Le fatiche di Ercole
Tags: cult, violence

Plot synopsis:
Hercules is on the road to the court of King Pelias of Iolcus to tutor Pelias' son Prince Iphitus in the use of arms. Pelias' beautiful daughter Princess Iole updates Hercules on the history of her father's rise to power and the theft of the kingdom's greatest treasure, the Golden Fleece. Some suspect—and it eventually proves true—that King Pelias has acquired the throne through fratricide. Hercules and Iole are attracted to each other and a romance eventually develops.
King Pelias is warned by a seeress about a stranger wearing one sandal who will challenge his power. When his nephew Jason, the rightful King of Iolcus, arrives in town wearing one sandal, Pelias takes fright and packs him off to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis. Jason and Hercules sail aboard the Argo with their friends Ulysses and his father, Laertes, Argos, the twins Castor and Pollux, the lyre-strumming Orpheus, the physician Aesculapius and others.
After weathering a tempest at sea, the Argonauts dally in a lush garden-like country with Antea, the Queen of the Amazons and her ladies. Jason falls in love with Antea, but, when the Amazons plot the deaths of the heroes, Hercules forces Jason to board the Argo and secretly set sail in the night. On the shores of Colchis, the heroes battle hairy ape-men while Jason slays a dragon and retrieves the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts embark for home with their prize.
In Iolcus, the populace greet the returning heroes but Pelias and his henchman Eurysteus steal the Golden Fleece, deny Jason's claim, and plot his destruction. A tense battle between Pelias' forces and the heroes follows. Hercules halts Pelias' cavalry dead in its tracks by toppling the portico of the palace upon them. The defeated Pelias drinks poison. Jason ascends the throne while Hercules and Iole set sail for new adventures.
Subplots involve the death of Pelias' headstrong son Prince Iphitus, and exploits for Hercules resembling the Labors of the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull.

Review: In the late 1950s Italian director Pietro Franicisi wanted to do a film about the exploits of the famous muscleman, "Hercules"...he had scoured actors all over Europe looking for a handsome, musclebound actor who could complement the role...soon his daughter who had seen Reeves in a couple of B films recommended Reeves to her father....the rest was history.
Certainly this is a classic and a must see for all diehard Herc fans.The movie starts off with a runaway chariot carrying a damsel in distress, Jole, princess and future bride of Hercules (played by the beautiful Sylvia Koscina) next we see and hear a tree being uprooted and the next scene we see Hercules carrying the tree and throws it in front of the chariot stopping the horses.
We see Hercules pull chains from the wall and then use them as a weapon to defeat the Kings army first by taking out the evil adversaries one by one and then by wrapping the chains around two pillars supporting the Temple and pulling the Temple down, killing the remainder of the Kings men.Overall, a good, fun movie.
To the critics of this movie, no you won't find a great plot or academy award acting but I am reminded of comments made by the great Kirk Douglas, that people come to movies to be entertained and have fun and not necessarily just to see the movies with the best plot and greatest acting.Hercules went on to become the biggest box office hit of its time and Reeves went on to become the highest paid actor and box office champion (tied with Sophie Loren) in his time.This movie started it all.
Son of Spartacus (a sequel to Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas) and Duel of the Titans are also interesting Reeves movies.In 1977, NBC showed Hercules on network television as the Monday movie of the week followed by Hercules Unchained as the NBC Sunday movie of the week, 20 years after their release in theatres.
Reeves movies have become classics and well worth your time to watch, even now 43 years later.
Steve Reeves - The Great One. This is actually two stories in one: the first is about Hercules trying to find his niche in the world as a rugged adventurer and champion of the oppressed, the 2nd is about Jason and the Argonauts and Herc looking for the Golden Fleece.Longer and slower than some of the successors and with quite possibly less fight scenes, these are still the best due to the respect and attention given to the characters.
Reeves, looking like a pumped up Jonathan Frakes, is probably still the best of the lot, though we only got to see him fight lions, tigers, bulls, monkey people and Primo Carnera as opposed to monsters, but maybe it was better this way.
Levine's timing when he decided to capitalize on this low-budget Italian epic was so right that it has become a legendary example of film promotion.
That aside, it's amazing still how the dynamic image of Steve Reeves and a multimillion dollar saturation campaign was able to make this one of the most profitable films of it's time.
They were ready to sacrifice their brief treasure , life for knowledge , for justice, for love..¨ Greek mythology in Peplum style with a musclebound Steve Reeves as Hercules.
The gorgeous daughter of Pelias , the princess Iole (Sylva Koscina), explains Hercules the story about the killing his uncle , taking over by his father and the greatest robbing of the kingdom , the Golden Fleece.
This is one of the best Peplum or sword and sandals film from the history, retelling the legend of Hercules or Herakles in Greek language and Jason in search of the famous fleece for uncharted sea.
It's based on poem of Greek poet named Apollonio of Rhodas written in third century titled ¨The Argonautika¨(250 B.C) , it's freely adapted by Prieto Francisci with screenplay by Ennio De Concini .In order to stifle the anger of Pelias , Hercules and Jason must retrieve the magical calf housed from distant land of Colchis and bring it toward city of Iolco.
Hercules successfully leads his crew of would-be heroes throughout a series of outstanding adventures .They sail unharmed along sea storm, suffering risks and incredible adventures, encountering a giant monster, scheming witch and Amazons (Gina Rovere)led by Antea (Giann Maria Canale).This exciting story deals with superhero Reeves-Hercules must use all his strength to save Jason and woman he loves from Pelias and Eristeo .The one that began it all and created the Peplum with multitudes of mythological issues .
Pietro Francisci hired Steve Reeves , being Mr. America and Mr. Universe , who previously had worked for Ed Wood in a lowest thriller called Jail Bait (1954).It is widely considered to be one of the top 10 greatest Peplum films of all time.
This is Steve Reeves' first film portrayal of Hercules , it is followed by ¨Hercules unchained¨ that is in certain ways, better than his first .
The corpulent Steve Reeves was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨.
Luck's Reeves changed when Italian director Pietro Francisci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Hercules¨ and sequel ¨Hercules and queen of Lydia also titled Hercules unchained ¨ that served as the prototypes of all cloak-and-sandal movies to come and both of them became a surprise US hit smash .
As usual in Musclemen films appears the choreographic girls dancers and lots of action with several adventures including spectacular fights ,storms, and some good effects by the expert Mario Bava.
Don't look for an Oscar moments here as the acting is wooden for the most part and the special effects a bit far-fetched, but this is a film that can be enjoyed by everyone.Mr. Universe 1950, Steve Reeves became a star with this film.
He would be the role model for future Hercules like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who gave him his due.After performing all the stunt he is famous for, he saves the day for Jason (Fabrizio Mioni, who went on to a long TV career in America) and rowed off into the sunset with Croatian beauty Sylva Koscina.This is the stuff epics are made of..
I was only 7 years old but it seems like yesterday.This movie was very impressive since after 42 years I still admire Steve Reeves.
Then, I loved the movie because it had elements like strong good man fighting against the bad, beautiful women, myth, and good movie techniques regarding those days.
I remember watching the movie together with some of my friends and deciding that we could start body building as Steve Reeves did.
Indeed, we started the exercises -and of course, we couldn't have a physical look like he did- However, I can frankly say that we had benefited from our efforts regarding our healths -and surely we had builded a more good looking body- I recommend to our coevals that they watch this movie and similar ones from time to time..
If this movie was being made this present day in exactly the same way it would be an absolutely terrible movie but the fact that this was made in 1958 makes it a good and defining one for its genre.It's sometimes laughable how fake this movie is looking, for instance when Hercules is fighting a lion and later a buffalo, who are both obvious puppets in the close-up scenes with Steve Reeves.
It's an Italian movie, so it features lots of beautiful landscapes.The story is simple and perhaps not as action filled or fast paced as it could had been but it still is an adventurous one.
I had watched both Hercules adventures as a kid on Italian TV and this recent re-acquaintance came via the R1 Goodtimes DVD, which presented the American-dubbed version (as prepared by Joseph E.
Mind you, the film is still enjoyable along the way but also rather juvenile and uninspired – centering as it does around the famous mythological tale of the search for the Golden Fleece (whose definitive screen rendition remains the splendid Ray Harryhausen extravaganza JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS [1963], a personal childhood favorite of mine, where Hercules was portrayed by Nigel Greene!).
Two other Italian adaptations of Greek legends, both originally by Homer, proved altogether more satisfactory – the template for HERCULES was clearly the lively ULYSSES (1954), an Italian/US venture involving the likes of Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn among the cast and Ben Hecht and Irwin Shaw as co-writers (that film's titular figure actually appears here as a brash youth!), while THE Trojan HORSE (1961) gave Steve Reeves himself a more mature role in Aeneas and survives as possibly his best vehicle.Throughout the course of the film, our 'immortal' hero is seen performing several athletic feats (the original title, in fact, translates to THE LABORS OF HERCULES), romances "Euro-Cult" favorite Sylva Koscina, resists the temptations of the Amazon women (led by Gianna Maria Canale from I VAMPIRI [1957]), fights a lion, a dragon and a tribe of monkey men(!), routs the traitor among his shipping crew (BLACK Sunday [1960]'s Arturo Dominici) and, finally, brings down a temple by pulling at its columns a' la Samson (thus paving the way for Jason to assume his rightful place on the throne)..
There are all sorts of legendary characters here--Herc himself, Ulysses, Jason, the Amazons--and a classic story about the pursuit of the Golden Fleece, but I found it hard to follow and worse than that, just plain dull.
I am told that this is the accepted term for these films, the peplum being the kind of tunics the male characters wear.Steve Reeves wore as little as possible the better to show off that muscular body that it took years to perfect.
The success of Hercules internationally led to a series of muscle dudes from Europe mostly taking Anglo names for our markets doing films if not with Hercules in the title we would Samson, Goliath, Maciste, etc.The plot here interweaves several of the legends of Hercules plus the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece in which Hercules was a supporting player.
The film that launched a thousand sets of muscular pecs and biceps and made a household name of American bodybuilder-turned-actor Steve Reeves, "Hercules" (original Italian title: "Le fatiche di Ercole," "The Labours of Hercules") was an international box-office smash that spawned several dozen imitators in the mid-20th Century known as "peplum," for the tunics characters often wore.
Collectively, these films were a return to silent-era commercial successes of Italian cinema -- the original Peplum films featuring Italian folk hero Maciste that were popular from the mid-1910s through the mid- 1920s -- and were an attempt (successful, as it turned out) to capitalize on the popularity of American-financed sword-and-sandal epics like "Quo Vadis," "Spartacus," and "Ulysses." Reportedly, director Pietro Francisci had wanted to make a Hercules film for several years but couldn't find a leading man until his daughter spotted Reeves in the film "Athena." Reeves wasn't necessarily an actor of particular subtlety or nuance, but he was incredibly handsome and had a championship physique that set the standard for mid-century bodybuilding.
He sets a high bar for portraying the mythological hero and in many respects has never been equaled, though a few actors like Dwayne Johnson have successfully managed to play off Reeves's legacy by modifying the direction of the character.
If you want something visual that's not too abysmal, you could do a lot worse than this old Steve Reeves movie, though this is one case where the direct sequel, "Hercules Unchained," surpasses the original..
It does look all right considering it was made in the 50's, but by the time I watched this one I had seen three other Hercules films from this era and after watching this one I can honestly say, they are about all the same.
No problem with him not being enchanted by the ladies, saw that way too much in the other films.The story has Hercules saving a girl who turns out to be a princess of the man he is coming to assist, who may or may not be behind the murder of a king and whose son lost the golden fleece and something or another.
Like other Hercules films, a lot of stuff is going on in the plot while not all that much stuff is going on as far as action on the screen.
It was also an okay episode, but nothing special as I have already seen three other Hercules riffed by the gang on the satellite of love and like I said right from the beginning it follows the exact same formula as other Hercules films so we are getting similar jokes.
It had its moments, but like all the other Hercules films there just is not enough action going on to keep me entertained for its entire running time..
Maybe in the original Italian it all made more sense.However, despite the sloppy dubbing, another major problem is that the film has too much in the way of plot.
Why they chose to combine the story of Jason and the Argonauts seeking the golden fleece (a Greek tale) AND Hercules (Roman) dealing with an annoying king and his really annoying son is beyond me--especially because both characters could easily have several films of just their own adventures.
Some of the characters make no sense at all (such as the princess who loves Hercules but fights with him when Herc sets out to do EXACTLY what she'd asked him to do) and some are so one-dimensional they looked like they were written by a 3rd grader.
Steve Reeves is actually quite good in the title role and he outmuscles Arnold any time..
Today, it is little more than a badly dubbed Italian time-passer, with uneven special effects (the dragon looks very phony, but the demolition of the palace at the end is well-done) and a muscular but not very compelling Steve Reeves as Hercules.
The movie is stunning because Steve Reeves is so perfect looking.
1) the film is supposed to be a mythological fantasy film and it was quite original back in 1958; 2) without any doubt it is the best movie ever made in its genre; 3) Sylva Koscina (the woman, not the actress).Just terrible !!!.
It's not just for the fact that it was a good movie, but because of all the memories that I have attached to it.In the years that followed, I soon gained my own version of the film (and its sequel) on VHS and today I have them both on DVD.
You can thank this epic for the slew of Muscleman Movies that hit the screen in the 1950s and 1960s.This is a loose re-working of "Jason And The Golden Fleece," tailored for the Hercules character, with elements of the Samson story tossed in for good measure.
Everybody who enjoyed this larger-than-life, but straightforward mythological adventure epic should know that "Attila" director Pietro Francisci's "Hercules" spawned what came to be derisively known as the sword and sandal genre.
Aside from revitalizing a moribund genre, Francisci's "Hercules" is notable not only for its star, bodybuilder Steve Reeves of "Mr. Universe" fame, but also for lenser Mario Bava whose widescreen pictorial compositions as well as his atmospheric lightning.
In Francisci's film, Hercules literally usurps Jason as the hero when in reality the son of Jupiter played a peripheral role in the exploit.
Dramatically, Francisci cuts to a close-up of a tree uprooted and then shows Hercules (Steve Reeves of "Jailbait") slamming the tree down in front of the horses.
Later, Pelias gives Hercules three months to retrieve the stolen Golden Fleece to prove that Jason is the rightful heir to the throne.
A sea voyage follows and Jason reclaims the Golden Fleece after an encounter with a fakey dragon."Hercules" proved to be a blockbuster during its North American release and the success that the film enjoyed in the United States can be attributed to Joseph E Levine.
Brave and honest legendary strongman Hercules (perfectly embodied by the brawny and handsome Steve Reeves) joins the noble Jason (solid Fabrizio Mioni) and his Argonauts on a perilous quest to find the golden fleece.
Well, here it is: the film that kick-started the sword-and-sandal craze of the late '50s/early '60s and single-handedly turned muscleman Steve Reeves into an immortal cinematic star.
Weirdly, I've only now had the opportunity to watch this after being subjected to countless sequels and rip-offs, which is unfortunate because, as a film, HERCULES is hardly the action epic you'd expect.
Reeves fits the role like a glove, and is great in the various scenes where he has to battle soldiers, bulls, and lions (watch out for the non-muscular stand-in in the latter bit).
With both Sylva Koscina and Gianna Maria Canale in the cast, the film's easy on the eye in that respect.The cinematography is good and I enjoyed the surprise appearance of a man-in-a-rubber-suit playing the hydra, here transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex by the looks of it!
This movie begins with "Hercules" (Steve Reeves) saving a beautiful woman on a runaway chariot by pulling a tree up by its roots to block the horse's stampede.
Likewise, this movie was originally filmed in Italian and dubbed into English.
(Imagine my delight when Hercules- looking more than a little bit like Steve Reeves- turned up in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY to slug it out with the Norse God of Thunder.) (And Hercules won!) The next best thing to reading about Hercules in ancient mythology or comic books was seeing him in a movie.
There's a bit too much talk and not nearly enough action for an adventure film like this, but Reeves as Herc has enough bulge in his biceps and enough flex in his pecs to keep one distracted throughout.
After all this time, HERCULES is STILL the best of the lot..
Steve Reeves makes a pretty good hercules and the show moves along very nicely.