 502 - HERCULES
Genre: Fantasy/Mythology (1958, Color)
Synopsis: This, the first of the Italian
Hercules series of movies from the late ’50s / early ’60s, starts with Hercules saving a women when the horses pulling her chariot are running uncontrollably.
The woman’s name is Iole and she is the daughter of Pelias, king of
Iolcus. (Got that?) She tells Herc the story of how the Golden Fleece was stolen from the king’s throne.
Herc returns with her but then goes off with her brother, heir to the throne, to kill a lion.
Herc kills the lion but not before it kills her brother. The king is furious and he says Herc must perform some
task as penance. Then, out of nowhere, Jason and the Argonauts appear and want to go and find the golden fleece with the reward of being named heir to the kingdom.
Herc tags along with them and they first end up on an island of Amazons.
Almost all of the men pair off with all the Amazons and must be saved before the women can kill them.
They then go to an island populated by a bunch of gorilla men, who look like they ventured into the wrong movie.
The men fight them off while Jason goes to where the golden fleece is hanging on a tree but he first must fight a giant... dog or something. Jason kills the
giant ...something... and retrieves the golden fleece. But when the men get
back to the kingdom, the fleece has been stolen from the trunk they stored it in.
Hercules finds out that the king stole it since he doesn’t want to give up his kingdom.
But,
before he can tell anyone, Herc is taken prisoner by the king.
Anyway, Jason and the Argonauts
figure out something is wrong and start fighting king Pelias’ guards.
Some of the men help Herc escape so he can then pull down the palace in front of the king’s men (a bit of overkill, there, Herc).
And Jason is then named king of the kingdom.
 Don’s Review: This
film, the first of the Hercules movies, is generally considered to be the best one
– but I rate this about the same as the rest of the Herc movies
because it’s just as dumb and confusing plot-wise as the
others. In addition, it has a completely inappropriate electronic score that sounds like it was lifted from
Forbidden Planet. The riffing is about the same as the other Herc films and the host segments are reasonably enjoyable too,
so it’s worth a watch.
Don’s Rating: 
Related Link:
(1) B-Movie Central (Movie Review)
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