La furia di Ercole

This movie begins with "Hercules" (Brad Harris) riding in a chariot and suddenly being ambushed by a group of men. Upon defending himself, the leader recognizes that it is Hercules that they are attacking and yells for his men to withdraw. Hercules then proceeds to his destination, which is the city of Arpad, to pay his respects to the king. However, when he gets there, he is informed that the king and all of the other counselors he knew previously have all died. The new ruler is the king's daughter "Cnidia" (Mara Berni), who he knew when she was a child and who quickly falls in love with him when they meet again. Unfortunately, although she believes that she is in control of the city, the fact of the matter is that her lead adviser, "Menistus" (Sergi Gainsbourg) is actually calling the shots, and nothing happens without his consent. That said, the one thing he doesn't want is somebody like Hercules appearing out of nowhere and disturbing the status quo. Now, rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that the entire movie seemed to be both routine and predictable, which caused it to seem rather dull. Likewise, the dialogue--which was initially in Italian and dubbed into English--seemed extremely basic which didn't necessarily help in that regard. Although it might appeal to die-hard "Sword and Sandal" fans, I personally found it to be somewhat boring and therefore rate it as below average.

The Fury Of Hercules finds Brad Harris as the legendary muscle dude and son of Zeus trying to visit an old friend who was the local monarch. He was away way too long and his friend has died and his daughter is now the Queen. But she's got an evil counselor in Serge Gainsbourg who has her wrapped around his finger. He's got the population half enslaved building a wall around the city, the better to keep enemies out and he's got a few of them.

It takes a while for Hercules to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys are, but soon enough he joins up with the rebels. The Queen is miffed because she's got a thing for muscles, but Hercules can only see one of her handmaidens.

With few exceptions this is the basic plot of many peplum films, they vary only with the name of the strong man hero. Not even Serge Gainsbourg who does play an interesting villain with issues is enough to lift The Fury Of Hercules from eternal mediocrity.

Hercules, the legendary hero with almost superhuman strength, returns to his hometown of Arpad after many years. The city is now ruled by Queen Knidia. With the wicked guidance of the domineering minister Menistos, she ends up oppressing and tormenting the people. Hercules decides to put an end to this tyranny and sides with the rebelling masses. Blinded by a hunger for power and hatred, Menistos now does everything they can to capture Hercules- dead or alive.

Brad Harris - who bears a passing resemblance to Kirk Douglas - plays Hercules in this typical peplum which, predictably, has familiar tropes. An evil villain, oppressed people, a useless Queen, dungeons, feats of strength, schemes and a test - which features a battle with a lion and a gorilla. None of these face-offs are that thrilling. The gorilla is a man in a suit and moves like he's drunk. The other action scenes are better, Brad Harris makes a good Hercules, gets a bit intense and angry towards the end, but it's Serge Gainsborg as the evil minister who steals the thunder. There's the usual bevy of beautiful women and grand schemes to overcome the bad guys. Discriminate viewers will not be too impressed, but I enjoyed it, finding its pace fairly brisk. The finale is quite rousing.

The generic "Hercules" plot can be found here. This plot is set in a tyrannical kingdom where an evil ruler, often a queen, faces a revolt from freedom-loving rebels. Not surprisingly, the queen casts lustful eyes upon Hercules and tries to win him to her side but he's more attracted to one of the queen's handmaidens who turns out to have ties to the rebels. The queen then resorts to magic spells to temporarily cloud Hercules' mind but he soon comes to his senses and joins the revolt, usually enduring some bondage, torture, and tests-of-strength along the way. The ruler is overthrown, the rebels are victorious, crowds cheer, and Hercules gazes lovingly upon the handmaiden. There are only minor variations to this plot in "The Fury of Hercules." The queen, for instance, is more misguided than evil, and Hercules never once winds up in chains, but all this is still familiar enough to confuse with a dozen other sword-and-sandal productions. If there's a distinguishing factor here, it's Idaho-born Brad Harris who has not only the body of Hercules but also a good-looking face. His acting is adequate and his personality passable. One wishes he had better material to work with. He should, for example, have more scenes in which he's completely bare-chested. Get rid of that strap over his shoulder! Weasel-faced Serge Gainsbourg, so villainous in "Revolt of the Slaves," does the same sort of job here.

Peplum and Sandals always has been my guilty pleasure pictures, nobody did it better than the Italians ever, this turn the bulky Brad Harris embodies the might hero from ancient Greek, everything begins when Hercules headed to a kingdom whereof knew the old King, now ruled by his daughter Cinidia (Mara Berni) on arrival Hercules is received as honor by the gorgeous Queen, however Hercules realizes that much thing gonna change since his last visit, the wise counselors no longer were there, asking for their whereabouts the Queen gave a shallow explanation about a possible retirement on overseas.

Also Hercules figures out that a strong wall has been building surround the city, lift up by slavery which such outrageous thing never occurred when the King was alive, he saw some whispers of dissatisfaction of the citizen on extreme poverty as well, worst a strong rumors of a possible uprising over the newest advisers lead by the bleak and evil Menisto (Serge Gainsbourgh) who rules by a heavy hands over the handled and forbearing Queen, thru a spy inside the palace the eye-candy Daria (Brigitte Corey) whom provides valuable info for the rebels lead by her own father, seeing such misery and uniquity Hercules enters side by side with the bravery people in this bloody endeavor.

I've the self-called "Original" DVD come out on Brazil, due it hasn't the renewed the copyrights it caught on public domain, so they released it in a wash out copy, barely can see through the poor footage, who came to help me anyhow, the friend of all times Youtube, I've found an almost restored print, pretty decent, it gave me a complete and utter upgrade living up my garbage copy.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 5.5.