Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)
"Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste" (original title)

Maciste and his people flee their volcano-ravaged island. They end up caught in between two warring tribes.

Director:

Guido Malatesta

Writers:

Guido Malatesta (screenplay), Guido Malatesta (story)

Stars:

Kirk Morris, Laura Brown, Demeter Bitenc

Cast

Cast overview:
Kirk Morris	...	Maciste
Laura Brown	...	Queen Amoa
Demeter Bitenc	...	Ariel
Frank Leroy	...	Kermes
Alfredo Zammi	...	Tirol
Corinne Capri	...	Moana
Luigi Esposito	...	Arros
Nello Pazzafini	...	Guna
Alessio Pregara	...	King Olibana
Ines Holder	...	Asmyn
Letizia Stephan	...	Islander

Storyline

Maciste rescues Ario, the son King Sandor, and his people from their land in a volcanic island that blows-up and they sail to the Land and Urias in a long and dangerous voyage. They are captured by the Urias but when the Queen Amoha meets Maciste, she tells that the traitor Kermis has joined the tribe of Head Hunters and slaughtered her people, but the warrior Taro has saved them from the annihilation; however, her father King Olibauna was missing in action. She asks Maciste to help her against the Head Hunters, but Maciste tells that he is protecting the tribe of Ario. When the Urias are attacked by the Head Hunters, Maciste decides to help Queen Amoha.

---

Plot Keywords:

tribe | island | sail | raft | volcano | 

---

Taglines:

His Might Conquered Savagery

---

Genres:

Adventure | Romance

---

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

10 January 1963 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Colossus and the Headhunters

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alta Vista, RCM

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

During the wedding/battle scene, Queen Amoa "stabs" a headhunter and it's quite obvious that she just thrusts the sword beside him.

---

Connections

Featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Colossus and the Headhunters (1994)

User Reviews

"Ohhhh, DON'T hop over the bodies...!"

This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, or even the worse 'Maciste' movie I've ever seen...believe it or not, this movie is an order of magnitude better than "Maciste Against Hercules In the Valley Of Woe". It is a clunker of a sword-and-sandals movie, but it still has a kind of innocence about it, as if the actors and the film crew knew they were just churning out product, but still had some pride in their work.

For some reason, the folks who brought it over to the English speaking world didn't want to admit this was another in the series of terrible 'Maciste' movies and so it went by the title of 'Colossus and the Headhunters'.

The plot is a drunken walk which makes even the later Hercules movies look coherent and well thought out. The whole thing is really just an excuse to show off the physique of the actor playing Maciste/Colossus as he strains to open doors, pick stuff up, throw stuff, topple a tower onto some fighting villagers, etc. (There's also some decent sword fighting and a nice thing where he beats up bad guys with chains and other props.) But there isn't really all that much of him in the movie, which see below. It's mostly just minor character actors and extras running around in loincloths and armor and hitting each other with swords and clubs.

This guy named 'Kirk Morris' who plays Maciste is built pretty well. He resembles a latter day Strongfort or Maxim. But aside from a really tiny waist and some decent pecs, he isn't really all that impressive as a centerpiece for a film about a Body. It also seems to me that most of the time he's sucking in his gut so hard that he has very little energy left to 'act' with, and this also results in his tending to move as if someone stuck a poker up his backside. This could be why Maciste hardly DOES anything in this film, at least compared to a typical Hercules film where half the film is Herc front and center in the action, beating the stuffing out of the bad guys...Steve Reeves and Reg Park (and even "Alan Steele") could move quite convincingly on short notice,but poor Kirk Morris might have been somewhat out of his league in meeting action hero demands.

Yet another terrible dubbing job makes it hard to tell how good the writing and the acting actually is, but you can bet that this film started out as throwaway hackwork and was dragged down several more notches by the dub. I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt and say that the writing and acting in its original language would be slightly better than a Republic chapter serial.

There is a hilarious moment in the MST3K version of the movie where three of the good guys set out from the ravaged village where a major fight has taken place in pursuit of the kidnapped princess, and they just skip right over some of the fallen corpses of their fellow villagers on their way out of the square. Mike and the Bots moan in disbelief, "Ohhhh, DON'T hop over the bodies...! That's just wrong!"

You'd be better off counting cross-stitch than wasting time with this movie, but it's harmless enough.