Germanicus in der Unterwelt

Can't get the theme song out of my mind! The monster in the lake was pretty good, probably took up most of the budget, and if it had been featured more, say wreaking havoc among the two ice age tribes and having an apocalyptic fight with the toothy hero amid exploding volcanoes, hurtling moons and collapsing ice cliffs, it would have been a decent club-and-sandal flick. But it got killed after just a few minutes, spear thrown through the eye from almost the next county...ouch! The other monsters would have seemed more lame had it not been for the human actors...made even paper mache look good.

But it's set in the Ice Age, which makes it pretty unique for these types of movies, so a little more interesting than it would have been otherwise. It would make a nice Friday night double feature with "Goliath and the Dragon" if you had some pizza and beer.

This particular peplum is a prehistoric item as Maciste goes back to the caveman era and helps out one tribe which has been dislocated by the Ice Age to settle on some new lands. It seems as though the other tribe that was there before isn't happy about these late arrivals hunting in their forests and want them removed.

Bodybuilder Reg Lewis of Mae West's review plays the legendary Maciste here. He's got to deal with all kinds of prehistoric beasts including a multi-headed hydra. One thing I swear I can't understand is how Maciste avoids pneumonia when he insists on going in his usual loincloth while everyone else is bundled up in animal skins. But his body is what the movie-going public is paying to see.

Nothing here you haven't seen in One Million BC and a few hundred other successors.

Reg Lewis is back as Maxus/Germanicus (Maciste). Maxus happens upon a two primitive tribes: the good sun-worshipers and the evil moon-worshipers. The two tribes are battling it out because the evil moon people want it that way and end up capturing some of the sun people. Luckily for the sun people there are monsters that destroy the cave they are held in and Maxus is there to save them. OH and there is hydra in the film.

Barely entertaining film. It has it's moments of being okay but those moments aren't that grand. You'd think I would like this one with all the big monsters in it but I find it only barely tolerable to skim though.

2/10

A so-so Peplum set at a Stone period in a Cro-Magnon humanity , in which ferocious tribes battle among them and there are wild , giant monsters. There shows up Maciste : Reg Lewis, who comes upon two warring tribes . The main tribe is led by a barbarian chief : Andrea Aureli who attacks the enemy and abducting the women to sacrifice them by beheading . Then they asking for help Maciste or Maxus , Son of Hercules .

A run-of-the-mill Peplum with the particularity being set in remote times, in a fantastic Earth full of astonishing monsters and two violent Homo Sapiens tribes , the Moon worshippers and the Sun worshippers . It contains spectacular battles , human sacrifices , eclipses, earthquake, cliffs collapsing , fantastic caves, men falling to chasm and anything else . Besides , here turns up surprising monsters made by regular Carlo Rambaldi who created most of them in the Peplum sub-genre . Rambaldi was a crafsman who worked hardship through the 60s , 70s, and 80s making special effects , make-up , scale-model and monsters in most of Italian films , in fact he was hired by Steven Spielberg to make ET . Stars Reg Lewis who was one of various Hunk-Men along with Steve Reeves , Gordon Scott , Rock Stevens , Dan Vadis , Brad Harris, Ken Clark, Richard Harrison, who emigrated from US to Italy to play absurd mythological Peplums , however none of them topped in popularity to Steve Reeves. Here appears some familiar faces from Italian Spaghetti , thrillers , Peplum as secondaries, such as : Andrea Aureli, Luciano Marin , Nello Pazzafini and Margaret Lee , Klaus Kinski's wife.

It contains a decent cinematography by Giuseppe La Torre with gorgeous outdoors from Ljubijana , Slovenia and shot in Incir De Paolis Studios , Lazio , Rome . This routine motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Guido Malatesta. He was an artisan who wrote and directed all kinds of genres with penchant for adventures , historical and Peplum, such as : Fire over Rome, , Colossus and the Headhunters, Raid of the Giants, Tarzana the Wild Woman, Goliath against the giants , La Rivolta Dei Barbari, I Predoni Del Sahara , Samoa , Son of Black Eagle , Mask of Scaramouche , Poppea's Hot Nights, Samson versus Pirates , Catalina of Russia, Giuditta e Olofferne, Zorro versus Maciste , Revenge of the Gladiators Maciste avenger of the Mayans , among others. The film will appeal to Club and Sandals subgenre fans . Only for Peplum enthusiasts.

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962)

** (out of 4)

Maciste (Reg Lewis), the son of Hercules, is wondering around when he runs into two members of a tribe that worships the Sun. They are being attacked by large fire breathing monster so Maciste kills it. Flash forward and the Moon worshipers are starting to kidnap the women from the Sun tribe so they go to Maciste for help.

FIRE MONSTERS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, the American title of this Italian movie, isn't a film that is meant to be taken serious. Outside of the Mario Bava film HERCULES IN A HAUNTED WORLD, this is the first in the series that I've seen and from the start I couldn't help but think of the Toho Godzilla series with the poor dubbing and rather silly special effects. Of course, I'm sure many people would say the only way to fully enjoy this or even judge it is by watching the original Italian cut but I don't have that available.

As far as this American edit goes, I thought it was actually entertaining as long as you don't expect too much from it. The performances are pretty much what they are and it's certainly hard to judge them with the atrocious accents and dubbing. Poor Maciste appears to be dubbed by someone simply holding their breathe. The film does contain quite a bit of action, which helps keep it move at a nice pace and it's certainly never boring.

As for the title monster, it's a real doozy and appears to have been made from supplied bought at a dollar store. Yes, it looks incredibly cheap and silly but it somewhat adds to the charm.