Hercules and the Princess of Troy

Gordon Scott is Hercules! There are two kinds of monsters: political and sea monsters and it is up to our muscle man hero Hercules to fight both.

This one is fine. Not a good film but fun to watch Hercules battle another large monster on the screen. Average story - no more, no less than most of the other Hercules films. Quirky dialogue and the large sea monster are really the highlights of the show.

Yet another film to simply kill another Saturday or Sunday afternoon with or a fine late night movie to fall asleep to. Nothing grand but does hold some entertainment value to those that like the old sword and sandal films and giant monsters.

3/10

"Hercules and the Princess of Troy" was actually shot as a pilot for a proposed television series. This pilot wasn't picked up, probably because the sword and sandal genre was on its last legs both in Europe and in North America. It does have some interesting aspects, the main one being that for an 1965 American television production, it looks extremely lavish. Obviously, the makers of this pilot were able to recycle the sets, props, and costumes from past Italian sword and sandal movies. That's why this pilot feels exactly like one of those Italian sword and sandal movies, only shorter. The faster pace does indeed help, but for the most part this is no different than those Italian feature film productions. If you like the sword and sandal genre, you'll probably enjoy this. If you are not particularly crazy about the genre (like myself), you'll swallow it, but still be glad it's only half the usual length of the usual genre standard.

This unsold TV pilot for a Hercules series starred Gordon Scott as the legendary muscular hero of Greek mythology. Hercules used a ship as his mode of transportation and had as sidekicks Ulysses and Diogenes before either of them did the deeds made them legends in their own right.

This movie has Hercules in Troy and when you consider he's there with young Ulysses that is quite ironical. Young Princess Diana (another irony) will in two months ascend the throne and her uncle the regent will cede power. But uncle Petra isn't about to do that.

Troy is plagued with a sea monster and believe me the special effects aren't Ray Harryhausen quality. They've got to sacrifice people occasionally because when they've tried to defeat the monster, the Trojans have come up way short. But that's before Hercules took on the job.

This one was played very straight in true peplum fashion. I'm sure Scott would have made a superb TV Hercules if he was given the chance. That would have to wait for another thirty years or so when Kevin Sorbo played the part in a series that had a nice satirical edge to it occasionally.

This was pleasantly short. I thought the DVD this was on might be cut - I mean under an hour? This couldn't be true now could it? But yes it was and while I don't really have the will or time to gather more information about the backstory to do it this way, whoever likes Sword and Sandal movies and (wet) rubber monsters can watch this (wait that sounded bad - ah well you know what I mean in the end, don't you?).

So yes no historical accuracy once again, but don't expect that with those types of movies anyway ...

Joseph E. Levine and B movie maven Albert band get together to produce a TV pilot that never got off the ground because the tykes were beginning to bore by this time but for revisiting a campy genre this one is painless and fills the void.The plot is well...minimal so who cares? The main points here are in their highest form. It's short and sweet,beefy and is never at a loss for action. It's also mercifully done in English. The Sea Critter is a Carlo Rombaldi creation (E.T.) worthy of A.I.P. creature constructor Paul Blaisdel's envy.In short it's wacky and original if not very menacing.The major fault I would say that in comparison to many other sword and sandal epics this one is not too babe-a-licious.We only get one semi hot princess and the obligatory harem dances and snake charmers are conspicuously absent.Guess they weren't aiming the series towards the dads. At 47 minutes it's a sweaty trip to fun land.