Sword-and-sandals movies, also known as peplums, are essentially low budget costume epics. The genre seems to have come into it's own in the late fifties to early sixties with Italy leading the legionnaire charge. These movies were the B-grade action thrillers of their day. Often noted for casting bodybuilders as the titular hero they also had dancing girls (often scantily clad) and dubbed dialogue that falls somewhere between terrible and ludicrous. They were finally supplanted as Italy's primary movie export by the spaghetti western, which often cast the same actors in roles that merely had them changing swords for six-shooters. That bit of explanation out of the way. .
It all started innocently enough with a viewing of HERCULES VS THE HYDRA, AKA: The Loves of Hercules. I'd been meaning to transfer my VHS of this to DVDr for a while. Well I finally got around to it and things kind of snowballed. Granted it's not the best sword-and-sandal flick ever made but it has it's moments. .
Sadly this is also one of those movies that comes across as dated. Mostly because it was a vehicle for Mansfield- one of the blonde bombshells of the late fifties to early sixties- and her then hubby in the titular role of Hercules. While they may have lent this feature name recognition when it was released what youngster is even going to be aware of them now?
However the true test of a movie isn't the actors cast in it but how it stands up over time. Plot wise Hercules vs. the Hydra suffers from a really bad dub job, as did most of these sword-and-sandal imports. The movie opens with the murder of Hercules wife. As soon as he learns of this he rushes home and vows vengeance, then attacks a walled city gate with what looks like a hollow tube made up to look like a tree trunk. Oddly enough once inside he encounters the beautiful Dejanira, played by Jayne Mansfield of course, and before a Shaolin stripper can snatch the silver dollar from your hand his dead wife is forgotten and there's love in the air.
Ah, how fickle heroes be! Anyway the costumes look as if they were leftovers from a Hollywood epic about Rome, the sets look fairly decent, but the SFX are really bad. To give you some an idea of the peculiar production values on display throughout. .
The "hydra" Hercules fights is a three-head beastie that looks more like a very bad mock-up of Cerberus. I wouldn't be surprised if it started it's movie career as a parade float. Too, there's the casting. While having blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield and her hubby Mickey Hargitay in this no doubt made sense thirty plus years ago their recognition factor has faded into a dull tarnish. Which is a shame because, despite it's faults, this movie had very talented people working behind the lens and on set design.
So what if the SFX are laughable? This was the sixties and they actually managed to do quite well when you compare them to similar movies from the time period. However the one thing that surprised me and I imagine had audiences scratching their head in bafflement at the time, and may just be evidence of cosmically bad decision making, was the fact Mansfield's iconic platinum-blonde locks are nowhere to be seen. .
Instead she spends the bulk of the movie as either a raven haired beauty, red-head, or sporting purplish locks. There is a reason for this. Ms. Mansfield is actually playing a dual role, much as Sophia Loren did in Two Nights with Cleopatra. Here Mansfield plays the goodly princess Dejanira and the evil Amazon Queen. See Hercules has fallen head over heels in love with Dejanira. The evil Amazon Queen wants to make like a black widow spider and mate with Hercules. But Hercules only has eyes for Dejanira. So what's a girl to do? Why go to the local sorceress and get a potion to turn her outward visage into that of Dejanira and, woila, Ms. Mansfield gets to vogue for the camera in two roles!
For a movie so full of cheese it's a shame we didn't get any cheesecake shots. Not that the costumes Ms. Mansfield wears aren't nice. They're colorful but I wouldn't exactly call them sexy. Which leaves me wondering what the point of casting a blonde bombshell in a movie is if you're not going to actually use her sex appeal. It's like having someone invite you to their house for milk and cookies only to find out they're serving silk (soy milk) and carob chip cookies.
On the bright side Ms. Mansfield manage to face the camera 90% of the time while the other 10% of her screen time she's in close-ups. .
I did notice that in some scenes it appears she may be reading off cue cards. Not that anyone is likely to be complaining, well, okay, I suppose her dress could have been a bit more diaphanous, if only to balance out the screen time given to her hubby's bare chest. Not that the Amazons seemed to mind. In fact their queen does her level best to seduce Hercules. But I don't want to give too much of the plot away. This one really deserves a sit through to absorb it's nuances. If nothing else it might get you in the mood for a sword-and-sandal marathon.
As a matter of fact after I dug out Hercules vs the Hydra and watched it for the first time in years I decided to visit my local Borders, see if they'd actually decided to stock ANYTHING besides the truckloads of Blueray and HD-DVDs Hollywood is intent on shoveling down consumers throats. No joy. I guess the Nth million release of mainstream Hollywood's library on yet another video format is more important than stocking DVDs of movies like HUNDRA or CALIGULA, THE IMPERIAL EDITION.
But I didn't walk away empty handed. Borders may not be stocking DVDs with fresh pristine transfers of cult movies but they are suddenly stocking 50 movie sets. Figure in the price after using a coupon and some of them are pretty fair deals. Of course I am specifically talking about the sword-and-sandal laden Mill Creek WARRIORS 50 movie pack. .
(to be continued)
Copyright © C. Demetrius Morgan
[This is an archived review. Originally posted here.]
