Hercules

Director: Pietro Francisci Pietro Francisci

Overview

Hercules (Steve Reeves) conquers the Nemean lion and the Cretan Bull after saving the princess from a runaway chariot. He helps Jason and the Argonauts find the golden fleece and restores the throne after beating an army into submission while shackled with slave bracelets

Product Details

Release Date:	01/12/2021
UPC:	0644827434329
Original Release:	1957
Source:	Reel Vault
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	5,364

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Steve Reeves	Hercules
Sylva Koscina	Iole
Gianna Maria Canale	Antea
Fabrizio Mioni	Jason
Ivo Garrani	Pelias
Arturo Dominici	Eurysteus
Mimmo Palmara	Iphitus
Lidia Alfonsi	The Sybil,The Sybil
Gina Rovere	Amazon
Gabriele Antonini	Ulysses
Andrea Fantasia	Laertes
Afro Poli	Chiron
Aldo Fiorelli	Argos
Gino Nattera	Orpheus
Giampaolo Rosmino	Esculapius
Luciana Paluzzi	Iole's Maid
Willi Colombini	Pollux
Fulvio Carrara	Castor
Gino Mattera	Orpheus
Aldo Pini	Tifi
Paola Quattrini	Iole as a child
Romano Barbieri	Actor
Spartaco Nale	Actor
Enzo Masetti	Composer

Technical Credits

Pietro Francisci

Age

Furio Scarpelli

Ennio de Concini

Calo Frattini

Pietro Francisci	Director,Screenwriter
Federico Teti	Producer
Age	Screenwriter
Furio Scarpelli	Screenwriter
Ennio de Concini	Screenwriter
Calo Frattini	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

In 1959, Steve Reeves became an international screen star with this film, which had been shot in Italy two years earlier under the title The Labors of Hercules. Bought by producer Joseph E. Levine (who had previously brought the Japanese film Gojira into the United States successfully as Godzilla), retitled and redubbed, and then promoted with a bigger budget than it had cost to shoot the movie, Hercules became a box-office smash in the United States and set the standard for a decade of Italian-made muscle-man films that followed, all featuring professional bodybuilders as leads and all set in some era of Greek or Roman antiquity. Contrary to what the critics claim, this is not a bad movie. Reeves cuts a commanding figure as the legendary hero, and even people who didn't like his work conceded that he looked great; the rest of the cast, especially Silva Koscina as Iole and Ivo Garrani as Pelias, try very hard in portraying what are essentially mythical icons out of Greek antiquity; and the special effects work within the limitations of the budget. True, Ray Harryhausen in his sleep could have created a more convincing dragon (and later did just that, in Jason and the Argonauts), but within the confines of this film's available talent and money, the dragon awaiting Jason at the end of the quest for the Golden Fleece worked as well as it needed to. Moreover, the popularity of this movie inspired a generation of teenage and preteen baby-boomers to start studying Greek and Roman mythology with varying degrees of seriousness; it also may well have planted the pop culture seed through which Marvel Comics was able to spawn the Mighty Thor in comic books three years later, which eventually introduced Hercules as a semi-permanent character.