Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide

Before James Bond.

Before Indiana Jones.

There was the Hercules series.

Or at least the series starring Reg Park. These Hercules films were big, colorful, full of action and fun. They are also shockingly maligned, just by looking at the IMDb rating for HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, which is a joke.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN wasn't your average low-budget Sword & Sandal flick. It was shot in Technirama (expensive 70mm) and the look of it, in the widescreen version, is remarkable to say the least: big colorful sets, big cast, big action. The details, in some scenes, is stunning.

The whole production reminds me of old serials where our hero encounters one pitfall after another. HATCW is like the missing link that bridges the gap between old serials of the 1930s/1940s and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. And like James Bond films (DR NO was made a year after this), this Hercules movie is replete with vast cavernous sets which dwarf the cast and are set on the side of spectacle.

CAPTIVE WOMEN has many highlights. My favorite part is when Hercules saves Iseme, daughter of Queen Antinea, from the clutches of Proteus. Psychedelia circa 1961, or psychedelia before psychedelia was in! The surreal look is great and precedes all other films made in the 1960s, including BARBARELLA or even Fellini films, like SATYRICON. In fact, HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN looks like an action film if it had been directed by Fellini. It doesn't shy away from combining odd imagery along with comic book action.

The cast is perfect. Steve Reeves was (and still is) the definitive Hercules but beefy Reg Park fits the bill here. Park is happy just to be an action hero as opposed to Reeves who wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. Fay Spain makes a memorable evil Queen. Laura Efrikian is beautiful as Iseme. Ettore Manni, a familiar face in Peplums and a pretty good actor, lends excellent support as Hercules' best friend, Androcles.

The film itself is not perfect. The story is a tad thin and the stock footage at the end is obviously just footage of an erupting volcano, and it definitely lacks a distinctive score to give the film that extra special character but even so, these things didn't diminish the fun I had while watching it.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN is the kind of movie I'll be watching again and again. It just rocks!

I always hated this movie when ever I saw it on TV. It was badly dubbed and rightly made fun of by Mystery Science 3000. Then I mistakenly picked up the film in its full Italian version with subtitles and was shocked that the film is so much better in its full form. It wasn't until the infamous Uranus line that I realized what I was watching. Granted its not Oscar material, but as far as Hercules films goes the uncut version of this film is so much better, fifteen minutes really do make the difference.

Vittorio Cottafavi's Hercules and the Captive Women recycles the standard Hercules plot structure. If you have seen any of its predecessors or descendants, you have seen something very much like this film. However, in this case, the entire army of evil-doers Herc must confront are immortals from Atlantis who have been secretly infiltrating Greek politics. Most of the action takes place on Atlantis after Herc, his son, and a couple of friends wash up there.

Hercules is played by Reg Park, a very beefy non-actor built like a comic book superhero. Park seems to spend the first 1/3rd of the film lounging about, and most of the second 2/3rds flexing and fighting. His occasional lines are clearly spoken, but without a great deal of enthusiasm. Most of the acting is OK. No real highlights in the cast, though.

The action sequences are fairly entertaining, but don't compare favorably to the special-effects saturated fight scenes of today. Like many Hercules films, Captive Women features lavish costumes and sets.The costumes are up to the series above-average standards and a few of the Atlantean sets are really nice. The script is on par with most of the series, which is to say that it is not very good.

Recommended for Hercules fans only.

Passable Peplum thanks to robust Reg Park and expert filmmaker Vittorio Cottafavi . Mythological epic with a magnificent he-man as is Reg Park and set in Greece and Turkey . The Greek council of the 30 (formed by a nice Italian cast such as Ivo Garrani , Enrico Maria Salerno , Ettore Manni and the notorious Gian Maria Volonte , previous his Fistful of dollars) assigns Heracles (Reg Park) a dangerous mission to go to Orient country to investigate a terrible enemy foreseen by the augur (Nando Tamberlani) . Heroic Hercules along with his son (Luciano Marin) , Androclo, Re Di Tebe (Ettore Manni) and a midget battle the seductive powers of the wicked Queen of Atlantis named Antinea (Fay Spain) . Strong yet sleepy Hercules discovers that the Queen of Atlantis is plotting to take over the world with superhuman warriors . The bouncing Maciste helps the Atlantis citizens and reunites an army of rebels to take on the queen headquarter . But Maciste is captured , locked and become a slave . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the Atlantis townsfolk from villain Queen Antinea . Then Maciste becomes inextricably involved in a war between rebels under his command against an army of automat . Along the way Maciste or Hercules or Goliath frees slaves , moves rocks , fights weird creatures and nasty masked hoodlums .

Italian/French co-production with haunting scenarios , wonderful outdoors and functional production design , including a city similarly designed to mythical Atlantis . Lavishly-produced , sometimes tongue-in-cheek , plenty of action and results to be pretty entertaining . This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , battles , luxurious landscapes and a love story between Hercules' son and a princess . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . Breathtaking scenes when Maciste moves a giant rock , thrown from a cliff , and overwhelming final with surprising and spectacular scenes , including the explosive spotlight when ground shaking , volcano erupts and the town blows its top . In the picture turns up Peplum ordinaries as Ivo Garrani as Re Di Megalia , Mimmo Palmara as Astor, Il Gran Visir , Mario Petri as Zenith, Prete Di Urano and veteran Nando Tamberlani as Tiberiades , the soothsayer. Reg Park is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying to save his son of numerous odds and taking on the mythical Queen Antinea from Pierre Benoit novel . Reg Park himself became something of a cult personality in the Italian epic genre . Reg was a personal fitness trainer in South Africa . His friend and protégé Arnold Schwarzenegger considered Park to be the best of the "peplum" heroes. Reg Park who played the mythic Maciste in a few movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules , Goliath , Samson or Aron for U.S. viewing . Bouncing and strong Reg was the third American actor bodybuilder , after Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott, to be recruited by Italian producers to star in Peplum films . Reg Park played reserve team football for Leeds United before turning to body-building in 1946 . He finished Mr Universe runner-up to future film rival Steve Reeves in 1950 , then won the title outright in 1951, 1958 and 1965. After marrying South African-born Mareon Isaacs in Johannesburg in 1952, the Parks moved permanently to South Africa . Reg used the amount of money he made acting as hero and gladiator films in Italy to fitness . As the muscle-man Reg Park left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the gymnasium in South Africa where Reg ran a chain of fitness studios . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , Brad Harris , Alan Steel , Rock Stevens , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune acting absurdly as muscle mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . Reg only starred 5 Peplum such as : La Sfida Dei Giganti , 1964 Ursus, terror of the Kirguisos , 1961 Ercole Al Centro della terra Hercules , 1961 The conquest of the Atlántida and ¨Maciste in King Solomon's Mines" - USA (TV title) or "Samson in King Solomon's Mines" which , handily for Park, was filmed on location in South Africa .

Interesting screenplay by Sandro Continenza and Ennio De Concini , a prolific writer/director who wrote a lot of Spaghetti , Gialli and Peplum . This spectacular Sword and Sandal movie displays a colorful and glowing cinematography by Carlo Carlini , filmed on location and Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Gino Marinuzzi and Armando Trovajoli . The motion picture was professionally directed by Vittorio Cottafavi who also wrote many tales of this kind ,as he continued to realize and write films in similar style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . He began his professional career in the film industry as clapper boy . After progressing to write motion picture screenplays and working as assistant director under Alessandro Blasetti and Vittorio De Sica, he became a director in his own right in 1943. Many of his films have been "sword-and sandal" epics, dealing with mythological subjects involving the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt such as "The Warrior and the Slave Girl" , "Amazons of Rome¨ , "Goliath and the Dragon" , Messalina¨ and "Cleopatra's Legion" . From the mid-60's, Cottafavi concentrated exclusively on directing TV series and mini-series, under contract to RAI . Rating : Acceptable muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti , thanks to Reg Park and by Peplum specialist as is the director Vittorio Cottafavi . Rating : 6,5/10 , Well worth watching and better than average Sword and Sandals movie .

For nothing else, CAPTIVE WOMEN is worth checking out because it's the Reg Park-starring Herc film that preceded the epochal HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD directed by Mario Bava -- which still remains, hands down, the best of the Italian Herc movies ever made. CAPTIVE WOMEN is extremely well produced -- excellent production design and visual FX by Hercules standards -- and that's both its big plus and its big minus. The Retromedia DVD is very, very good -- in 2.35 Cinemascope, nice transfer -- and it's terrific to see a Hercules film given this kind of loving treatment. BUT -- it does point out some of the shortcomings of CAPTIVE WOMEN. Which are, mainly, that not a helluva lot happens. Herc goes sailing, a buddy goes overboard ... and he winds up in Atlantis, where the Evil Queen (note: Queens are almost always evil, and extremely smokin' hot, in Herc movies) gives him a magic potion designed to make him fall in love with her. Second note: magic potions figure prominently in a LOT of Hercules films, and they're almost always administered by smokin' hot Evil Queens trying to get Herc to fall in love with them. That's what we love about these films. Anyhow ... great production values but a bit, well, stiff somehow.