Maciste en la tierra de los cíclopes

Strange «péplum», a bit on the sadistic side, made me feel terrible for the poor Cyclops, who is described as a captive freak, unlike the busy and aggressive creatures Ray Harryhausen created for «The 7th Voyage of Sinbad». For the proceeding, maestro Mario Serandrei's editing is rather lazy, especially in the action scenes, where the tempo of the cutting is not particularly inspired, and the shots linger on Gordon Mitchell's muscles. Even Chelo Alonso goes through a strange routine, from evil queen to woman in love, excluding the possibility of one of her sensual dance scenes; and Mitchell is one very strange looking fellow, with a gentle personality that seems at odds with his character, supposedly a lonely highlander. But «Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops» has ladies in distress chewing gum, «menacing» lions that resemble rugs, a villain (funny Dante DiPaolo) who is always smiling when he's saying his meanest dialog lines, and lights that follow the characters through kitsch settings and barren exteriors. So don't let it pass you: it has a lot to enjoy. Watch it!

If viewers can get by the crummy existing home video transfers currently available ATLAS IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS, as this is know in it's English language form, is actually a superior example of the Italian Peplum sword & sandal genre. The problem with the existing versions isn't with the film, it's that a glorious widescreen (2:35:1 Techniscope) popcorn movie has been cropped and pan/scanned down to an abysmal, color rotted 16mm fullscreen reduction print meant for television distribution back in the 1960s. There should be a Crimes Against Humanity tribunal charged with tracking down those responsible for ruining this and countless other movies like it, perhaps forcing them to watch endlessly looped repeats of those old SnackMaster infomercials as punishment. The original elements are probably long lost and like a butchered scrap of an old Michelangelo painting, this is all we have left. It's a horrible loss.

But even in such a miserable state this is quite the little Hercules/Samson/Maciste style adventure, with big grinning Gordon Mitchell at his finest as another he-man wandering the ancient world and righting wrongs. This production actually had a decent budget for it's time as well, with a huge cast of extras and some genuinely clever effects sequences and strong man spectacle moments -- at one point Mitchell even rows an entire slave galley at ramming speed, by himself -- along with the requisite eye candy Veil Dance naval gazing for the dads, slave mistreatment scenes, lots of Pizza Pizza guards running around in plumed helmets, the ubiquitous moment where the hero gets to flirt with all the serving girls or share wine & grapes with the evil sexy queen who is responsible for the misdeeds that he must set to rights.

What makes this one stand out is that all of that happens before Atlas, as he is called here, even squares off against a genuinely frightful looking 18 foot tall Cyclops down in it's pit for a duel to the death to save both the pretty princess and the rightful infant heir to the throne. The Cyclops rulez and for once the muscle bound hero is presented with a monster that's quite worthy of his talents. Their battle is a doozie and actually somewhat graphic for it's time. You'd really have to be a cold heartless bastard not to get a kick out of it, and as usual the clever way it was filmed puts any CGI rendered special effects sequence depicting similar events to shame.

And as usual the big lummox of a hero rides off into the sunset at the end while the adoring crowds cheer his heroism & derring-do, something that quite frankly the world could use a bit more of these days. I'd encourage anyone with a love for fantasy adventure/action films to seek this baby out, and you can: It's available on one of those 50 Movie Packs called "The Warriors Collection" easily found on Amazon.com for a few dollars, featuring forty nine other movies more or less just like it, which would take you about two weeks of non-stop viewing to get through it. And people say getting snowed in sucks, I call it an opportunity for cheesy Euro man-beef fantasy indulgence with an exceptionally cool monster to boot. Ignore the crummy picture quality, pop a bucket of popcorn and enjoy!

8/10

Centuries after Ulysses outwitted enchantress Circe and blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, beauty Capys (Chelo Alonso), evil queen of Sadok, is cursed to take revenge, searching for baby Agisander, the last of Ulysses' descendents, who is being protected by muscleman Maciste (Gordon Mitchell).

Who doesn't enjoy a cyclops? Not me, that's for sure, and the one-eyed giant in this movie is a fun looking beast (not as great as the one in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, but certainly no worse than Bernard Bresslaw in Krull, or that kid in the Percy Jackson film). Unfortunately, the fearsome creature of Greek legend only appears right at the end of this sword and sandal flick, and even when on screen, it doesn't get to do a lot - it's killed way too easily and quickly by Maciste.

The build-up to the Maciste vs monster climax is mostly unremarkable peplum nonsense, as the strong-man rescues Capys from a cave-in and strikes up an unlikely romance with the queen, convincing her not to kill the child; meanwhile, jealous Iphitos (Dante DiPaolo), who is in love with Capys, tries to break the curse she is under by finding the kid and feeding him (and his mother) to the cyclops.

A tug of war between a team of white men and a team of black men, with Maciste in the middle, suspended over a pit of lions, is amusing, and the sight of Maciste single-handedly rowing a galley at ramming speed is certainly unique, but other 'set-pieces' are quite dire: Maciste wrestling with a lion is a poor copy of a similar scene in Hercules (1958), while a wrestling bout between Maciste and nubian slave Mumba (Paul Wynter) is one of the weakest, most boring movie fight scenes I can recall seeing. Mitchell saunters through the whole film with a cheesy grin that makes him look a bit simple.

4/10. I'm still looking for a peplum to really impress me.

Since the cyclops only appears in the last six or seven minutes (!) ,the title is a misnomer;this giant gives the most successful performance of a poor cast ;the actors ,from muscle man to wicked queen are so dismal you can have a good laugh!Vaguely based on Greek mythology :Circea's revenge on Ulysses' descendants;the queen will not be allowed to live in peace till the last heir is exterminated ;so she's got some excuses even though she shows some sadism .Macist fights against her to put back the true king on the throne and to save the true queen whose husband was slaughtered by the evil sovereign's soldiers.

There are ten-year-old pupils who write better essays than this screenplay.

"The people of Sadok are besieged by a terrible, man-eating, giant Cyclops that has ravaged the countryside and consumed many of its people. Atlas (aka 'Maciste') arrives at Sadok with the intent to defeat the monster and help the people, but is faced with another type of battle. The evil Queen Capys has set her sights upon Atlas and decides to try everything in her power to take him as her own. Now, Atlas must try to defeat two enemies as well as rescue the infant descendant of Ulysses from being eaten by the Cyclops," according to the DVD sleeve description.

Re-titled "Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops" for American consumption.

This Italian loincloth and sandals epic features the usual chesty performances. American-born Gordon Mitchell (as "Atlas" aka "Maciste") muscled in on the strong-man ("Hercules") bandwagon, and began his Italian movie career with this one. For the genre, the film isn't the worst; but, you'd be well-advised to begin by considering the average film of this type to be subpar. The most interesting appearance is that of "little Fabio" (as baby Agisander), who is reputed to be the same Fabio who found fame as a romance novel cover model and all-around 1990s celebrity.

*** Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi (3/29/61) Antonio Leonviola ~ Gordon Mitchell, Chelo Alonso, Vira Silenti, Fabio