Event

HERCULES UNCHAINED

(a/k/a Ercole e la regina di Lidia)
Dir. Pietro Francisci, 1959
Italy, 97min

Language: In dubbed English from the original Italian
Series: Are You Not Entertained? (can play whenever)
Legal: public domain

Beginning directly where HERCULES left off, the whole gang is at it again, this time from a story (*very* loosely) adapted from Sophocles' final play, OEDIPUS AT COLONUS, in which Oedipus, in exile after his eye-gouging mother-fucking tragedy, laments his sons Eteocles and Polynices fighting over control of Thebes. Here, Hercules gets in the middle of all this, which seems a bit realpolitik for The Herc, but worry not; before he can get very far he drinks from a poison fountain that erases his memory and is taken captive by Omphale, Queen of Lydia (played by Sylvia Lopez, who might have stepped right out of one of this month's burlesque films). Omphale seduces and convinces Herc he's her husband, and our hero spends plenty of time loafing around drinking wine and watching dancing girls. It's kinda like Overboard! Meanwhile his long-suffering wife Iole (the great Sylvia Koscina of JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, JUDEX, A LOVELY WAY TO DIE), still in Thebes, tries to prevent being flung to the wolves by the scheming Eteocles. Will Thebes fall? Will Iole live? Will Hercules stop taking naps?

Savage Steve Reeves is back for his second and final turn as Herc, and if anything he's even more of a lovable oaf, fighting curses, palace intrigue, endless spear-carriers and hangovers with perfect hair and pecs for days. Director Pietro Francisci and cinematographer Mario Bava make the most of every location, and the technicolor caverns where Omphale's licentious ritual dances are not far at all from BLACK SUNDAY's Technicolor tableaux. There's a song near the beginning that'll make you think we fell into a Western, a duel for the future of Thebes and a final everything-and-the-kitchen-sink battle where Herc whips people with chains and destroys entire buildings. Everything you could want from a Hercules film! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?