Ercole l'invincibile (1964)

Directors:

Alvaro Mancori
Lewis Mann

Writers:

Pat Kein (writer)
Alvaro Mancori (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 March 1964 (Italy)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Hercules battles to save the population from a giant dragon.

Plot Keywords:

King | Queen | Dragon | Gratitude | Lava

Cast

Dan Vadis	...	Ercole (Argolese)
Spela Rozin	...	Telca
Carla Calò	...	Ella, Queen of the Demulus (as Carrol Brown)
Ken Clark	...	Kabol, Melissia's Father
John Simons	...	Babar
Jannette Barton	...	Etel
Ugo Sasso	...	King Tedaeo, Telca's Father (as Hugo Arden)
Howard Ross	...	Telca's Brother (as Red Ross)
Olga Solbelli	...	The Oracle (as Sand Beauty)
Alberto Cevenini	...	Capt. of the Guard (as Kirk Bert)
Rosemarie Lindt	...	Slave Girl
Kriss Moss	...	Guard
Jannette Le Roy	...	Slave Girl
Sara Laurier	...	Slave Girl
Christine Mathius	...	Slave Girl

Also Known As:

Hercules Against the Elephants' Empire (USA) (poster title)
Hercules the Invincible (USA)
Land of Darkness - Part I (USA) (original subtitled version)
Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (USA) (TV title)
The Sons of Hercules (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

85 min | USA:81 min (DVD) | Argentina:75 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Metheus Film

Trivia:

For the US version, distributed by Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures, the dragon footage at the beginning has been removed and replaced with the dragon footage taken from Pietro Francisci's Le fatiche di Ercole (1958), which Levine had also distributed in the U.S.

Quotes:

Ella, Queen of the Demulus: [to Ercole] Tomorrow, in the arena, you will be torn into pieces by my elephants.

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Muchachada nui: (#1.5)" (2007)

HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE (Alvaro Mancori, 1964) *1/2

This is easily among the lamest peplums to emerge out of Italian cinema during that subgenre's heyday: in this respect, muscular lead Dan Vadis certainly proved consistent since his efforts in this vein are all quite terrible! Anyway, this starts off with one of the most side-splitting Anglicized cast lists ever that bears repeating in full here: apart from Vadis himself, we have Ken Klark, Jannette Barton, Red Ross, Sand Beanty, Kirk Bert, Kriss Moss, Jannette Le Roy, Paul Mac Lee, Pat Kein, Angel Pat, Flow Garden, Tago Convers, Albert Cardiff and, finally, Al World for director!! – but equally hilarious are the hero's intermittent fights with a variety of incredibly fake-looking wild animals (a lion and a bear) and monsters (a dragon that looks more like a dinosaur!)…though he also survives getting torn apart by a bunch of real elephants in the arena! Worse still is the obligatory comic relief courtesy of a cowardly elderly sidekick that is truly unbearable to behold. Having watched a handful of such undemanding and virtually interchangeable fare back-to-back, I can hardly recall what the plot was all about: I do know, however, that much is made of the fact that the aforementioned dragon's smallest tooth has all-important magic powers that, needless to say, are craved by a Fu Manchu-type potentate who incongruously turns up at some point, to little effect…