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Hercules (Steve Reeves) is called to Iolkos to teach Iphitos (Mimmo
Palmara), King Pelias's (Ivo Garrani) son some manners. but while Iphitos
proves to be an arrogant brat who unsuccessfully challanges Hercules on every
opportunity, Hercules immediately falls in love with his sister Iole (Sylva
Koscina), who fills him in on the cruel history of Iolkos: that her uncle, the
rightful king of Iolkos was murdered, & both the sign of his rule, the
Golden Fleece, & his son Jason have vanished, which have made Pelias' rule
of the realm an uneasy one ever since (of course what neither Iole nor Hercules
know is that Pelias had hired an assassin, Eurysteus (Arturo
Dominici) to kill the king & take over himself). One day,
when Hercules is out doing good deeds & killing the Nemeic Lion, he somehow
neglects his duties when Iphitos gets in the way & is killed by the lion. To
repent for his sins, King Pelias sends Hercules to kill yet another animal, the
Bull of Crete, & when doing so, Hercules encounters Jason (Fabrizio Mioni),
who has lived nearby ever since the assassination of his father. Hercules
brings Jason back to Iolkos to heave him onto the throne, but Pelias
(understandably) proves to be reluctant, & promises him the throne only if
Jason is able to bring him the Golden Fleece, which Jason & Hercules
promise to do ... but little do they know that Pelias sends Eurysteus the
assassin with them on their ship to Kolchos, where the fleece is supposed to
be, & Eurysteus tries every trick in the book to sabotage the expedition,
& furthermore there's a tribe of amazons led by Anthea (Gianna Maria
Canale), who seduce Jason & his men only to kill them later on ... only
the cleverness of Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini) - yes, inexplicably he's on
board too - can save the men from this terrible fate (the killing, not the
seducing, stupid). Finally on Kolchos, Jason has to kill a giant dragon
guarding the fleece, & a few weeks later he returns home victorious, when
Hercules discovers both the fleece & Eurysteus are gone ... He puts 2 and
2 together & sneaks into Pelias' palace, finding Pelias & Eurysteus
leaning over the fleece - but unfortunately Hercules realizes too late he is
standing on a trap door - & soon gravity is put to good effect. Hercules
is put into chains, but that won't stop the coup d'etat anymore, as Jason &
his men are attacking the palace from the outside while Hercules breaks his
chains & uses them to whip up whomever he finds standing in his way. Soon
the palace is won, & Pelias, overcome by guilt at last, is committing
suicide, but to put an emphasis on their victory, Hercules still brings down
the palace walls. Le Fatiche di Ercole is often seen as the
godfather of the pelum (= Italian sword & sandal-movie), which it clearly
was not, as Italians were producing sword & sandal movies since the early
days of silent cinema, & while during & immediately after wartime,
production of these movies was understandably scarce, by the early to
mid-1950's it did pick up again (e.g. Ulysses from 1954 starring Kirk
Douglas), to come into full swing in the late 1950's when many American
productions (e.g. Ben Hur) took advantage of Italian production
facilities. Le Fatiche di Ercole is notable however for 3 reasons, a)
it was an immense success even in the USA, b) it started the movie career of
Mister Universe 1950 Steve Reeves (who had previously acted in Ed Wood's Jail
Bait), and c) it did spawn a number of sequels over the next 6 years
that was nothing short of immense - around 1964 however, the series came to an aprupt
halt. The
film itself is an entertaining epic that boasts a certain light-footedness often
amiss in comparable Hollywood sword & sandal movies, treating its ancient
source material with a charming lack of respect (though it's nowhere near as
careless with its sources than later movies in the series) & turning the poem of Jason
& the Argonauts into a colourful fairy tale for the whole family, with
easily distinguishable heroes & villains & an easy to follow plot
remarkably free of unexpected plottwists or deeper meaning - which in itself
can be quite charming.
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