Maciste all'inferno

What an odd confection of Roman mythology and Christian fairy tale in this underworld battle, "Maciste in Hell." The film may also be illustrative of the development of a cinema with a target audience of largely boys, with an emphasis on juvenile fantasy and visual effects that extends all the way to the mainstream of "Star Wars" (1977) and, by extension, the comic-book movies that dominate today's market.

First, there are two ports of entry here that I'm familiar with, of which this film is a consequence. Directly, there's the 1914 epic "Cabiria," which introduced the Maciste character, a popular personality of Italian silent cinema. Reportedly, strongman Bartolomeo Pagano (actually, he was a stevedore before entering the movie business) starred in thirteen films as this character between 1915 and 1926, and the giant would continue past the silent era with his revival in the 1960s. "Cabiria" was also the pinnacle of the early feature-length spectacle pictures made in Italy in the early 1910s. The sets and sheer grandeur of it had a direct influence on D. W. Griffith's productions of "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) and "Intolerance" (1916).

The other influence on this is the féeries (fairy films) of Georges Méliès, the original cine-magician who practically invented children's movies, as well as popularizing the early cinema trick effects that still largely comprise the visual effects of "Maciste in Hell," namely multiple-exposure photography and stop-substitution splicing. Méliès also had a flair for theatrical set design, and the production design overall in "Maciste in Hell" is arguably more Méliès than it is "Cabiria," not least because it's simply not that big of an epic.

What the cavernous hellscape here especially reminds me of, though, is the original 1936 "Flash Gordon" serial (although it was a comic first). I could certainly see Flash riding around on a dragon, wrestling demons and trying to rescue damsels whilst often not displaying any outward sexual interest in them. As many I'm sure know, "Flash Gordon" was a major influence on "Star Wars," and this should be quite apparent to anyone who has seen both series. They're both basically chapter-play shoot-'em-up Westerns in outer space--to a large extent, what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is for today's generation.

This is otherwise what I found most dull about "Maciste in Hell." It's a simplistic battle of good and evil. Childishly so. Maciste's spell in Hell best illustrates this point. Being a living being from Earth, he can't spend more than three days in the underworld (because decrees, or something--Hades apparently having its own constitutional monarchy and government institutions). That is unless he commit the gravest sin: kissing a woman. A lot of emphasis in this picture on the dangers of female sexuality. I guess it's one way to get pre-adolescent male audiences invested in the suspense of romantic kissing. When Maciste inevitably surrenders to their feminine wiles, he's punished--now, get this--by hair growing in all sorts of odd places on his body. What a laughable puberty metaphor. He also becomes stronger, or super-strong. Essentially, he's a hairy X-Men mutant or that werewolf from the "Twilight" series, which are all silly adolescent allegories, too. I mean, c'mon, what did you think the teenage Spiderman ejaculating silk from his wrists was supposed to represent?

This isn't "Faust," as Maciste unnecessarily points out--and unflatteringly considering that F. W. Murnau's vastly superior devil-themed film, "Faust" (1926), was released around the same time. Neither is this, regardless of its Italian origins, Dante's "Inferno," which was made into one of Italy's first longer films in 1911. This is also despite the Pordenone Silent Film Festival screening what constitutes a warhorse print by comparison to the other new restorations they program ("Maciste in Hell" being restored back in 2009, as based on one from 1993, and the film already being fairly accessible, including existing in various shapes on YouTube) ostensibly in celebration of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri. No, this is kiddie stuff.

That's not to say it's not well made and sometimes entertaining, lackadaisical though the plot may be. Although the trick effects aren't much of anything new, some of them are pretty good and sometimes used as scene transitions. A bit with a dismembered head when Mastice first enters Hades looks good. I especially like the film-within-film visions for the underworld to watch life on Earth, although such visions, too, are a multiple-exposure trick extending back to early cinema. Their use as surveillance is relatively novel, though. The editing, especially early on, is choppy, but that's kind of refreshing compared to the snail pace of little to no scene dissection in the early Italian epics such as "Cabiria." Plus, it's evident the print is pretty beat up, with scratches and cuts and other marks flashing on screen here and there. For obvious reasons, there's considerable red tinting and pyrotechnics.

As for the underworld battle, there's the Lucifer devil trying to usurp King Pluto, although why the devil brought Maciste down there to fight on the opposing side before starting this civil war seems an enormous blunder. So, it's the old gods versus the new, the two major religions to spring from Rome (albeit both by way of the Levant). Granted, I've read that the film went through some censorship issues over its religious depictions, which reportedly delayed its release in Italy, but I'm just going off the restoration that I saw. Interesting that Roman mythology reigns supreme in Hades here, including guest appearances by the likes of Charon (not just a concierge from the "John Wick" franchise) and Minos, while Christianity seems to have decidedly taken control above, as indicated by the Christmas-theme denouement. Maciste is also decidedly a Hercules figure. Yet, in the end, "Maciste in Hell" specifically frames itself as a fairy tale, alluding to its true origins in those Méliès féeries--the worship of visions on a wall, the church of cinema.

MACISTE IN HELL is a superior silent film. It presents a magnificent representation of the swirling chaos of hell, complete with demons and lost souls.

The special effects are fantastic for a movie of this vintage. This is a pandemonium that would impress Dante himself...

This is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. The scope of it's storytelling is nothing short of biblical, and I am not referring to the plot but to the size of the film. This movie was bigger than all three of the PETER JACKSON'S JRR TOLKEIN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS: A FILM BY PETER JACKSON DIRECTED BY PETER JACKSON movies combined, when proportions to era are taken into consideration. It dwarfs pretty much anything you can think of and the only comparison I can make would be maybe cross BIRTH OF A NATION with Hieronymous Bosch's "Garden of Earthy Delights" triptych and throw in ample amounts of that brown acid the Pigman was warning everyone about on the WOODSTOCK soundtrack.

Even then it doesn't do justice to the scale of the film: Individual humans seem puny or insignificant compared to the immense sets, brimming with contorted and writhing forms of the damned, confined to hell for all eternity as if it was some huge mosh pit at a GWAR concert. As one contributor has already stated it has little in common with the "Maciste" muscle-man films of the Italian Peplum rage of 1960 - 1964 or so. Other than our hero goes around righting wrongs, fighting for the freedom of the innocent, and making all the evil, reptilian she-hellions swoon. Here he is a modern man in a vested suit but the effect is no different once the film switches gear at about the twenty minute mark when Maciste is literally thrown into the bowels of Hades, and it is not a pretty place.

Every last cultural form that has been attributed to Lucifer, Mephistopholes, Satan or the Devil finds manifestation in this film, and certain scenes do indeed appear to have been directly inspired by the visual work of classical artists like Bosh, Blake, Goya and Titian. Out of nowhere come dragons, devil men carrying pitchforks, a giant Saturn devouring his children, horned beasts of every shape & description, and a cast of thousands undulating in a sparking, smoking, simmering vision of hell that would even scare Osama Bin Laden out of his cave. Screw dropping bombs on Afganistan, bombard the bastards with videos and DVDs of this movie. They'll surrender inside of a week after seeing what fate awaits them as Legions of the Damned.

As for videos and DVDs, sadly the most common version of this movie currently available is a VHS sourced DVD print of the 65 minute English paneled version, with an arbitrary classical music score tacked on but some genuinely compelling hand tinting to the Hades segments. It is the most frenzied, out of control silent film I have ever seen: HAXAN is dreamily sonorous compared to the brimstone and riotous clamor of this movie. Some of the beginning passages have the kind of over-dramatic acting one usually associates with silent movies -- complete with a squad of mustachioed Mephistopholes' -- but once it shifts underground every scene is depicted with a kind of visual authority that will indeed take modern day viewers by surprise. It is a staggering movie filled with some of the most outrageous visuals ever filmed, and is 81 years old. Holy Moses.

10/10, and that's just for the chopped 65 minute version. Just amazing.

I had not heard of this film. At my age and with all the movies I've viewed, it's surprising that it never crossed my path. I was most intrigued by how the desirability of the male form has changed over time. This guy would be considered an overweight lunk nowadays. As it is, he is admired for his strength and his morality. That's the way it should be. The filmmakers have created a real world, depicting hell in sort of a Danteesque portrayal. This man makes the ultimate sacrifice; his soul; in order to gain vengeance against Satan himself. Of course he makes some mistakes along the way, but he has a pure being and endures all that is thrown at him. The images are incredible for the time and the story is interesting. I guess this fellow was part of a canon of films that no longer exist. It's worth a shot, just to see how quickly a gifted filmmaker could begin to see the possibilities of the new technology.

Arguably more than was true for anyone else in the early years of cinema save for Georges Méliès, Italian filmmakers had truly mastered very quickly an incredible sense of spectacle and artistry. We saw this even in 1911 with Milano Fillms' imaginative 'L'inferno,' and upon release in 1925 'Maciste in hell' ('Maciste all'inferno') handily confirmed it. Scarcely has the picture begun and we're treated to fabulously detailed sets and painted backgrounds, lavish costume design, and creative hair, makeup, and props. That's to say nothing of stunts and effects which look utterly terrific and rather astound as an achievement at a time before synchronized sound had even been introduced into the medium; one can quite easily allow themselves to forget that these inclusions are modest by our modern standards. We are gifted with beautiful filming locations, sharp editing and cinematography, inventive use of visuals, substantial tinting, and an outstanding cast of actors who unreservedly embrace their characters and the saga, and who wholeheartedly throw themselves into each scene in turn. It's not that this was the biggest or most grandiose title of the silent era, nor was Guido Brignone specifically innovating anything here, yet the viewing experience is stupendously rich and absorbing right from the very start simply on the basis of the imagery being presented - and it consistently remains so. Even if the feature weren't as successful in other capacities, it would be well worth remembering and celebrating even nearly 100 years later just for the stunning extravagance of the visions it gives us.

By comparison to the sights put before us, the narrative that Riccardo Artuffo whipped up initially feels more common; in some regards, this is a movie we've seen before. What we get for the majority of the length is chiefly a drama of the troubles on Earth between Maciste, his sweet neighbor Graziella, and rakish Giorgio. Adjoining these dynamics are the efforts by agents of Hell to ensnare more souls by whatever devious means are at their disposal, and of course virtuous Maciste and darling Graziella are at the top of the list. Mind you, even if that's all this flick was it would still be worthy, but lastly, amidst all these beats are scenes in the pit, the primary (but not exclusive) source of those exquisite visuals to greet us. The latter facet most particularly comes to bear in the last act as Maciste directly engages the infernal beings as the name suggests, and thus is an aspect of dark fantasy imparted - and thus is actualized what was previously mostly only a thematic air of horror. There's always a certain whimsy to the storytelling, and the tale isn't so altogether dark as to invite the sinister ambience that genre fans crave, nor giddy insidiousness, let alone meaningful feelings of thrill, chill, or repulsion. Still, the very concept at hand offers these flavors to some extent, and more so the grim imagery. Moreover, it would have taken surprisingly little for Brignone to guide the film in a more devilish direction, for while not virulent and all-consuming, I'm surprised by just how joyfully wicked 'Maciste in hell' was allowed to be: to no small degree warping a beloved character, trifling with contemporary conventional morality, and serving up visuals and a plot that elsewhere in the world would make censors apoplectic.

One might say that the picture is imbalanced in some tiny measure just for the proportions of how this spends its ninety-five minutes. However, not only are the first two-thirds very entertaining and satisfying in and of themselves, but once the story does fully shift, the remainder is so exceptionally strong, fun, engrossing that any prior concerns are pretty much just forgotten. It turns out that the quality we get right from the start really does remain consistent throughout, and I could hardly be happier with the results. I anticipated enjoying this, being enamored of both horror and the silent era and recognizing what "horror" tended to mean in those first years of the medium. And despite moderate to high expectations, still they have been well exceeded, and I'm elated by just how brilliant this century-old feature really is. I can understand how older titles don't appeal to all comers, and I'd have said the same myself at one time; for genre aficionados who seek the visceral thrill ride above all else, this may also disappoint. Yet for those who are open to all the possibilities that horror has to offer, and appreciate the long, treasured history of cinema, frankly I'm of the mind that this is quite essential. I'm delighted by how truly excellent 'Maciste in hell' is; as far as I'm concerned it deserves much more recognition, and I'm pleased to give it my very high, hearty, and enthusiastic recommendation!