Maciste nas Minas do Rei Salomão

Passable Peplum thanks to robust Reg Park and expert filmmaker Piero Regnoli . Mythological epic with a magnificent he-man as is Reg Park and set in South Africa Republic . The setting is ancient South Africa , when Namar (Giuseppe Addobbati) , king of Zimba , a solitary city at the heart of Africa, decides to shut the fabulous king Salomon's mines , creating a temple and prohibiting to dig the valuable golden mineral . Meanwhile , the prime minister named Riad (Jotta) is planning a rebellion against his king . Riad helped by nasty Fazina (Wandisa Guisa) take over and overthrow the king . Both of them force the citizens to work in king Salomon's mines . The little young prince Vazma (Loris Loddi), heir to throne , becomes the new successor and flees along with Samara (Eleonora Bianchi) . The bouncing Maciste (Reg Park) helps the youngster Vazma and reunites an army of rebels to take on the Riad troops . But Maciste is captured , locked and become a spelled slave . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the successor from villain Fazina and against the king's former counselor . Then Maciste becomes inextricably involved in a war between usurpers under the command the troops against an army of helpless rebels . Along the way Maciste or Hercules or Goliath frees slaves , moves rocks and fights a lion and nasty hoodlums .

Italian production with haunting scenarios , wonderful outdoors and functional production design , including a city similarly designed to mythical Tombuctu . This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious landscapes . In addition , there are a brief exploration about Native African way of life , especially about 'Neidonga' tribe with their rites , customs , ceremonies , superstitions, mythologies and religion with their Totems and Gods . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . Breathtaking scenes when Maciste moves a sculpture and overwhelming final battle with surprising and spectacular scenes . In the picture turns up Peplum ordinaries as Wandisa Guisa , Eleonora Bianchi , Giuseppe Addobbati and veteran Carlo Tamberlani . And Remo De Angelis who worked much as maestro of weapons in this Sword and Sandals genre . Mark Forest , in his first film, is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying to save a heir prince of numerous odds . 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 of course , this ¨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 also filmmaker , Piero Regnoli , 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 Mario Capriotti , filmed on location in South Africa and Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Francesco De Massi . The motion picture was professionally directed by Piero Regnoli 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 . Rating : Acceptable muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti , thanks to Reg Park and by Peplum specialist as is the director Piero Regnoli .

Hmmm. Reg Park certainly looked the part as the muscle man dragooned - thanks to a magical anklet - into working in the mines of the nasty "Queen Fazira" (Wandisa Guida) after he had travelled all the way deep into the jungle to rescue his fellow prisoners. They are all digging like mad in the hope that they can find the legendary treasure of the biblical king, but thus far aren't having too much luck. She's getting fed up waiting so he'd better get a move on, or better yet - find some way to remove his malicious enchantment so he can start throwing the polystyrene scenery around and get into the action. Aside from the ropey production standards and the equally over-scripted dialogue, that's really the problem here. What action there is is largely reserved for the last ten minutes and by then the whole thing is entirely procedural. What this does have in it's favour is a bit more quality from the studio sets, and some imagination has certainly gone into these to give the thing a better look than many of this genre, but little use is made of any real African scenarios and the stage-bound nature of the storytelling robs this of most of it's pace or distinctiveness. It's an hybrid of ideas and well trammelled stories that seems a good deal longer than ninety minutes.

King Zelea (Carlo Tamberlini) is celebrating 20 years on the throne, and despite sitting on the fabulous wealth of King Solomon, mining is banned by royal command, with Tamberlini determined to shield his people from the corrupting influence of the precious metal.

However, the scheming advisor Riad (Elio Jotta) has other ideas, and he plans to take the throne by aligning himself with the outlaw band of warrior queen Fazira (Wandisa Guida).

The murdered king's young son escapes with a young woman from the court, seeking assistance from legendary strongman, Maciste...

Maciste in King Solomon's Mines starts out really well, then diverts in to a travelogue of Africa with lions and cubs, then a little Tarzan with the African tribes, and then finally Reg Park appears as Maciste, though the focus is on the two villains - Wandisa Guida as bad girl Fazira and Riad the greedy advisor, and to be honest, they add meat to the well-worn picture which isn't taut enough and comes across as tired.

But there are some good points such as superb cinematography, location and the interior sets of the temple - the huge statue that leads to the mines is impressive and adds atmosphere. Also, Reg Park physically works hard in this adventure/sword and sandal hybrid: he proves his strength trapped in a cage of spikes with two teams of horses trying to tear him in two, gets to demolish the giant statue in the temple, and suffers the effects of a hypnotic drug administered via a combination of a poisoned garland of flowers and a magical ankle bracelet.

It's acceptable peplum with some good moments but it lacks focus and comes across tired and not exciting.

Reg Park had the body for these "Hercules" movies -- providing you like 'em bulky and beefy -- but he had neither the face nor the personality nor the talent. It takes nearly half-an-hour for him to make his first appearance here and when he does, he adds virtually nothing to the proceedings.

This means the movie must survive on its peripheral values and it does have a few of those. The African setting is at least a bit different and there's an impressively-large sculpture of an Egyptian head that can be retracted into a wall to reveal a secret passageway underneath. While Wandisa Guida makes for a rather glum heroine, Eleonora Bianchi adds zest to her role as the evil usurper and the unconvincingly-named "Dan Harrison" serves as an appealing young hero.

As usual in these affairs, there's a strong dose of male bondage-and-torture. Reg Park gets tied between two teams of horses which are supposed to pull him apart like a Thanksgiving wishbone, but a similar scene in Steve Reeves' "Goliath and the Barbarians" did a better job of it. Dan Harrison gets whipped in a dungeon but, strange, the bloody marks on his back don't change one bit no matter how many times the whip strikes him. Then Harrison is chained to the wall of an arena so that he can be both stabbed and crushed by a contraption which is slowly propelled toward him. It's part of the movie's problem with its leading man that in this scene, a sweat-covered Harrison -- stripped to a loincloth to reveal an adequate but unspectacular physique -- is far sexier and more attractive than Reg Park could ever hope to be.

Again, the lead character is renamed this time from Maciste to Samson for the US audiences. Maciste is renamed often for American audiences into Samson, Hercules, Goliath and such because the name Maciste is not popular in the US.

Maciste/Samson is forced with others to be slaves by the evil queen. They are forced to work in King Solomon's Mines to dig for gold.

*King Solomon's Mines are said to contain diamonds, gold and ivory in the book King Solomon's Mines (1885) by Sir H. Rider Haggard.

Not an overly exciting film but it has it's moments of being interesting. It's really your average 1960s peplum. For me it's a little better than some but worse than others.

2.5/10