Ercole contro i tiranni di Babilonia (1964)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Domenico Paolella

Writers:

Luciano Martino (screenplay)
Domenico Paolella (screenplay)

Genre:

Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Hercules fights to free the people of Babylon from an evil sorceress. |

Plot Keywords:

Beefcake | Sword And Sandal | Fistfight | Secret Passage | Whip

Cast

Peter Lupus	...	Hercules (as Rock Stevens)
Helga Liné	...	Taneal
Mario Petri	...	King Phaleg
Livio Lorenzon	...	Salman Osar
Anna Maria Polani	...	Asparia
Tullio Altamura	...	Azzur
Franco Balducci	...	Bahar
Diego Pozzetto	...	Bomar
Mirko Valentin	...	Glaucone
Diego Michelotti	...	Christophisis
Rosy De Leo	...	Lady in Waiting
Eugenio Bottari	...	Azur's Major Domo
Andrea Scotti
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sal Borgese
Jeff Cameron
Pietro Ceccarelli	...	Fighter
Arturo Dominici
Gilberto Galimberti
Piero Lulli
Emilio Messina
Amerigo Santarelli	...	Wrestler
Pietro Torrisi	...	Wrestler
Daniele Vargas

Also Known As:

Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon (USA)

Runtime:

90 min | USA:86 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Romana Film

Trivia:

Peter Lupus (a.k.a. Rock Stevens) shaved his chest for this movie in order to achieve the expected "Hercules" look.

Quotes:

Salman Osar: Employing an army to destroy one man? I've never heard anything so foolish.

Peter Lupus as Hercules in Babylon circa 1000 b.c.; an entertaining peplum

Peter Lupus (aka Rock Stevens) stars as Hercules in this colorful Italian sword-and-sandal opus, one of four Lupus made in Italy in

1964-65, before rocketing to stardom in the Mission Impossible TV show. We don't really think of any particular manner of dress in Babylon-- at least I don't!--so the costumers came up with some outlandish fashions here, and the art design is also creative! The scenes of intrigue in the palace are dramatically well-done and feature peplum/swashbuckler regular Livio Lorenzon as the ruler of Babylon, dealing with both his queen, the King of Assyria, and Hercules, who has come to reclaim the Queen of the Hellenes, taken as a Babylonian slave. In some scenes in the film Hercules has a over-large club that he both swings at people and throws! It lends a comic-book flavor to those sequences that is not really in keeping with the serious nature of the rest of the film. Lupus has a powerful physique and is one of the best actors in the peplum genre--all four of his Italian films are worth watching and are distinctly different from each other. Domenico Paolella directed three of Lupus' four peplums and also worked with such Amercians as Guy Madison, Lex Barker, Ed Fury, Don Megowan, Richard Harrison, Mark Forest, Ken Clark, John Ericson and John Ireland. Whether a peplum, a pirate film, a spy film, or a western, he seemed to be able to put together a fast-moving and entertaining feature. Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon is recommended to any serious peplum fan. The VHS copy I watched, while a pan-and-scan TV print, is crisp and clear and colorful.