Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi

Strange «péplum», a bit on the sadistic side, made me feel terrible for the poor Cyclops, who is described as a captive freak, unlike the busy and aggressive creatures Ray Harryhausen created for «The 7th Voyage of Sinbad». For the proceeding, maestro Mario Serandrei's editing is rather lazy, especially in the action scenes, where the tempo of the cutting is not particularly inspired, and the shots linger on Gordon Mitchell's muscles. Even Chelo Alonso goes through a strange routine, from evil queen to woman in love, excluding the possibility of one of her sensual dance scenes; and Mitchell is one very strange looking fellow, with a gentle personality that seems at odds with his character, supposedly a lonely highlander. But «Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops» has ladies in distress chewing gum, «menacing» lions that resemble rugs, a villain (funny Dante DiPaolo) who is always smiling when he's saying his meanest dialog lines, and lights that follow the characters through kitsch settings and barren exteriors. So don't let it pass you: it has a lot to enjoy. Watch it!

This film was retitled to ATLAS AGAINST THE CYCLOPS when it was released in the United States, but our hero is still called "Maciste" in the film. In this one Maciste battles an assortment of bad guys and monsters including the cyclops of the title. Maciste rescues an infant from the cyclops before he dispatches with the one eyed menace.

As far these spear and sandal epics go, this one isn't too bad. It has enough action to hold one interest. It isn't as "talky" as many of the other bigger budgeted entries in the genre. Flashback scenes from this film turned in up in the later Maciste adventure, THE WITCHES CURSE which started Kirk Morris. I would like to see this film in colour, but for some reason all video versions that I have found are in B&W.

"The people of Sadok are besieged by a terrible, man-eating, giant Cyclops that has ravaged the countryside and consumed many of its people. Atlas (aka 'Maciste') arrives at Sadok with the intent to defeat the monster and help the people, but is faced with another type of battle. The evil Queen Capys has set her sights upon Atlas and decides to try everything in her power to take him as her own. Now, Atlas must try to defeat two enemies as well as rescue the infant descendant of Ulysses from being eaten by the Cyclops," according to the DVD sleeve description.

Re-titled "Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops" for American consumption.

This Italian loincloth and sandals epic features the usual chesty performances. American-born Gordon Mitchell (as "Atlas" aka "Maciste") muscled in on the strong-man ("Hercules") bandwagon, and began his Italian movie career with this one. For the genre, the film isn't the worst; but, you'd be well-advised to begin by considering the average film of this type to be subpar. The most interesting appearance is that of "little Fabio" (as baby Agisander), who is reputed to be the same Fabio who found fame as a romance novel cover model and all-around 1990s celebrity.

*** Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi (3/29/61) Antonio Leonviola ~ Gordon Mitchell, Chelo Alonso, Vira Silenti, Fabio

Centuries after Ulysses outwitted enchantress Circe and blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, beauty Capys (Chelo Alonso), evil queen of Sadok, is cursed to take revenge, searching for baby Agisander, the last of Ulysses' descendents, who is being protected by muscleman Maciste (Gordon Mitchell).

Who doesn't enjoy a cyclops? Not me, that's for sure, and the one-eyed giant in this movie is a fun looking beast (not as great as the one in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, but certainly no worse than Bernard Bresslaw in Krull, or that kid in the Percy Jackson film). Unfortunately, the fearsome creature of Greek legend only appears right at the end of this sword and sandal flick, and even when on screen, it doesn't get to do a lot - it's killed way too easily and quickly by Maciste.

The build-up to the Maciste vs monster climax is mostly unremarkable peplum nonsense, as the strong-man rescues Capys from a cave-in and strikes up an unlikely romance with the queen, convincing her not to kill the child; meanwhile, jealous Iphitos (Dante DiPaolo), who is in love with Capys, tries to break the curse she is under by finding the kid and feeding him (and his mother) to the cyclops.

A tug of war between a team of white men and a team of black men, with Maciste in the middle, suspended over a pit of lions, is amusing, and the sight of Maciste single-handedly rowing a galley at ramming speed is certainly unique, but other 'set-pieces' are quite dire: Maciste wrestling with a lion is a poor copy of a similar scene in Hercules (1958), while a wrestling bout between Maciste and nubian slave Mumba (Paul Wynter) is one of the weakest, most boring movie fight scenes I can recall seeing. Mitchell saunters through the whole film with a cheesy grin that makes him look a bit simple.

4/10. I'm still looking for a peplum to really impress me.

Chelo Alonso is once again on hand in another cheesy muscleman movie. Sadly, she doesn't get to perform one of her seductive dance numbers in this one, an unforgiveable omission if there ever was one. As for the rest of the film, it's mostly Gordon Mitchell's show as he's asked to display his rugged physique in virtually every scene. Fun kitsch, even though Chelo was wasted.