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Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules
(1961 Film)
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About This Film
Alternate Titles For This Film
Cast
Fun Facts
Photos
You will find this film and many others in the "Hercules Collection" boxed set shown above.
Cast:
Mark Forest as Maciste
Paul Wynter as Bangor
Moira Orfei as Queen Alismoyab
Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961): This is one of the few Maciste films where they actually kept his name Maciste in the English-language version. The title of this film is not accurate, but a lot of the sword-and-sandal films from the period were packaged on American television as the "Sons of Hercules" series in the 1960s. Any film with "Son of Hercules" in the title starts off with a narrative about the hero in this story being one of the sons of Hercules. Maciste is NOT the son of Hercules in the true version. Hercules doesn't have any relevance to the stories in any "Son of Hercules" film except for the title and the opening narrative.
Mark Forest is a great actor for the sword-and-sandal movies. He always gives very tough portrayals of the characters he plays. His Hercules in "Goliath & the Dragon" is great because it's the angriest I've ever seen Hercules on film. His Maciste in this film is unquestionably the strongest and baddest of any Maciste actor in the 1960s.
Mark Forest, Paul Wynter, and Moira Orfei are great actors who make this movie fun to watch. They play cool characters. Paul Wynter was a black bodybuilder who appeared in only three films from 1961-1962. That's a shame, because he had good facial expression and timing in this film. He played Bangor, a man Maciste saves early in the film who becomes the super-powered hero's sidekick. Maciste is not known for having sidekicks in his movies, but he should have. Bangor added something that a lot of Maciste movies lacked. He is kind of like Tonto to Lone Ranger, or Robin to Batman. He even has a sense of humor, where Maciste is typically inhuman in emotion. Moira Orfei plays the gorgeous, but evil queen Alismoyab. She's about as cold and heartless as you can get, and it's interesting when she falls for Maciste and becomes good. I think her character could have been dealt with better in the story, but it's a solid performance. Besides the three major stars, this film boast incredible, continuous action sequences and beautiful sets. These are the movie's strengths.
What this movie lacks is story. If there is a story, I'm hard-pressed to find it. There's no clever plot twists. The story in this movie goes about as deep as the script for a music video. An underground society of people called the Mole Men come to the surface at night and kill regular people. Why? I dunno...guess they must not have arcades. They're called the Mole Men, but they don't worship moles or look like moles. They have powder-white faces and fuzzy white afros (except the queen). Their weakness is sunlight, which can kill them.
Maciste and Bangor allow themselves to be captured by the Mole Men so they can free the prisoners and kill the bad guys. All the Mole Men look the same except for the queen and NO ONE finds this suspicious. We later learn the queen is not one of the Mole Men race, but was adopted. Oh, you think?! For some reason she was raised to be an evil queen. Hey, what else can you do with an adopted Earth girl? Alismoyab is ignorant of her true race and that she can, in fact, withstand the sunlight. Only the shifty high priest knows the truth, and tells his Mole Man son so he can marry her and have sunlight-walking, half-Mole Man babies. But the high priest's son has a rival, the super-stud Maciste. You just can't compare with the strongest man in the world. She loves his muscles, but he constantly rejects her until she decides to be a good girl and give up all this evil business. Maciste accepts her proposal, but it's a marriage that's not meant to be. Towards the end of the movie, Alismoyab learns the truth of her identity and is so overjoyed to be in the sun that she accidentally falls to her death. Maciste, who has fallen in love with the once-evil queen, just kind of acts like, "Well...them's the breaks!". I don't like it that she gets killed. It would have been great to see Maciste and Alismoyab get married, and her denounce her throne. At least all the Mole Men get killed.
There are a lot of interesting visuals. One recurring visual is the entrance to the Mole Men lair: a section of ground that opens and closes like a trap door. This movie is a lot of fun, even if it is filled with story gaps and miscellaneous silly things. The major characters are intriguing, and the strongman scenes are cool. Everybody likes to see a big guy wreck sh**! I recommend this film to fans of the genre. It's certainly one of the better Maciste films.
Alternate Titles For This Film:
Maciste and the Night Queen
Maciste, l'uomo piu forte del mondo [Italy; actual title]
Maciste, the Strongest Man in the World [Italy; literal English title]
Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules [US; TV title]
The Strongest Man in the World [UK]
Fun Facts:
Photos:
Mark Forest as Maciste
Paul Wynter as Bangor
Moira Orfei as Queen Alismoyab
Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961): This is one of the few Maciste films where they actually kept his name Maciste in the English-language version. The title of this film is not accurate, but a lot of the sword-and-sandal films from the period were packaged on American television as the "Sons of Hercules" series in the 1960s. Any film with "Son of Hercules" in the title starts off with a narrative about the hero in this story being one of the sons of Hercules. Maciste is NOT the son of Hercules in the true version. Hercules doesn't have any relevance to the stories in any "Son of Hercules" film except for the title and the opening narrative.
Mark Forest is a great actor for the sword-and-sandal movies. He always gives very tough portrayals of the characters he plays. His Hercules in "Goliath & the Dragon" is great because it's the angriest I've ever seen Hercules on film. His Maciste in this film is unquestionably the strongest and baddest of any Maciste actor in the 1960s.
Mark Forest, Paul Wynter, and Moira Orfei are great actors who make this movie fun to watch. They play cool characters. Paul Wynter was a black bodybuilder who appeared in only three films from 1961-1962. That's a shame, because he had good facial expression and timing in this film. He played Bangor, a man Maciste saves early in the film who becomes the super-powered hero's sidekick. Maciste is not known for having sidekicks in his movies, but he should have. Bangor added something that a lot of Maciste movies lacked. He is kind of like Tonto to Lone Ranger, or Robin to Batman. He even has a sense of humor, where Maciste is typically inhuman in emotion. Moira Orfei plays the gorgeous, but evil queen Alismoyab. She's about as cold and heartless as you can get, and it's interesting when she falls for Maciste and becomes good. I think her character could have been dealt with better in the story, but it's a solid performance. Besides the three major stars, this film boast incredible, continuous action sequences and beautiful sets. These are the movie's strengths.
What this movie lacks is story. If there is a story, I'm hard-pressed to find it. There's no clever plot twists. The story in this movie goes about as deep as the script for a music video. An underground society of people called the Mole Men come to the surface at night and kill regular people. Why? I dunno...guess they must not have arcades. They're called the Mole Men, but they don't worship moles or look like moles. They have powder-white faces and fuzzy white afros (except the queen). Their weakness is sunlight, which can kill them.
Maciste and Bangor allow themselves to be captured by the Mole Men so they can free the prisoners and kill the bad guys. All the Mole Men look the same except for the queen and NO ONE finds this suspicious. We later learn the queen is not one of the Mole Men race, but was adopted. Oh, you think?! For some reason she was raised to be an evil queen. Hey, what else can you do with an adopted Earth girl? Alismoyab is ignorant of her true race and that she can, in fact, withstand the sunlight. Only the shifty high priest knows the truth, and tells his Mole Man son so he can marry her and have sunlight-walking, half-Mole Man babies. But the high priest's son has a rival, the super-stud Maciste. You just can't compare with the strongest man in the world. She loves his muscles, but he constantly rejects her until she decides to be a good girl and give up all this evil business. Maciste accepts her proposal, but it's a marriage that's not meant to be. Towards the end of the movie, Alismoyab learns the truth of her identity and is so overjoyed to be in the sun that she accidentally falls to her death. Maciste, who has fallen in love with the once-evil queen, just kind of acts like, "Well...them's the breaks!". I don't like it that she gets killed. It would have been great to see Maciste and Alismoyab get married, and her denounce her throne. At least all the Mole Men get killed.
There are a lot of interesting visuals. One recurring visual is the entrance to the Mole Men lair: a section of ground that opens and closes like a trap door. This movie is a lot of fun, even if it is filled with story gaps and miscellaneous silly things. The major characters are intriguing, and the strongman scenes are cool. Everybody likes to see a big guy wreck sh**! I recommend this film to fans of the genre. It's certainly one of the better Maciste films.
Alternate Titles For This Film:
Maciste and the Night Queen
Maciste, l'uomo piu forte del mondo [Italy; actual title]
Maciste, the Strongest Man in the World [Italy; literal English title]
Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules [US; TV title]
The Strongest Man in the World [UK]
Fun Facts:
Photos: