Hercules Unchained

Director: Pietro Francisci Pietro Francisci

Overview

Steve Reeves' second (and last) film portrayal of Hercules is, in certain ways, better than his first. The plot this time is drawn from the legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes, which are most familiar to audiences through the Theban plays of Sophocles. The movie opens with Hercules, his new bride Iole (Sylva Koscina), and the young Ulysses (Gabriel Antonini) travelling to Thebes following the end of the quest for the Golden Fleece (depicted in the previous movie, Hercules). Their journey is interrupted when Hercules must do battle with the giant Anteus (Primo Carnera), whose strength seems to exceed his own until he realizes that Anteus is the son of the earth goddess and can't be defeated on land. On their arrival in Thebes, the trio discovers that the kingdom is in the midst of civil war -- Oedipus (Cesare Fantoni), the old king, is dying, and his two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, are contending for the throne and threatening to destroy each other and the populace. Hercules must leave Iole in the hands of one side in order to try and settle the dispute between the two would-be kings. While en route between the two armed camps, however, he is put under the spell of Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), the Queen of Lydia, who casts out his memory and takes him as a lover, with Ulysses in tow pretending to be his deaf-mute servant. Ulysses must figure out how to keep himself alive, restore Hercules' memory, get them both out of Omphale's grasp before she tires of Hercules and has him killed (as she has her previous lovers), and get them both back to Thebes before the kingdom is burned to the ground. His solution arrives in the form of his father, Laertes, and Hercules' companions from his voyage for the Golden Fleece. They all escape Omphale's clutches and arrive at Thebes as war has broken out between the two brothers and their armies. In a spectacular denouement, Hercules brings his chariot into the middle of the pitched battle, knocking down assault towers and sweeping cavalry before him to halt the battle. Peace is finally restored on a bittersweet note as the two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles, slay each other.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2022
UPC:	0885444494154
Original Release:	1959
Language:	English
Sales rank:	51,584

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Steve Reeves	Hercules
Sylvia Lopez	Queen Omphale of Lidia
Sylva Koscina	Iole
Primo Carnera	Antaeus
Sergio Fantoni	Eteocles,Oedipus
Carlo D'Angelo	Creon
Patrizia Della Rovere	Penelope
Gabriele Antonini	Ulysses
Mimmo Palmara	Polynices
Andrea Fantasia	Laertes
Ivo Garrani	Actor
Arturo Dominici	Actor
Lydia Alfonsi	Actor
Luciana Paluzzi	Actor
Lily Granado	Actor
Marisa Valenti	Blond Slave Girl
Elda Tattoli	Altmea, Mother of Ulisses' Girlfriend
Gianna Canale	Actor
Daniele Vargas	Anfiarao
Gino Mattera	Orfeo
Aldo Fiorelli	Argo the Shipbuilder
Gian Paolo Rosmino	Actor
Angelo Zanolli	Admeo
Nando Cicero	Lastene
Spartaco Nale	Actor
Aldo Pini	Tifi, the pilot
Fulvio Carrara	Castor, aide to Laertes
Willi Colombini	Polluce
Enzo Masetti	Composer
Afro Poli	Actor
Walter Grant	Aesculapio
Fabrizio Mioni	Jason
Nino Marchetti	Fossore
Giuliano Gemma	Melanippo

Technical Credits

Pietro Francisci	Director
Bruno Vailati	Producer
Ferruccio De Martino	Executive Producer,Producer

Editorial Reviews

Hercules Unchained wasn't greeted with much more respect by the critics than was Steve Reeves' previous film, Hercules. In point of fact, both movies were better than reviewers acknowledged at the time -- a fact borne out by their spectacular success at the box office -- and had the effect of establishing a new film genre, the sword-and-sandal epic. It the wake of both movies, producers and directors in Italy began recruiting professional bodybuilders and commissioning scripts that put them into loincloths, battling hundreds (or, in more impoverished circumstances, dozens) of extras dressed as soldiers in some corner of the ancient world. The fact is, though, that few of the movies that followed could match the qualities that made Hercules Unchained so beguiling. Steve Reeves never cut a more commanding presence, and his only better film may have been The Trojan Horse, in which he had to do more acting and fewer feats of strength. The plot drew from the legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes, which are most familiar to modern audiences through the Theban plays of Sophocles. That story line, involving Oedipus the King of Thebes and his two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, opened up opportunities onscreen of which director Pietro Francisci and cinematographer Mario Bava took full advantage -- the scene in which Hercules meets Oedipus at the gates of Hades is a stunner (rumor had it for decades that Bava directed this scene himself), and the eventual battle between the two armies, with Hercules attacking both to stop the fighting and save the kingdom, is a spectacular action scene. Additionally, Sylvia Lopez's portrayal of the Lydian queen Omphale is memorable for its sensuality and passion -- alas, this proved to be her last role; Lopez died later that same year of leukemia. The film as a whole is filled with just enough of the strange, disconnected, episodic nature of the Greek myths, and a good measure of their brutality, so that it served as an introduction for millions of baby-boomer children to the original source material, fostering an interest in mythology that quickly manifested itself in popular culture not only in dozens of rival sword-and-sandal films but in creations such as Stan Lee's Mighty Thor comic book and The Mighty Hercules cartoon show.