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Synopsis:
To complete his labours, Hercules (Mark Forest) descends into Hades
where, after fighting and slaying Cerberus, the fire-breathing
three-headed hound, and a strange flying cat-like creature, he
captures the blood diamond, which he intends as an offering to the
God of Vengeance. Meanwhile, in Oechalia, the usurper Eurytus
(Broderick Crawford) tries to convince his nervous allies that
Hercules will never return from Hades, and that this is the time to
attack Thebes. Outside the palace, a young man, Illus (Sandro
Moretti), bribes a guard to admit him. Unbeknownst to Illus,
however, as soon as he is safely inside the guard signals to Eurytus’
main advisor, Tyndaros (Giancarlo Sbragia), who in turn tells
Eurytus that he has arrived. Illus makes his way to the
chamber of Thea (Federica Ranchi), daughter of the previous rulers
of Oechalia and Eurytus’ ward. Illus and Thea declare their love for
one another, but Thea frets over the danger in which Illus places
himself with these visits to her rooms. Illus insists that this is
the only way they can meet, as his father, Hercules, has forbidden
him to see Thea, although he will not say why. Thea promises Illus
that she will elope with him, but adds that it cannot be immediately
as the gathering of Eurytus’ allies has filled the city with
soldiers. Illus gives Thea a gold token, telling her to send it to
him when she judges that their chance has come. The meeting of the
two is interrupted by Ismene (Wandisa Guida), Tyndaros’ sister, who
pretends to be their friend but secretly plots against them. No
sooner has Illus left at Ismene’s insistence than he is captured by
soldiers and thrown into the dungeon. When news of this reaches
Eurytus, he announces to his allies that he will prove to them his
belief in Hercules’ death and their own safety by having Hercules’
son publicly executed. Tyndaros, meanwhile, tries to persuade a
beautiful slave, Alcinoe (Gaby André), the daughter of one of
Eurytus’ conquered foes, that he will set her free if only she will
be his. Alcinoe tells him contemptuously that she would rather be a
slave. Even as Eurytus succeeds in swaying his allies to his cause,
news of Hercules’ return from Hades reaches the city. His allies
instantly reneging, Eurytus announces furiously that he will execute
Illus anyway. Tyndaros, however, persuades him that a better plan is
to let Illus escape.... Shortly afterwards, Alcinoe slips into the
dungeon and, posing as Thea’s friend, “arranges” Illus’ escape. She
also poisons his mind against his father, telling him that the real
reason Hercules is against Illus’ marriage is that he wants Thea for
himself. As Hercules makes his offering of the blood diamond, the
Sibyl (Carla Calò) appears, confirming that with the completion of
his labours, the gods have set him free. Hercules then asks about
Illus and Thea, but the Sibyl silently vanishes....
Comments:
Although his name will forever be associated with the role, ex-Mr
Universe Steve Reeves played Hercules only twice, in
Le Fatiche Di Ercole and
Ercole E La Regina Di Lidia. After
that, and in spite of the astonishing success of his twin starring
roles worldwide, Reeves abandoned the character of Hercules as part
of his not entirely successful quest to broaden his acting
repertoire. Then it was open season, with Hercules-es popping up
everywhere – not to mention Macistes, Goliaths, Samsons and other
assorted mythological heroes and muscle-men. The first to don
Reeves’ discarded loin-cloth was another former body-builder named
Lou Degni....or at least, he was then. Much as it always
forced its horror films to pretend to be British, the eternally
perverse Italian film industry preferred its Greco-Roman demi-gods
to be as American as possible; and so the Brooklyn-born Degni was
re-born as “Mark Forest” – or, occasionally, as “Mark Forrest”.
Impressively built without the somewhat alarming physical
development of Steve Reeves, Forest gave us a Hercules who was more
demi than god; a family man who just wanted to relax at home with
the wife and kids, if only those pesky fates would stop bothering
him about labours and quests. And if you think that’s an unlikely
picture of Hercules, oh my friends, we’ve only just begun to look at
the way the motion picture industry screwed with mythology!
Dreams of
domesticity aside for the moment, La Vendetta Di Ercole opens
with Our Hero descending into Hades – literally. There’s no bullying
of Charon in this version: Herc just climbs down a rock wall;
and we get a charming intimation of the overall standard of the
special effects in this film, as the safety harness on which Mark
Forest is suspended is clearly visible in most shots. Once down,
Hercules finds himself confronted by Cerberus. Now, according to
most accounts of the story, Hercules’ last labour was the capture
of Cerberus, which he delivered to King Eurystheus of Tiryns.
However, if this particular Hercules has one distinguishing
peculiarity, it is his hatred of the entire animal creation: not a
beast wanders by him on foot or wing that doesn’t end up a bloody
corpse. As character traits go, it isn’t precisely an endearing
one. The best that can be said for Herc is that he does make a token
effort to distract Cerberus, throwing it a loaf of bread topped with
some of his own blood. But not all of the heads fall for this ploy,
and as Hercules tries to slip by it, one of the heads emits a blast
of fire that causes him to leap back in consternation. (And I’ve a
notion here it wasn’t Hercules leaping back, if you follow:
there’s a jump cut here, suggesting that an over-enthusiastic
pyrotechnics man may have gone a little close to serving up
flambé de Forest.) Well, then it’s no more Mr Nice Guy, as Herc
draws his ridiculously dinky knife and takes out Cerberus, who
becomes bloody corpse #1. For some reason, the slaying of the dog
makes the ground heave under Hercules’ feet and a rock wall
collapse. The heart of Hades is then exposed, a multi-coloured world
of gaseous swamps and dead trees. (And although this vision of Hades
can’t compete with the glorious psychodelia of Mario Bava’s
Ercole Al Centro Della Terra, there is some nice
production design here, with everything bathed in sulphurous
yellows.)
Hercules doesn't like
dogs....
Then we make an
abrupt transition to Oechalia, ruled by a Eurytus who – far from
playing his mythological role of Hercules’ archery teacher – is an
evil, scar-faced usurper who murdered the real rulers of Oechalia
and plans to hold the throne by forcing their daughter, Thea, to
marry him. (Whether he was acting it or not, Broderick Crawford’s
surliness actually adds to his depiction of the brutish Eurytus.) We
realise at this point, perhaps with a little dismay, that the
fantastic nature of La Vendetta Di Ercole’s opening sequence
is merely a sop for the audience: what this film serves up is
political machination and plenty of it. Here, Eurytus plots to
overthrow Thebes (why he’s so obsessed with doing so is never made
clear), trying to convince his wavering allies that Hercules must
be dead. “No-one has ever descended to Hades and come back!” he
declares. Well, no. I mean, isn’t the point of Hades....?
Anyway, as Eurytus rallies his reluctant troops, Hercules’ son,
Illus, bribes a guard to admit him to the palace grounds – or at
least, he thinks he does, but it’s a set-up from the start. His
arrival is signalled to Tyndaros (the brain to Eurytus’ brawn), who
in turn informs Eurytus. Eurytus then declares that he will
demonstrate his belief in Hercules’ death by executing Illus.
Huh. We wish.
Or we do after a few moments in the company of Illus and Thea, who
are everything you’d expect of the “romantic leads” in a film like
this. She (as one of her rivals puts it) is “young and
vapid”; he is an utter dweeb.
Early days, and
Vittorio Cottafavi doesn’t want to try our patience with too much
Illus and Thea just yet; so we cut back to Hades where Hercules is
doing what he does best: chucking boulders around, and committing
acts of animal cruelty. Herc uses one boulder to smash another.
Inside is the blood diamond, the object of this particular labour.
Hercules is trying to pry it free when he is attacked, if that’s the
right word, by a man-sized cat with bat-wings that swoops at him
through the air (and if you thought Mark Forest’s harness was
visible, hoo Nelly! – you should see the wires on this
thing!). This pathetic object is only too obviously incapable of
hurting anyone, unless we rupture ourselves laughing at it; yet
Hercules feels compelled to stab the poor helpless thing repeatedly
and then strangle it to death.
This film is seven
minutes old, and I hate Our Hero with a passion.
....or cats....
Anyway, this [*cough*]
heroic feat accomplished, Hercules pulls the blood diamond free, the
crevice in the rock in which it was lodged spilling blood itself.
And then it’s back to Oechalia, where Illus is now languishing in a
dungeon (yay!) and we meet a couple more of our conspirators: Ismene,
Tyndaros’ sister and Eurytus’ former mistress, who still loves the
usurper enough (who knows why?) to try and assist his pursuit of
Thea; and Alcinoe, the daughter of one of Eurytus’ conquered foes,
now his slave (and, uh, body servant, if you follow me) and the
object of Tyndaros’ desire. When news of Hercules’ safe return from
Hades reaches the palace, Eurytus’ allies scatter like cockroaches
when the lights go on. The disgusted Eurytus threatens to execute
Illus anyway (promises, promises), but Tyndaros comes up with a plan
for using him as a weapon against Hercules, with Alcinoe’s help.
Promised her freedom, Alcinoe goes to Illus posing as Thea’s friend
and sets him free....also informing him that the reason Hercules is
against his marriage to Thea is that he wants the girl for himself;
a tale that thick-as-a-brick Illus swallows without a blink.
Meanwhile, Hercules
is at the temple of the God of Vengeance, offering up the blood
diamond and asking that the gods free him and allow him to return
home. The Sibyl appears to confirm the gods’ acceptance of Hercules’
offering. Hercules is ecstatic, but can’t help pushing his luck by
asking the Sibyl about Illus and Thea. She, however, fades away
without answering. Outside the temple, Hercules is met by his
friend, Androcles. (One of the most charming things about these
films is their matter-of-fact handling of supernatural events and
encounters. Thus, when Herc is done chatting with the Sibyl, he
finds his pal outside with a chariot waiting to drive him home!) As
they head for Hercules’ house near Thebes, the populace is thrilled
to see him again, and we soon learn why. He’s no sooner shown his
face than it’s, “Hercules, Hercules, fix my roof! Hercules,
Hercules! Uproot my tree!” Yay! Hercules is back! Now we can sit on
our lazy Theban butts and let him do all the work! Hercules
takes all this in surprisingly good part. I guess even demi-gods
like being sucked up to. At any rate, he chuckles mightily and gets
down to business. One of the people demanding his assistance has two
newly-purchased oxen that, by a miraculous exertion of willpower,
Hercules refrains from punching to death just for the hell of it.
(This passage of
La Vendetta Di Ercole, by the way, introduces its COOCRM –
otherwise known as its Contractually Obliged Odious Comic Relief
Midget. He only appears in a couple of brief scenes, however:
something that adds markedly to the enjoyment factor of the film.)
At Hercules’ house,
a celebratory feast is being prepared by his long-suffering wife,
Deianeira.
Wait a minute!
I hear those of you who have been paying attention cry at this
point. (Oh, come on – someone out there must have been paying
attention, right? Right? [Is this thing on?]) Deianeira? The last
time we saw Hercules, wasn’t he married to Iole of Iolcus?
Well, yes, he was.
Like I said, these films play fast and loose with the accepted
versions of the Hercules mythology. Hercules’ wife at the time of
his labours was Megara of Thebes....only when he came home again,
far from wanting to settle down with the missus, Hercules palmed
Megara off onto his own nephew, on the grounds that the gods
disapproved of their marriage. Which I guess is demi-god-speak for
“I think we should see other people”. Iole was actually the daughter
of Eurytus of Oechalia (yes, that Eurytus of Oechalia....which
is to say, not this Eurytus of Oechalia), and became
Hercules’ mistress while he was married to Deianeira. Deianeira then
[*cough, cough*] accidentally killed Herc with a “love
potion” that was really poison....an incident I don’t think any
film has ever dealt with.
Be that as it may,
in this version of events it is Deianeira to whom Herc is
married during his labours, and has been long enough to produce an
adult Illus; and she with whom he plans a life of peaceful
domesticity. Ha, ha. Deianeira flits around preparing a celebratory
feast for Herc’s return, the only fly in her ointment being the
behaviour of Illus, who is moping around the house in what might
charitably be called a king-sized fit of the sulks. Illus starts off
by telling his mother he can’t tell her what the trouble is, that he
would “never want you to suffer because of me”; and then about five
seconds later blurts out the whole Hercules-wants-Thea story.
Deianeira is shocked but steadfast, refusing to believe that
Hercules could even think of doing such a thing. So I guess she
never heard about the time that Hercules slept with and knocked up
forty-nine virgins on forty-nine consecutive nights, in the belief
that he was with the same woman each time. (Hey, no-one ever said
that Hercules was bright! Oh, and just in case you were wondering,
yes, there were fifty of them, but one of them wouldn’t put out.)
When Hercules arrives home he is hurt and angered by Illus’ cold
reception, but Deianeira excuses her son on the grounds that he is
“young, and in love” (and an idiot). However, even a passing
reference to Thea sends Hercules into a tizzy, and Deianeira starts
to wonder if Illus wasn’t right.
Back in Oechalia,
Tyndaros gives Alcinoe a “love philtre”, which she is to persuade
Illus to administer to his father. Alcinoe doesn’t swallow that
story, of course, but agrees to help destroy Hercules if
Eurytus will give up on Thea and make her queen of Oechalia.
This sits well with neither Eurytus nor Tyndaros, but for the time
being they play along. Alcinoe sets out for Thebes, but while riding
through the forest, she is attacked by a guy in one of the
sorriest-looking bear costumes you will ever see (it’s one of
those with an extended neck, so the person inside can see out the
mouth!). Alcinoe faints, but just as the bear approaches her, Herc
rides up and, well, you know about Herc and animals!
....or bears....
Herc then revives
Alcinoe, who looks up into his eyes and--- Zing, zing, zing
go her heart-strings....and clang, clang, clang goes her
conscience when Herc introduces himself. The arrival of Hercules’
friends provides a diversion and Alcinoe slips away, hiding the
deadly philtre in a tree. Unfortunately for her, that exact same
tree has an Oechalian spy lurking near it. What were the odds,
hey? Her failure to carry out her side of the bargain sees Alcinoe
cast into a dungeon by Eurytus. Meanwhile, Herc is having a
post-hunt party, but becomes furious upon hearing that Illus is
setting out for Oechalia. Herc drags Illus off his horse and ties
him to a tree (!!). This is witnessed by Ismene’s slave, Ilide.
Posing as Thea’s slave, she gives Illus the philtre and tells
him that it will restore his father’s sanity. Illus calls to
Hercules for release, apologising and promising to behave himself.
A bribe arranges
for Thea to be brought to the dungeon, where Alcinoe confesses the
whole plot – and tells Thea that Eurytus poisoned her father, the
true king, too. Eurytus himself arrives in time to overhear this
exchange and has Thea imprisoned with Alcinoe. The two mourn their
fate – and Hercules’. “Only a merciful god could help us!” exclaims
Thea, and wouldn’t you know it? – no sooner has she spoken than a
wind blows through the cell. This is “Aeolus! He gathers human words
and carries them on the wind!” The girls break into a chorus of,
“Illus! It’s poison! It’s poison, you doofus!” Illus has
already emptied the philtre into his father’s wine (Hercules is
being toasted, so he isn’t drinking), and as the wind carries the
girls’ cries to him, our mental giant sits there for a time with a
puzzled expression on his face – “‘Stop, Illus, they deceived me,
it’s poison...?’ Huh? I don’t get it!” – but the penny – eventually
– drops, just in time for Illus to dash the wine away from Hercules’
lips. As Illus apologises to his father – without saying what for,
exactly – and embraces him, a dog licks up the spilled wine and dies
foaming at the mouth. I guess this one I can’t blame on Hercules.
But the family
peace is short-lived as, the next morning, Hercules learns that
Illus has gone to Oechalia anyway. There, he too is captured and
thrown into the dungeon (it’s getting mighty crowded down there).
Eurytus taunts Tyndaros with Alcinoe’s betrayal, then announces that
he will execute Illus as he planned in the first place (dammit,
Eurytus, will you stop getting our hopes up!). Eurytus has,
indeed, planned a demonstration of a most peculiar and gruesome
sort: he has his condemned prisoners carried out on crosses (diagonal
ones, let’s just be clear about that), and then gets an elephant to
step on their heads! As Illus’ turn comes, Hercules is of course
burning his way to Oechalia along with Androcles and another friend,
all three in disguise (well, in red capes, anyway). They are thus
admitted, and Herc throws himself into the arena just in time to
save Illus and to fight a mighty battle with the elephant; a
spectacle hardly diminished by the fact that the animal’s handler is
in plain sight the whole time.
....or elephants....
As Hercules frees
Illus, the gathered populace of Oechalia stages a convenient
rebellion, allowing the four intruders to escape. Hercules then
takes Illus to the Sibyl, and we finally get to the root of the
whole Thea mystery....kind of. I have to confess, the first time I
saw this film I got mightily confused here, because it pulls a
Fawlty Towers-esque “I was looking at you but talking to him”
stunt; so that when the Sibyl says, “Your progeny will rule Oechalia,
but it will cost the life of the woman who loves you”, I thought she
was talking to Illus, whereas she was really addressing Hercules. So
just to clarify, if Illus marries Thea, Deianeira will die, hence
Herc’s constant freak-outs on the subject of Thea. Although why he
couldn’t just explain.... Anyway, Illus takes the dashing of
his romantic hopes as you’d expect, by sinking into a suicidal
depression, so that he has to go around with his hands bound to keep
him from killing himself. Hercules, too, responds to the situation
with all of his usual rational clear-thinking: he curses and
abandons Thebes, and destroys his house with his bare hands. Which,
if not particularly sensible behaviour, at least allows him to whip
out the chains and indulge in a little patented pillar-pulling.
Hercules and his entourage then ride off past some depressed Thebans
(just realising, no doubt, that they’ll now have to do some
work occasionally), and Deianeira reveals that Illus told her about
the prophecy. Good old Illus!
The departure of
Hercules and Illus prompts Eurytus to plan his marriage to Thea, he
managing to force her consent by lowering Alcinoe into a snake-pit.
Dammit! Why can’t I find a man like that? I’d like nothing
better than to be lowered into a pit containing the most gorgeous
little harmless pyth--- Uh, I mean, containing deadly, deadly
snakes. Yes, that’s what I meant.
Meanwhile, as
Hercules looks for a way to cross a flooded valley, Illus begs his
mother to free him so he can kill himself. Seconded! But of course,
Deianeira decides to sacrifice herself instead, and cries out to the
gods to take her life. The gods are obligingly prompt in answering
this request. Polymorpheus appears, first in the form of a centaur,
then as a fawn. Deianeira conveniently faints, and Polymorpheus
carries her off. Hercules sees this, gets the wrong idea (although I
don’t suppose the right idea would have worked out any differently),
and does what he does best. The mortally wounded Polymorpheus
manages to carry off Deianeira anyway, and Hercules loses it
altogether, shouting threats at all the gods in general and his
father Zeus in particular, before hurling a javelin into the sky.
The gods respond with a blast of cartoon lightning that hardly seems
designed to make Herc regret his temerity. On the contrary, Herc
goes to the temple of the God of Vengeance and demands to know where
Deianeira is. “Answer! I am Hercules! You won’t answer me?”
he concludes in a rage, apparently not having grasped the fact that,
you know, he’s talking to a statue, and sets about messing up
the joint, including smashing the taciturn statue to pieces. For
some reason this inspires the Sibyl to announce that although the
gods are against him, she is with Hercules; and that this is
the day her grim prophecy is fated to come true. She reveals that
Deianeira is in Oechalia, and that to enter the city (its walls,
having been built by the Cyclops, being impenetrable), Hercules will
need to find the rock in the woods marked with lightning, and--- And
speaking of lightning, more cartoon blasts punish the Sibyl for her
disloyalty. Indeed, the Olympian wrath extends so far as causing the
sun to set in the middle of the day. This gives Eurytus a fit of the
shakes, although he recovers himself sufficiently to try and
strangle Tyndaros, when his advisor is unwise enough to taunt the
tyrant with his cowardice. However, this friendly scrap is
interrupted by the news that there is a centaur outside the palace
calling for Eurytus. And so there is. Polymorpheus lives long enough
to exchange Deianeira (still in that convenient faint) for a promise
of Hercules’ death, then keels over.
....or fauns....
Hercules is met in
the forest by a Theban army rounded up by Androcles on receipt of a
message carried by Illus. By the gods! Illus did something useful!!
Hercules and Androcles find the Sibyl’s rock, and Herc pushes it
aside to discover an underground passageway, into which protrude the
roots of Oechalia’s walls. Hercules sends Androcles back to
his army, telling him to storm Oechalia should its walls fall; and
then, yup, he starts messing up the joint. The impregnable walls
crumble immediately, almost as if the slabs of rock in them had just
been loosely piled on one another. Hercules manages to escape the
collapsing passageway and rejoins his army, which enters Oechalia
without difficulty. The ensuing ruckus is heard by Deianeira, who
is, yup, in the dungeon. Tyndaros appears, offering to free
Deianeira and take her to Hercules (presumably buying his own life
in the process), but Eurytus hurls a knife into his back.
Eurytus then grabs
Deianeira and starts calling for Hercules, who arrives to find his
wife teetering on the edge of Eurytus’ snake-pit. Half her luck.
Eurytus promises to spare Deianeira if Hercules gets down on his
knees and begs him for her life....which, in agony, he does. Ha, ha,
made you beg, says Eurytus; and starts to push Deianeira towards the
edge anyway. But then Alcinoe finally makes her move, rushing at
Eurytus and propelling both him and herself into the pit. Hercules
pushes aside the barred door he’s been cowering behind all this
time, and lowers himself into the pit to rescue Alcinoe (a sequence
highlighted by a shot of a no doubt mortified Broderick Crawford
wrestling with a rubber snake). Alcinoe is brought out, but lasts
only long enough to declare that she loves Hercules before
dying. And Illus and Thea, who so richly deserve one another, are
married; and Hercules’ progeny rules in Oechalia.
And thus is the
Sibyl’s prophecy fulfilled.
Cheats.
....or Illus. (Okay,
understandable.)
But wait! There’s
more! (Yeah, I know. Sorry.)
Le Fatiche Di Ercole and
Ercole E La Regina Di Lidia were a
smash in the US and made a lot of money for their local distributor,
Joseph E. Levine. Never slow to jump on a bandwagon, AIP immediately
set about securing the rights to a clutch of other pepla, including
La Vendetta Di Ercole. However, by the time the film made it
to American screens, it had undergone certain....changes....and
this time, it wasn’t just in its language and running-time.
Many pepla were
about characters other than Hercules; but when these films reached
American shores, it turned out that most of them were, in
fact, about Hercules; or about the son of Hercules; or about
Hercules’ third cousin twice removed; or about some guy Hercules met
at a kegger one night.
Thing was, American
audiences didn’t know or care about Maciste, or Colossus, or Samson,
or even Coriolanus. They did know and care about Hercules. So
it was that most imported pepla underwent a name change. And while
this is also true of La Vendetta Di Ercole, the film has the
rare distinction of starting out being about Hercules, and ending up
being about someone else entirely.
One can only
speculate about the reason for this counterintuitive alteration.
Perhaps the Steve Reeves films were too fresh in people’s memories.
Or perhaps Joe Levine felt he “owned” the name Hercules. (And if
Universal can insist that it owns the titles “Dracula” and
“Frankenstein”, it isn’t out of the question.) Whatever the reason,
there’s no Hercules in this Hercules film. What we have
instead is a little tale called....
Goliath And The Dragon:
Just who, then, is “Goliath”? An opening narration explains – or
tries to:
“Emilius the Mighty
– the Goliath of Thebes – lived in the days when men worshipped
strange, magical gods, believing in their powers with unshakable
faith. Legend has it that Goliath served the God of Vengeance and
the Goddess of the Four Winds. In return for his devotion, he was
said to be favoured with immortality. He would never know
death at the hands of any mortal. Goliath was held in awe by his
friends and enemies alike. Only one man – Eurytus, the tyrant of
Oechalia – did not believe in Goliath’s power to escape death.
Determined slay him and seize Goliath’s powerful kingdom of Thebes,
Eurytus had stolen the precious blood diamond belonging to the God
of Vengeance, and hid it in the Cave of Horrors. After many months
of searching, Goliath found the fearsome cave and, unafraid, entered
it to fulfil his vow to return the blood diamond to his god.”
Okay, so there we
have it. No Hercules, just some strong guy. This alteration forces
some others, of course. There being no Hercules, there can be no
labours. Similarly, there is no trip to Hades....although personally
I’m willing to accept a “Cave of Horrors” as a substitute. There is
no Sibyl now: the spectral prophetess is the Goddess of the Four
Winds herself; it is she who carries Thea’s warning to Illus. And
while her prophecy is essentially unchanged, some changes made to
the Hercules family do rather alter its impact.
In Goliath And
The Dragon, Illus has made a leap from being Hercules’ son to
being Goliath’s brother. One can only speculate as to the reason for
this: perhaps the similarity in age of the three actors involved was
discomforting to the US distributors of the film. (When La
Vendetta Di Ercole was made, Mark Forest was 27, and Eleonora
Ruffo 25. I have been unable to track down an age for Sandro Moretti,
but he can’t have been more than a couple of years younger.) Of
course, Hercules had that whole “immortality of a demi-god” thing
going for him – and now that I think of it, Deianeira was a demi-god
too, her real father being Dionysus (which I guess makes Illus a
hemi-demi-god....or maybe a hemi-demi-semi-god); so she was under no
obligation to age either. But the same was clearly not the case for
Mr and Mrs Emilius. The prophecy is consequently altered to, “Your
brother will reign in Oechalia, but it will cost the life of
the woman who loves you”, and this in turn lends a different tension
to the rest of the film: Illus might have been prepared to take it
all on the chin for his mother (not that he was, actually), but now
he must sacrifice himself for a sister-in-law. His evident
reluctance to surrender to circumstance thus makes him look a little
less of a putz. Conversely, however, Deianeira’s willingness to give
up her life for Illus is rather difficult to swallow.
But the prophecy is
not the only reason Goliath is against Illus and Thea: the
re-writers here threw in another plot thread about Thea’s parents
killing Goliath and Illus’ parents. This seems an unnecessary
complication....particularly as it leaves us wondering, if the two
sets of parents had gotten along well enough and long enough for
Illus and Thea to have “loved one another from childhood”, how and
why it all ended in bloodshed. One imagines a bridge party gone
horribly wrong.
There are some
other curious things about Goliath And The Dragon. A number
of the actors were clearly speaking English during the shoot, and we
are able to see that the original script was actually much closer to
the English language version than to the Italian language version
released in Europe. (On the whole. Even though he was speaking
English, Broderick Crawford’s voice was dubbed in the US version by
someone who must have seen Eurytus as a Hell’s Kitchen-spawned
gangster: you almost expect Eurytus to start calling people, “You
dirty rat!” And actually, there’s one glorious moment when the
faux-Eurytus spits at Tyndaros, “And after this morning, I
forbid you to work on any of these plots that don’t make sense – ya
moron!”) Odder still is the inclusion of a whole new subplot just
for the American market. The film opens with Goliath descending into
what is now Eurytus’ Cave of Horrors, where he encounters (as you
might have guessed) a dragon. Later on, when Polymorpheus delivers
Deianeira to Eurytus, she ends up, not in Oechalia’s overcrowded
prison system, but chained up in the cave, where Goliath must slay
the dragon to rescue her. What is fascinating about this sequence is
that it is Mark Forest and Eleonora Ruffo acting in it, not
merely some stand-ins; so these scenes must somehow have formed part
of the American distribution deal. Perhaps AIP even paid for them?
And he isn't too fond of dragons,
either.
Whatever the story
behind these scenes, Goliath And The Dragon manages to one-up
La Vendetta Di Ercole by giving us one extra pathetic animal
for its hero to slaughter. Well – “pathetic” – yes and no. In
long-shot, the dragon is an adorable stop-motion beastie (courtesy
of Jim Danforth); in close-up, it is a rather tragic puppet head
(albeit one with the remarkable ability to re-grow an eyeball, after
Goliath puts its eye out with his sword). It is the latter which
Goliath, uh, “battles”; something that makes him seem even more of a
nasty old bully than when he was strangling that poor stupid bat-cat
thing in the opening sequence.
And really, it is hard to regard someone as
“heroic” when he does nothing but beat up refugees from Fraggle
Rock. Personally, by the time the credits rolled on Goliath And
The Dragon, I was just wishing that the Theban branch of the
Humane Society would show up and haul our so-called hero’s sorry
butt away.
And while we're on the subject, I
guess Eurytus doesn't like snakes. |
Director:
Vittorio Cottafavi