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Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops
(1961 Film)
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About This Film
Alternate Titles For This Film
Cast
Fun Facts
Photos
You will find this movie and many other Hercules/Maciste features in the set shown above.
Cast:
Gordon Mitchell as Maciste
Chelo Alonso as Queen Capys
Vira Silenti as Queen Penope
Paul Wynter as Mumba
Fabio as (Baby) Prince Agisander II
Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (1961): This movie marked the film debut of two notable stars: Gordon Mitchell and Fabio. Gordon Mitchell was a bodybuilder who went on to star in quite a few strongman movies. Fabio was barely two years old. As a matter of fact, he was credited as "Little Fabio", and who would have ever guessed that he'd become the sensation that he did in the late 1980s-early 1990s? Baby Fabio played a central character to the plot, the baby Prince Agisander II, last descendant of the legendary hero Ulysses.
This is a Maciste movie. On American TV, this movie was retitled "Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops". The character is called Maciste, throughout. Why they renamed it to "Atlas", but left the character's name "Maciste" in the film is not only a mystery, but stupid. American distributors often renamed heroes of Italian sword-and-sandal flicks so they'd be more recognizable to English-speaking audiences. They would have been better off calling it "Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops".
It's an entertaining enough movie, but moves kind of slow in places. This 100-minute movie would have done better as a 70-minute film. The movie REALLY drags from the beginning until the scene where Maciste first meets Capys in the cave and saves her life. From then on, the film moves, but they do tend to "ham up" some scenes that could have been edited shorter.
As the story goes, a legendary hero named Ulysses outwitted the enchantress Circes and blinded her Cyclops creation, Polyphemus. This was centuries ago. Since that time, the descendants of Circes and the Cyclops have taken out their vengeance on all descendants of Ulysses. They've nearly succeeded. Only one man, his wife, and son remain. The man is killed, his royal son is whisked away by a friend, and the wife is taken prisoner with the other women of the village.
The baby finds its way to Maciste, who gives it to a shepherd friend to protect. Meanwhile, Maciste must fight the evil queen's forces, and save the good queen with all the other prisoners, while keeping the baby safe. On his way to the evil city of Sadok, Maciste saves Queen Capys in a cave, not knowing she is the evil ruler he's sworn to take down. Capys falls in love with Maciste, having never before met anyone as kind and unselfish. Queen Capys masks her self-hatred from all. She hates herself for being born a descendant of Circes, and for having to commit the evil acts she's done. She begs Circes to free her of this curse, and is granted freedom only if the last descendant of Ulysses is fed to the Cyclops. Capys sees Maciste as a way to reform herself, yet she is conflicted.
Maciste ultimately turns Capys good, and she attempts to save the baby with him as her traitorous second-in-command tries to feed the child and its mother to the Cyclops. Sadly, Capys is killed by the dagger of her jealous lover. Maciste throws the man to the Cyclops and that finishes him. Then, Maciste battles the Cyclops to free the mother and child and wins. The throne of Sadok is now turned over to the good Queen Penope and son, King Agisander II. Penope wants Maciste to stay, but he refuses for the reason that he must help others who need him.
There were so many versions of Maciste in the 1960s. This Maciste is a kind and humble man who does good deeds, but is kind of a dimwit, and incredibly naive. He's not as cunning or as fierce as many other Maciste portrayals. Gordon Mitchell's Maciste is certainly a likable guy, but he's not the baddest Maciste on the block. When he kicks a**, though, he makes it definite.
Chelo Alonso is a real knockout and plays the sexy, evil-turned-good Queen Capys. Out of all the characters in the film, Queen Capys is the only one that has depth, and the only one that will surprise you. Sometimes you don't know if she's really toying with Maciste or not. It is a pity she was killed. I think it would have made a better story for the reformed Capys to be Maciste's bride at the end of the film, turning over her kingdom to Penope and son on peaceful terms. I do think she could have been dealt with better in the script.
Vira Silenti is the other notable knockout of this movie. She plays the good Queen Penope and is a very beautiful strawberry blonde. Silenti did a number of Italian sword-and-sandal movies, another popular role being Young Martha Gunt in the Maciste film "The Witch's Curse". I like her a lot. She's a pleasant personality and a nice presence in the film.
Black bodybuilder Paul Wynter stars in his second of only three film roles. Here he plays Queen Capys' evil warrior Mumba. This is quite different from his not-to-bright, but heroic Bangor in the previous Maciste movie "Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules" (1961). In this movie, he's straight-out evil. The fight scene between Wynter and Mitchell in the prison cell is especially cool. Mumba lasts through most of the film, finally being eaten by a shark when he is thrown off a boat by Maciste. I think it's a shame Paul Wynter didn't do more in films. He could have played a lot of interesting heroes in the sword-and-sandal genre. It would have been nice to see him get a lead.
Like most of the Italian peplum/sword-and-sandal flicks, this has great scenery, sets, and beautiful girls. The action scenes are inventive and entertaining to watch. I really enjoyed the climactic scene where Maciste fights the Cyclops. I'm assuming the Cyclops was supposed to be about ten feet tall. Maciste really beats the h*** out of him! First he beats up the Cyclops by throwing heavy stones at him, then he stabs the Cyclops in the eye with a sword, and finally brings the cave down on him. I'd say Cyclops was sufficiently killed.
I recommend this movie, but there are even better Maciste films. It has more premise than plot, but the premise is intriguing enough to gain your interest. The little plot this movie has comes from the character of Queen Capys herself. She is pretty much the reason anything happens in this film. If it isn't her doing something, it's her jealous, love-starved second-in-command causing problems. Mostly, this is an entertaining visual with incredible stunts. If you want to see something that's cool, watch this movie!
Alternate Titles For This Film:
Atlas Against the Cyclops [US]
Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops [THIS would have been the best and most appropriate title for the film]
Maciste vs. the Cyclops
Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi [Italy; actual title]
Monster From the Unknown World [UK; I have NO idea where they could have derived this title]
Fun Facts:
The baby prince in this film was played by the one-and-only Fabio, superstud of the 1990s!
Gordon Mitchell made his film debut in this movie, and was originally credited as Mitchell Gordon.
Notable black body-builder Paul Wynter, who played evil Mumba, was in only three films, this being his second role.
Chelo Alonso, who played Queen Capys, was the biggest star of the cast at the time this film was released.
This film was not released in the USA until April 14, 1963.
Photos:
Gordon Mitchell as Maciste
Chelo Alonso as Queen Capys
Vira Silenti as Queen Penope
Paul Wynter as Mumba
Fabio as (Baby) Prince Agisander II
Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (1961): This movie marked the film debut of two notable stars: Gordon Mitchell and Fabio. Gordon Mitchell was a bodybuilder who went on to star in quite a few strongman movies. Fabio was barely two years old. As a matter of fact, he was credited as "Little Fabio", and who would have ever guessed that he'd become the sensation that he did in the late 1980s-early 1990s? Baby Fabio played a central character to the plot, the baby Prince Agisander II, last descendant of the legendary hero Ulysses.
This is a Maciste movie. On American TV, this movie was retitled "Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops". The character is called Maciste, throughout. Why they renamed it to "Atlas", but left the character's name "Maciste" in the film is not only a mystery, but stupid. American distributors often renamed heroes of Italian sword-and-sandal flicks so they'd be more recognizable to English-speaking audiences. They would have been better off calling it "Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops".
It's an entertaining enough movie, but moves kind of slow in places. This 100-minute movie would have done better as a 70-minute film. The movie REALLY drags from the beginning until the scene where Maciste first meets Capys in the cave and saves her life. From then on, the film moves, but they do tend to "ham up" some scenes that could have been edited shorter.
As the story goes, a legendary hero named Ulysses outwitted the enchantress Circes and blinded her Cyclops creation, Polyphemus. This was centuries ago. Since that time, the descendants of Circes and the Cyclops have taken out their vengeance on all descendants of Ulysses. They've nearly succeeded. Only one man, his wife, and son remain. The man is killed, his royal son is whisked away by a friend, and the wife is taken prisoner with the other women of the village.
The baby finds its way to Maciste, who gives it to a shepherd friend to protect. Meanwhile, Maciste must fight the evil queen's forces, and save the good queen with all the other prisoners, while keeping the baby safe. On his way to the evil city of Sadok, Maciste saves Queen Capys in a cave, not knowing she is the evil ruler he's sworn to take down. Capys falls in love with Maciste, having never before met anyone as kind and unselfish. Queen Capys masks her self-hatred from all. She hates herself for being born a descendant of Circes, and for having to commit the evil acts she's done. She begs Circes to free her of this curse, and is granted freedom only if the last descendant of Ulysses is fed to the Cyclops. Capys sees Maciste as a way to reform herself, yet she is conflicted.
Maciste ultimately turns Capys good, and she attempts to save the baby with him as her traitorous second-in-command tries to feed the child and its mother to the Cyclops. Sadly, Capys is killed by the dagger of her jealous lover. Maciste throws the man to the Cyclops and that finishes him. Then, Maciste battles the Cyclops to free the mother and child and wins. The throne of Sadok is now turned over to the good Queen Penope and son, King Agisander II. Penope wants Maciste to stay, but he refuses for the reason that he must help others who need him.
There were so many versions of Maciste in the 1960s. This Maciste is a kind and humble man who does good deeds, but is kind of a dimwit, and incredibly naive. He's not as cunning or as fierce as many other Maciste portrayals. Gordon Mitchell's Maciste is certainly a likable guy, but he's not the baddest Maciste on the block. When he kicks a**, though, he makes it definite.
Chelo Alonso is a real knockout and plays the sexy, evil-turned-good Queen Capys. Out of all the characters in the film, Queen Capys is the only one that has depth, and the only one that will surprise you. Sometimes you don't know if she's really toying with Maciste or not. It is a pity she was killed. I think it would have made a better story for the reformed Capys to be Maciste's bride at the end of the film, turning over her kingdom to Penope and son on peaceful terms. I do think she could have been dealt with better in the script.
Vira Silenti is the other notable knockout of this movie. She plays the good Queen Penope and is a very beautiful strawberry blonde. Silenti did a number of Italian sword-and-sandal movies, another popular role being Young Martha Gunt in the Maciste film "The Witch's Curse". I like her a lot. She's a pleasant personality and a nice presence in the film.
Black bodybuilder Paul Wynter stars in his second of only three film roles. Here he plays Queen Capys' evil warrior Mumba. This is quite different from his not-to-bright, but heroic Bangor in the previous Maciste movie "Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules" (1961). In this movie, he's straight-out evil. The fight scene between Wynter and Mitchell in the prison cell is especially cool. Mumba lasts through most of the film, finally being eaten by a shark when he is thrown off a boat by Maciste. I think it's a shame Paul Wynter didn't do more in films. He could have played a lot of interesting heroes in the sword-and-sandal genre. It would have been nice to see him get a lead.
Like most of the Italian peplum/sword-and-sandal flicks, this has great scenery, sets, and beautiful girls. The action scenes are inventive and entertaining to watch. I really enjoyed the climactic scene where Maciste fights the Cyclops. I'm assuming the Cyclops was supposed to be about ten feet tall. Maciste really beats the h*** out of him! First he beats up the Cyclops by throwing heavy stones at him, then he stabs the Cyclops in the eye with a sword, and finally brings the cave down on him. I'd say Cyclops was sufficiently killed.
I recommend this movie, but there are even better Maciste films. It has more premise than plot, but the premise is intriguing enough to gain your interest. The little plot this movie has comes from the character of Queen Capys herself. She is pretty much the reason anything happens in this film. If it isn't her doing something, it's her jealous, love-starved second-in-command causing problems. Mostly, this is an entertaining visual with incredible stunts. If you want to see something that's cool, watch this movie!
Alternate Titles For This Film:
Atlas Against the Cyclops [US]
Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops [THIS would have been the best and most appropriate title for the film]
Maciste vs. the Cyclops
Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi [Italy; actual title]
Monster From the Unknown World [UK; I have NO idea where they could have derived this title]
Fun Facts:
The baby prince in this film was played by the one-and-only Fabio, superstud of the 1990s!
Gordon Mitchell made his film debut in this movie, and was originally credited as Mitchell Gordon.
Notable black body-builder Paul Wynter, who played evil Mumba, was in only three films, this being his second role.
Chelo Alonso, who played Queen Capys, was the biggest star of the cast at the time this film was released.
This film was not released in the USA until April 14, 1963.
Photos: