This film features the Italian hero Maciste who is an adventurer super strong type a bit like the Greek Hercules. So much so that a few of Maciste's adventures (there were a lot of them back in the 60's) were repackaged as Hercules films here in the United States. This was the case with the 1964 Maciste film that is more well known as, Hercules Against the Moon Men. This one was given the title, Colossus and the Headhunters, which was a bit strange seeing as how during the duration of the film the hero was never referred to as Colossus, but rather the Italian name Maciste. My guess they did not go with giving the name Hercules to the film due to the hero not sporting a beard like would be the case with the Moon Men film. Heck, in that one the actor playing Maciste would be the man who was Steve Reeves' stuntman in the first two Hercules films. So these two characters kind of cross together in many ways. This film was one of two Maciste films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 along with Moon Men while Hercules would be riffed a total of three times, though they did tend to make it out like the Moon Men one was a Hercules film too. This film is not as good as the Moon Men film as that one may have featured an overly long sandstorm sequence, but at least it had some good traps and a few monsters within it. This one for the most part is a bit of a yawn after what was kind of an explosive way to start a movie!
The story has an island having a volcanic eruption. When I was watching this I thought the people were cavemen or something, but then a guy who seemed more Spartan showed up and then a big muscle dude comes along and gets as many people as he can on his raft so that the people can escape this explosive onslaught as the volcano claims the island. At this point I suspected it was another Maciste film and when I checked online I would learn my instincts were correct. After the eruption which seems almost as if there needed some sort of backstory but there is none the people float around until they reach land where they are promptly captured and Maciste wounded. Turns out their captors are not the bad guys and we learn of this tribe of headhunters who helped this one man overthrow this queen and her people and they soon capture her and the king may be alive and a lot of stuff is thrown in before a rather boring mob scene climax that is not as cool as the opening volcanic eruption.
This made for a rather funny episode of MST3K. Joel did the previous films featuring Hercules and Maciste, but Mike is the one that was burdened with it this time. This one is the worst of the films as the Hercules films were actually well done and even the Moon one had its moments. This one was just watching Maciste walking through brush through much of the film. They kept referring to him as Ma-cheese-steak as that is what it sounded like his name was. There are also funny moments during the end as the 'wedding' ceremony breaks down into an all out fight.
So, this film was not all that good after the volcano scene which basically started the film off with a bang! Granted, it was a bang that really needed a bit of story behind it and I am wondering if the previous Maciste film ended with him discovering the island and the volcano about to erupt or something. I do know there were a lot of Maciste films back in the 60's; however, I am not as sure if they followed each other as closely as the Hercules films as those films picked up after each other. If the Moon one is the next film then the answer to whether the Maciste films pick up after each other is a resounding 'no'.
