HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE a/k/a THE SONS OF HERCULES: THE LAND OF DARKNESS, Parts 1 & 2 (1964)

In its native Italy, this film was released to theaters as “Hercules the Invincible.” But for its U.S. release, it went straight to TV as a two-parter renamed The Sons of Hercules: The Land of Darkness. It even has an opening theme sung in English, which leads me to believe it was packaged as a weekly series with this one comprising two episodes.

So our well-oiled, be-loinclothed muscleman is not Hercules, but his son Argolese [Dan Vadis, perhaps a distant relative of Quo]. He's a chip off the old block when it comes to being superstrong and kicking some ass, though I have to wonder where his blond hair and beard came from. (Hercules himself was a brunette.) The film begins with Argolese fighting a lion who attacks Princess Telca, daughter of King Tedaeo. His Majesty is so grateful that he offers Telca's hand in marriage, but only if Argolese completes one more task: slaying the dragon that terrorizes his kingdom. With the help of a magic spear from the local sorceress, Argolese kills the dragon in a surprisingly brief scene taken from the 1958 Hercules movie. He returns to the village to find that it was raided and its people taken as slaves. Argolese sets off on a rescue mission that sees him fighting a bear looking way too much like a skinny guy in a moth-eaten costume, chained to two elephants in an ordeal designed to tear his arms off, and finally immersing the Land of Darkness (a city inside a mountain) in molten lava after he frees the prisoners and whisks them off to safety.

I'd like to see the Italian print as the U.S. version is chopped all to hell. Certain scenes feel like they should have gone on longer, and they very well might have in the theatrical release. Guess I'll never know.

Far too many of these sword-and-sandal films bore me, but this one held my attention for its full 80 minutes. LAND OF DARKNESS is on the low end of the Hercules spectrum (which was low to begin with), but it has a rudimentary interest factor working in its favor.