Hercules Against the Moon Men ("Maciste vs. the Moon Men" and "Hercules and the Queen of Samar") (1964)Starring: Alan Steel, Anna Maria Polani, Jani Clair, and Delia D'AlbertiDirector: Giacomo GentilomoRating: Three of Ten StarsThe mighty Hercules (Steel) endeavors to liberate the city of Samar from its mad queen (Clair) and her bloodthirsty allies--a band of space aliens wishing to revive their queen (who just happens to be spitting image of the queen's virtuous half-sister (D'Aberti)) and make Earth their plaything. Along the way, Hercules breaks free of death traps, bashes many skulls, romances the beautiful daughter of the queen's chief advisor (Polani), and saves the world from destruction.I love wacky movies. I thought that a film where ancient Greeks are fighting space aliens would be a hoot. I was wrong. While the film does have its moments--most of them interspersed with one of the most tedious end-of-the-world sequences ever put on film--there is too much meandering plot and too little alien-bashing action to make this film truly entertaining.What I find most interesting about this film is that in the original Italian-language version, "Hercules" is actually named "Maciste", an all-purpose epic hero of Italian creation that has been featured in dozens of different pictures, set in several different time periods and different parts of the world. Few of the English-dubbed versions reported retain the name Maciste, instead rewriting it as Hercules, Samson, Goliath, and other better-known mythological figures.
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