Hercules (1958 film)

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Hercules (1958 film)

Hercules (1958

1958 in film

The year 1958 in film involved some significant events....
) is an Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italy film began just a few months after the Auguste and Louis Lumi?re had discovered the medium, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera....
feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial Film distributor in Movie theater and being the "main attraction" of the screening ....
based upon the Hercules myths

Hercules

Hercules is the Ancient Rome name for the mythical Ancient Greece hero Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italian shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength....
and the Quest for the Golden Fleece

Golden Fleece

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos . It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly....
. The film stars Steve Reeves

Steve Reeves

Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilding, actor, and author....
as the titular hero and Sylva Koscina

Sylva Koscina

Iole

In Greek mythology, Iole was the daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. According to the classical tale by Apollodorus, Eurytus had a beautiful young daughter named Iole who was eligible for marriage....
. Hercules was directed by Pietro Francisci

Pietro Francisci

Pietro Francisci was an Italian film director, best remembered for the film Hercules which inspired the sword and sandal boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s....
and produced by Federico Teti. The film spawned a sequel, Hercules Unchained (Ercole e la Regina di Lidia) (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia), that also starred Reeves and Koscina.

Hercules made Reeves an international film star and effectively paved the way for the dozens of 1960s sword and sandal

Sword and sandal

Sword and sandal films, or pepla are a class of Italian-made Adventure film or fantasy films that have subjects set in Bible or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology or Greco-Roman history, or the surrounding cultures of the same era , etc....
flicks featuring oily bodybuilders as mythological heroes and gladiator

Gladiator

A Gladiator was a slave, criminal or professional fighter in ancient Rome. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of Spectator sport in cities and towns of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE....
s battling monsters, despots, and evil queens.

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Encyclopedia

Hercules (1958

1958 in film

The year 1958 in film involved some significant events....
) is an Italian

Cinema of Italy

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial Film distributor in Movie theater and being the "main attraction" of the screening ....
based upon the Hercules myths

Hercules

Golden Fleece

Steve Reeves

Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilding, actor, and author....
as the titular hero and Sylva Koscina

Sylva Koscina

Iole

Pietro Francisci

Sword and sandal

Gladiator

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
title is Le Fatiche di Ercole (The Labors of Hercules).

Source material

The film's screenplay is loosely based upon the myths of Hercules and the Greek epic poem Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius , early 3rd century BCE - after 246 BCE, was a librarian at the Library of Alexandria....
. In both myths and epic poem, Hercules' role in the Quest for the Golden Fleece is marginal; he abandons the expedition early-on when Hylas

Hylas

In Greek mythology, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. Other sources such as Ovid state that Hylas' father was Heracles and his mother was the nymph Melite, or that his mother was the wife of Theiodamus, whose adulterous affair with Heracles caused the war between him and her husband....
, his armor-bearer and eromenos
Eromenos

In the Pederasty in ancient Greece of Athens, the eromenos was an adolescence boy who was in a love relationship with an adult man, known as the erastes ....
, is lost on an island while searching for water. With Hylas conveniently absent in the film, Hercules' role is greatly expanded: he remains with the expedition for its duration, saves the Argo

Argo

In Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcus to retrieve the Golden Fleece....
from destruction in a storm, disciplines mutinous crew, and overwhelms enemy forces with brute strength in the film's finale. Twists on the sources include the introduction of Iole

Iole

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
as Hercules' protege, and Hercules' renunciation of his immortality

Immortality

Immortality is the concept of life in a body or soul for an infinite or inconceivably vast length of time.As immortality is the negation of mortality?not dying or not being subject to death?it has been a subject of fascination to human since at least the beginning of history....
in order to experience life as a mortal man.

Plot and cast

The film opens with Hercules (Steve Reeves

Steve Reeves

Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilding, actor, and author....
) on the road to the court of King Pelias

Pelias

Pelias was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, the son of Tyro, daughter of Aleus, and of either Poseidon or Cretheus. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias , or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion....
of Iolcus (Ivo Garrani

Ivo Garrani

Ivo Garrani is an Italy actor. In films since 1952, Garrani is possibly best known for his role as Prince Vajda in Mario Bava's Black Sunday ....
) to tutor Pelias' son Prince Iphitus (Mimmo Palmara) in the use of arms. Pelias' beautiful daughter Princess Iole (Sylva Koscina

Sylva Koscina

Sylva Koscina , born as Sylva Koskinon, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia-born Italy actress of Greece and Poland descent best remembered as Iole, the bride of Hercules in Hercules and Hercules Unchained ....
) 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

Fratricide

Fratricide is the act of a person killing his or her brother.Related concepts are sororicide , child murder , infanticide , filicide , patricide , matricide , mariticide and uxoricide ....
. Hercules and Iole are attracted to each other and a romance eventually develops.

King Pelias is warned by a seeress (Luciana Paluzzi

Luciana Paluzzi

Luciana Paluzzi , is an Italian actress. She is best known for playing SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth James Bond film Thunderball ....
) about a stranger wearing one sandal who will challenge his power. When his nephew Jason, the rightful King of Iolcus, (Fabrizio Mioni) arrives in town wearing one sandal, Pelias takes fright and packs him off to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis

Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
. Jason and Hercules sail aboard the Argo

Argo

In Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcus to retrieve the Golden Fleece....
with their friends Ulysses

Odysseus

Laertes

In Greek mythology, La?rtes was the son of Arcesius and Chalcomedusa. He was the father of Odysseus and Ctimene by his wife Anticlea, daughter of the thief Autolycus....
(Gabriele Antonini and Andrea Fantasia), Argos

Argos

Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, named for Nauplius ....
(Aldo Fiorelli), the twins Castor and Pollux

Castor and Pollux

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Leda and Zeus/Tyndareus , the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra and the half-brothers of Timandra , Phoebe, Heracles, Philonoe....
(Fulvio Carrara and Willi Colombini), the lyre-strumming Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary figure, probably from Thracian origin, venerated by the Greeks and Thracians of the Classical age as a chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes....
(Gino Mattera), the physician Aesculapius (Gian Paolo Rosmino) and others.

After weathering a tempest at sea, the Argonauts

Argonauts

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
dally in a lush garden-like country with Antea, the Queen of the Amazons

Amazons

The Amazons , ) are a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology, who were possibly historical. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatians....
(Gianna Maria Canale

Gianna Maria Canale

Gianna Maria Canale, is an Italy Actor....
) and her ladies (Gina Rovere and Lily Granado). 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 (Arturo Dominici

Arturo Dominici

Arturo Dominici was an Italy actor and dubbing artist.Born in Palermo, Dominici became best known for his many villainous roles in horror film and fantasy films....
) 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

Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived in Nemea. He was eventually killed by Heracles. The lion was usually considered the offspring of Typhon and Echidna , but it was also said to have fallen from the moon, offspring of Zeus and Selene....
and the Cretan Bull

Cretan Bull

In Greek mythology, the Cretan Bull was either the bull that carried away Europa or the bull Pasipha? fell in love with, giving birth to the Minotaur....
. Cast includes (Lidia Alfonsi) as Iole's Maid, (Afro Poli

Afro Poli

Afro Poli was an Italian operatic baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
) as Jason's mentor Chiron

Chiron

In Greek mythology, Chiron or Cheiron was held as the superlative centaur among his brethren. Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents....
, Aldo Pini as Tifi, Spartaco Nale and Paola Quattrini in the uncredited role of Young Iole.

Production notes

American producer Joseph E. Levine

Joseph E. Levine

Joseph E. Levine was an United States film producer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Carpetbaggers, Harlow , The Graduate and The Lion in Winter ....
acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film, and, due in part to his "saturation" promotional campaign (the film opened in 175 theaters alone in the New York City area), Hercules became a major box-office hit.

Reeves was an accomplished horseman, and did all his own horse stunts. His voice was not used however, and his lines were dubbed into whatever language was required for local distribution.

Merchandise

In America, the film generated a Dell

Dell Comics

Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973....
comic book adaptation with illustrations by John Buscema

John Buscema

John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an United States comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture Conglomerate ....
and a 33 RPM long-playing RCA Victor recording of the film's soundtrack.

Gallery

External links

at the Internet Archive
Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive site of the World Wide Web....
Retrieved 29 August 2008.