Hercules Against the Moon Men

This film is actually a "Maciste" movie, but like most of the Italian films starring that character, the name was changed to one more marketable for distribution in the USA. In this film, Hercules must help the oppressed people of the kingdom of Samar overthrow their evil queen, who uses them as human sacrifices to her Moon Men masters (no, I'm not making this up, that really is the plot!). Treachery, mechanical traps, sword fights, funny monsters, actors in skimpy outfits and a convoluted scene of people struggling endlessly in a sandstorm are all hallmarks of this film. If you enjoy Italian sword and sandal pictures from the 1960's then you will love this stuff!

You may also be interested in seeing the MST3K version of this film. It is available in The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 7, wherein this film gets the treatment it deserves. This is one of the funniest episodes of MST3K ever ("sandstorm!"). Comments like, "This movie is equipped with airbags." at the sight of a voluptuous woman in a low-cut dress will have you howling with laughter. "I hate movies where the men wear shorter skirts than the women." says Crow. "Sandstorm, saaannnndstoooorrrrmm..." say the Mad Scientists. The sheer goofiness of the story, the costumes, and the fun action in the first part of the film, which is inexplicably followed by an endless scene of people struggling through a sandstorm near what should be the big climax, render this film a bit messy but loads of fun to watch. Wait till you see "Woodsy Owl." "Why is he wearing oven mitts?" asks Crow. You won't care; you'll be laughing too hard.

Whether you watch this film "straight" or with the MST3K treatment, it is silly, fun, and entertaining.

The Retromedia version offers an excellent anamorphic transfer. DVDs for many campy public-domain films look like they're taken from TV prints that have been dragged behind a truck, then run through VHS twice. Retromedia clearly had access to a clean 35mm print and made a modern digital transfer. It looks and sounds far better than expected for this kind of title--about what you'd get from a major studio with honest technicians and a good vault copy. Given the age of the film and the likely budget, we're probably seeing everything there is to see.

Of all of the Italian sword-and-sandals movies, this has perhaps the silliest premise--in fact, the whole notion of Hercules fighting "moon men" only appeared in the English-dubbed version (the Italian original is about "Maciste," a strongman character in Italian movies back to the 1914 *Cabiria*, and there was nothing about aliens from the moon). It is moderately entertaining, and very low budget, as was typical for these movies. I say moderately entertaining, but only if you like this sort of thing, i.e., cheesy genre movies--if you're looking for another *Casablanca*, this isn't it. Most of the sword and sandals DVDs have very low-quality transfers: they chop up the original widescreen movies with pan-and-scan, and often look like they are using a video camera pointed at a TV screen showing a very faded and scratched print to make the transfer. This particular movie, however, has the worst transfer I have seen yet: few colors besides blue have survived, and there is no sharpness in the image at all. I am checking out the "special edition" DVD of *Moon Men* from somethingweird.com (Something Weird Video), which specializes in this sort of thing--they promise widescreen at least, and a "digitally remastered" version.

I've looked at the Something Weird version, and it is incomparably better (well, the visual quality is, at any rate!)--this is the double feature entitled "Hercules Against the Moon Men/The Witch's Curse" (a mere $17.99 here at amazon.com).