against The Son Of Hercules.