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Being pursued by a bunch of villains, Josefina (Clementina Gay) flees
into a movie theatre, where she sees the heroics of Maciste (Bartolomeo
Pagano), the brave Nubian from Cabiria,
on screen. Encouraged by his heroics, he writes to his film studio, asking
the strongman (who isn't Nubian at all in this story) for help - and
intrigued by the letter of this damsel in distress, Maciste agrees to meet
her. But the wild story about her and her mother (Amelia Chellini) being
cheated out of their inheritance by Josefina's uncle Duke Alexis (Didaco
Chellini) doesn't ring all that true to Maciste, so he soon parts way with
her again ... only to hear her scream for help in a distance thereafter,
and following that, she's gone, and Maciste's only clue is the dog of the
villains, which leads him to a pub where the villains have their hideout
riddled with trap doors and the like, but Maciste escapes them all, frees
Josefina, and has all villains arrested safe for Peter (Leone Papa),
Alexis' right-hand man. Maciste accompanies Josefina on a trainride to
free her mother from the clutches on Duke Alexis, but Peter makes an
attempt on their lives, but only walks into a trap himself, and
ultimately, he gives away the place Josefina's mother is held, a farmhouse
in the middle of nowhere ... but that's another trap set by Duke Alexis,
and this time, Maciste and Josefina are overcome and tied up - but nothing
ever beats the muscle power of Maciste. Ultimately, Maciste finds out
Josefina's mother is held at an asylum, but to get her out, he has to
trick Duke Alexis into writing a release letter for her - which he
manages, disguised as a waiter in blackface. With the mother out, Duke
Alexis calls upon the police to help him capture Maciste and Josefina, but
Maciste turns it so ultimately Duke Alexis and Peter are arrested for
their evil deeds ... Maciste was quite obviously made to
cash in on the (probably unexpected) success of the character in the
peplum Cabiria, and was actually
the film that would prove Maciste's value as a hero of a
series of his own, and also showed the character worked regardless of the
era he's shown in (the movie's set in Italy, 1915, rather than at
Hannibal's time, as Cabiria was)
- and consequently, Bartolomeo Pagano would repeat this role over two
dozen times in the next 13 years, before the character was reintroduced in
the 1960's. As a movie, other than Cabiria,
Maciste can hardly be described as a classic, it's a simplistic and
formulaic piece of escapist cinema that doesn't try to go for depth or
actual magnitude, it's more of a light-footed series of action scenes, all
with Maciste emerging victorious, and never questioning his role as the
untarnished hero of the movie. And that's what's also so charming about
the film, it's an unapologetic piece of pulp cinema, but it's approach is
utterly likeable and still translates to today's (as in 100 years later)
audiences.
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