Le géant de la vallée des rois

Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) provides the beef in this relatively lavish Egyptian-style muscleman movie, whose production design is quite good for a low-budget, Italian potboiler. But for those who enjoy the genre, the highlight is the voluptuous Chelo Alonso, whose elegantly stiff performance as the evil empress is supplanted by the delightful belly dance she performs to seduce our lifeless hero midway through the picture. Adolescent kitsch working extraordinarily well as a fetishistic flesh fantasy. Terrific.

Better than expected wide-screen peplum, with fine exteriors shot in Egypt, and terrific Chelo Alonso as evil queen Smedes, who has time to do an exotic dance that is half belly dancing, half Cuban pelvis shaking, a plus that disappeared in her second foray into a Maciste film (in the land of the cyclops) the following year. Smedes is the treacherous wife of the Egyptian pharaoh, whom she kills according to the designs of Persian invaders, and tries to seduce the handsome Italian-American Mark Forest, in a good version of Maciste, who leads the people in a revolt against the wicked Smedes. As Steve Reeves, Forest also retired soon, investing their money and time on something else: Reeves in a ranch; Forest, teaching operatic singing.

Well for the first half of this entry the acting is very wooden but somewhere down the line the cast start to look interested, I feared the worst when I bought this on DVD but was surprised just how good it is (in parts!), our hero saves a bunch of babes...sorry slaves from capture and unites with the people against the tyrants...well you should get the idea by now if you watch these kind of movies,as always Mark Forest looks superb as Machiste son of Samson and his muscular frame has the ladies in question in a spin, one word of warning though, some battle scenes are incredibly brutal and gory, this surprised me greatly as I don't think this would have been passed by British censors but as these epics come and go a good entry into the genre.

Mythological epic with a magnificent he-man as is Mark Forest and set in Under Egypt whose center is ¨Sais¨ while High Egypt the capitol is ¨Tanis¨ . The setting is the 11th century BC ancient Egypt , when the country is dominated by Persian occupiers who have enslaved the people . At the beginning appears some impressive images with slaves buried until neck and serpents surrounding and other frames with persons burn on poles . Pharaoh Armiteo I (Carlo Tamberlani) is planning a rebellion against Persians . But his gorgeous wife Smedes (Chelo Alonso) aware and kill him . The young prince Kenamus (Zanolli) becomes the new successor , but he is deceived and spelled by means of a potion who turns into slave to Smedes . The bouncing Maciste helps the youngster Kenamun and reunites an army of rebels to take on the Smedes troops . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the successor from villain Smedes and against the pharaoh's former counselor . Then Maciste becomes inextricably involved in a war between usurpers under the command the Egyptian troops against an army of helpless rebels . Along the way Maciste or Hercules or Goliath frees slaves , moves rocks and fights a lion and Crocs .

French/Italian co-production with haunting scenarios , wonderful outdoors and rousing production design . This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious landscapes . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . Breathtaking scenes when is elevated an Egyptian column and overwhelming final battle with surprisingly gory scenes . As usual ,the beautiful Cuban dancer/actress plays an erotic dancing with veil included before Maciste that was censored in Spain . In the picture turns up Peplum ordinaries as Vira Silenti , the veteran Carlo Tamberlani and Andrea Fantasia who along with his brother Franco Fantasia worked much as maestros of weapons in this genre . Interesting screenplay by Ennio De Concini , a prolific writer who wrote a lot of Spaghetti , Gialli and Peplum . This spectacular Sword and Sandal movie displays a colorful and glimmer cinematography by Riccardo Pallotini , filmed on location in Egypt including the pyramids and temples of Hatsetsup , Karnak , Luxor , among others . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Innocenzi . The motion picture is well directed by Carlo Campogalliani who made many tales of this kind . He along with Vittorio Cottafavi and Giorgio Ferroni continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery .

Mark Forest , in his first film, is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying to save a pharaoh of numerous odds . Forest who played the mythic Maciste in great number of movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules , Goliath , Samson or Aron for U.S. viewing . Bouncing and strong Forest was the second American actor bodybuilder , after Steve Reeves , to be recruited by Italian producers to star in Peplum films . The muscle-man Forest left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the Opera . He used the amount of money he made acting as hero and gladiator films in Italy to study Opera , he currently teaches in the Los Angeles zone . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis,Brad Harris , Alan Steel , Reg Park , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune acting absurdly as muscle mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . He only starred Peplum such as : 1964 Hércules against sons of sun , 1964 Lion of Tebas , 1964 Maciste Nell'inferno Gengis Khan , 1964 Maciste, Gladiatore Sparta , 1963 Maciste Contro i Mongoli ,1963 Maciste, l'Eroe più Grande del Mondo ,1962 Maciste, Gladiatore più forte Mondo , 1961 Maciste, the Son of Hercules , 1960 La Venganza De Ercole . Rating : Above average muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti,thanks to Mark Forest and by Peplum specialist as is the director Carlo Campogalliani .

Could be a good time to Maciste if the producers adjust some ridiculous scenes along the picture, the screenplay is terrible to start and the storyline is lack of creativity apart all this, the greatest sets ever done weren't enough this time, also my copy from VHS was dubbed to english version became worst the whole thing, l'm a great fan of those semi-gods of greek mitology, I have a lot of these good movies of the Hercules, Sansom, Goliah and Maciste, they are amazing characters who deserves an appropiate good productions to make those magnificents movies, further Chelo alonso overcame all this mess and share us your glorious beauty!!!

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First watch: 1987 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 4.5.