Poseidon seizes the opportunity to exact revenge on Ulysses (Georges Marchal) for blinding his son, Polyphemus. Of course, he fails to mention that Cyclops wanted to eat Ulysses' men, but it doesn't matter, because no matter the circumstances, a mortal has no right to kill gods or their offspring.
So Zeus sends his son Hercules (Mike Lane) to capture Ulysses and bring him to Polyphemus' island so that he can take revenge on him. Ulysses and his men are on their way back from Troy to Ithaca, eager to finally see his wife Penelope again, when a Phoenician ship attacks them. Hercules is on board, having promised the Phoenician captain a large reward if Ulysses can be captured. The venture initially succeeds, and the hero of Troy is captured. In the ship's hold, however, Ulysses frees himself from his bonds with the help of a fire, setting the Phoenician ship ablaze.
Swimming, Ulysses, followed shortly after by Hercules, reach the mainland, where they fall into the hands of bloodthirsty bird-men and their mother hen/queen Aria (Dominique Boschero). Using flattery, the two heroes try to dissuade Aria from making a sacrifice to the bird god, and they manage to escape. Shortly thereafter, Ulysses tricks Hercules and continues his journey alone, but is captured by cavemen under the command of the half-mad King Lagos (Gianni Santuccio), who is terrorizing the neighboring kingdom of King Ircanus. Ircanus is, of course, the father of Hercules' beloved Helen, who is promised to the primitive Prince Adastro (Raf Baldassarre).
And so, Hercules hopes that by destroying King Lagos and his horrifying subjects, he will be allowed to marry Helen as a reward. In doing so, he will also be able to free Ulysses and hand him over to Polyphemus. But by now, the two heroes have developed a deep respect for each other, and when Ulysses finally frees Helen, who had been kidnapped by Adastro, can Hercules bring himself to abandon Ulysses to death and Polyphemus's stomach?
Hercules against Ulysses is one fun peplum, very well-paced, sharply shot in beautiful natural settings. The plot is constantly moving; it's very adventurous with one plot thread leading to one problem to another such as a burning ship, bird men and cave dwellers. There's a cliffhanger in the form of a wall coming down to crush the hero, and it's quite suspenseful. The sword fight between Ulysses and Prince Adrasto was energetically done, as was the battle scene, though a little clumsy in parts.
What sets this apart from other Hercules' films is its intelligence - theres more talking, engaging interplay between Hercules and Ulysses. Liked the battle of wits between Ulysses and King Lagos - found the flying attempts in which Lagos asks Ulysses to build a contraption so he can fly quite funny. He obliges and attaches the "wings" to Lagos, who realises it could be a way to kill him, so Lagos asks him to try the "wings", and Ulysses replies that he can but warns him that if it works he will escape and if it doesn't then he will die and Lagos will be deprived of his wisdom! Instead a cave dweller straps on the wings and doesn't fly. Lagos is angry, but Ulysses calmly replies he didn't flap his wings!
Also there's a dreamy atmosphere about the film, which I loved, and there's nary a dull moment. George Marchal is excellent as Ulysses, looks the part as does Mike Lane; their chemistry is very good.
