Maciste gegen die Kopfjäger

For Italy and the world, handsome and muscular Kirk Morris slips into his Herculean loincloth, as "Maciste". He saves part of a tribe from the catastrophic blow-up of their island. Mr. Morris befriends less muscular Demeter Bitenc (as Ariel). Their splintered tribe sails to a new land, but has trouble mixing in with warring inhabitants. Morris tries to save beautiful Laura Brown (as Amoa), a tribal queen, from marrying the man who blinded and kidnapped her father.

Guido Malatesta's "Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste" was inappropriately re-titled "Colossus and the Headhunters" in the translation from Italian to English. There are some good sets and moderately exciting sequences. Some of the footage may be flown in from another movie, but it is nicely inserted. Morris makes a good enough "Maciste"; as you might expect, this isn't a film to showcase one's acting prowess.

**** Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1960) Guido Malatesta ~ Kirk Morris, Demeter Bitenc, Laura Brown

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.

COLOSSUS AND THE HEADHUNTERS stars Kirk Morris as Colossus (aka: Maciste). He must leap into action right off the bat, to save the inhabitants of a small island from a volcano. He even uses his enormous boat to relocate them!

Oh no!

While Colossus is out looking for water, the entire tribe is abducted by men with checkered placemats on their heads! Colossus will soon meet up with these guys again, along with their queen. We know she's the queen because she wears a sequined tea cozy on her noggin.

Said ruler tells our huge hero about some headhunters that have been giving her trouble. Colossus winds up helping her and her placemat people against these napkin-domed savages, giving him ample opportunity to flex, and crush things.

How could anyone ever tire of watching grown men throw each other around?

Morris isn't bad in his role, but he's certainly no Mark Forest!

Make sure not to miss the odd, somewhat disturbing "wedding dance", performed by a woman in some sort of tutu! Annnd, yes, saints be praised! There are bongo drums!

This is transcendent entertainment, folks!...

With out a doubt this is one of the worst Sword and Sandal films ever made. Its absolutely stuck in the 1960's bad movie style that it was made and will never rise again except as something that the Mystery Science 3000 crew might rip apart.

Who made this? Can we stop them from ever doing it again?

The movie begins with and island blowing up and Maciste saving some of the inhabitants on his raft. If your jaw isn't hanging down around your knees by the time they have set sail you obviously haven't been paying attention. From there the group ends up on another island where two warring peoples are duking it out.

Did I say Island? Think Bavaria or the Alps, or somewhere with Vikings and Indians...and caves and...

Don't ask. Please don't, I lost the ability to speak when the island blew up and I don't know when I will be able to speak.

This is either a movie that will clear a room or fill it depending on how those in the room feel about picking on a really bad movie. This is a movie that must go on the list of all time clunkers- a talk backers treasure trove of stupid actions and dialog.

Frankly the only thing missing from making this the perfect bad movie, or the shining example of bad Sword and Sandal movie, is the fact that there is no monster. If this movie had a really bad monster of the rubber, or furry suit variety this would be perfect cheese... and a stuffed lion or tiger for someone to wrestle with...that would truly make it a perfect sit at home with friends and pick on the movie movie.

Under no circumstances watch this alone, it could prove deadly. I mean honestly, if you tried to watch this straight your brain would boil and you'd end up locked away in a padded cell and straight jacket until you die, because frankly its just that bad.

One out of ten, only because I can't go lower.

This is one of Kirk Morris' best movies. A simple "hero" story where he shows up out of nowhere and save an entire race of displaced people. Reg Lewis was supposed to star in this movie but backed out at the last minute. If you watch the opening scenes you can see Reg running towards the volcano. He can be seen in a few other place throughout the movie.

I posted several stills on this site. They were straight when I sent them but IMDB turned them sideways for some unknown reason.

You will enjoy watching this movie.