Also known as: Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness
[ IMDB| Streaming (Amazon)| Streaming (Dailymotion) | Wikipedia ]
I started with Amazon’s video but got really distracted by how bad a print it was. It also appeared heavily cropped so I looked up the aspect ratio. Amazon’s was ~1 : 1 and it should be 2.35 : 1. Holy shit. Avoid. Dailymotion has a far superior copy with bright colors and the original aspect ratio, although the resolution may be a little low.
Dailymotion’s stream is also slightly superior because you can screencap images from the film.
Time-wise: there are 85 minute and 81 minute versions. Amazon’s is 80:22 and Dailymotion’s is 78:41. According to IMDB trivia, the time difference may be because Dailymotion has the Embassy Pictures release and that swapped out the original dragon scene with one from an earlier film.
- Director – Alvaro Mancori, also DP on Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961), Ulysses Against Hercules (1962) (which was directed by Mario Caiano of Tyrant of Lydia Against the Son of Hercules (1963)), and Hercules the Avenger (1965), plus tempting titles such as the Maciste Goliath and the Vampires (1961) and Slave Queen of Babylon (1963). Gotta stay focused on Hercules movies right now though.
- Dan Vadis – credited as Hercules but is actually called Argoles in the film. Also plays Hercules in Hercules vs. the Giant Warriors (1964), was in several spaghetti westerns and later in Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can (probably from the Clint Eastwood connection).
- Spela Rozin – Telca, the blonde (again) love interest
- Carla Calo – the evil Queen Etel of the kingdom of Demulus, entry in The Female Villains Wiki
- Ken Clark – the evil King Kebaol of same
- Maria Fiore – the more evil Melissa, daughter of the king and queen
- Jon Simons – Babar the comic relief
Notes:
- I love the matte paintings of the village on the hill, the set for the underground witch’s lair, and the moat of lava around Demulus. They shout: Technicolor!!
- Babar gets lots of screen time, so there’s more comedy than the other films I’ve watched.
- Fights with animals was almost a character in itself. Animals fought by Argoles: lion, bear, elephants
- Common feature: Women dancing a choreographed number for the court
- Common feature: When these movies end, they end rather quickly with just a short celebration (for this movie, Argoles and Telca staring happily into the distance).
- Common feature: Blonde love interest.
Story:
Telca, lounging under a tree with her mother, runs off and Argoles saves her from a lion (Maciste-moment). She is the daughter of King Tedaeo who tells him to win the hand of Telca he must battle dragon of the mountains and bring back the tooth of the dragon as proof.
Argoles ambles off and encounters a witch who resides in a firey cave lair. She gives him a spear that can kill the dragon but demands the smallest dragon tooth in return. He tells her he’s already promised it to King Tedaeo (does a dragon only have one tooth?) but she still gives him elaborate directions that ends at a tree with an amulet hanging from it. The amulet has magic, protective powers but will only work one time. He sallies out and end up at the tree with an amulet handing from it. The dragon appears and is quickly vanquished.
Meanwhile, soldiers from Demulus attack and burn down the village, enslaves the villagers, the king, and his daughter Telca. As the burning and mayhem proceeds, the movie’s comic relief, Babar, hides behind a barrel. We will see much more of him as the soundtrack switches to goofy cymbals, piccolo, and xylophone. when Argoles arrives he finds Babar who retells the events and that the Demulus soldiers like “eating the hearts of valorous men so that they too will become brave.” That’s trouble.
In Demulus, the prisoners are taken to Queen Etel who reviews them and selects Teica as her personal slave.
Argoles and Barbar set out to Demulus to rescue the captured king, queen, and villagers. On their way, Barbar periodically spies a bear follows them (a barely-disguised man in a bear suit, one of the few moments when an actual animal is not used) but as soon as he points it out to Argoles, the bear is gone. Classic. They encounter several traps on the way all consisting of arrows being shot out of nowhere. At the edge of a deep lava moat, unable to cross to the underground city, they hide as Demulus(-ite?) soldiers approach. Magically (or not) a stone outcropping becomes drawbridge and lowers to let them cross, raising after them. Argoles uproots a tree as a make-shift bridge but mid-crossing, to the vindication of Barbar, the man-in-a-bear-suit appears and Argoles makes quick work of him (Maciste-moment).
One in the underground city, the find Telca’s brother trapped and dying in quicksand/mud pit (“pit of slime”). He tells where the king is being held but expires soon after.
Argoles finds the slaves toiling in a mine (in a scene reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) but just as he does (also reminiscent …) the guards find him. The first Argoles-alone-vs-guards scene has him swinging a guard by his feet to knock down the other guards (Maciste-moment). The fight ends with Argoles trapped in magical ring of fire that the guards can walk through unharmed. After Argoles is captured, Barbar flees unnoticed and has escapades (more xylophone and chromatic scales) avoiding guards, stealthily swiping a leg of lamb, and eventually conking a guard on the head and stealing his uniform.
The queen and her court are entertained by women in leopard leotards dancing around a many-armed god while faintly Middle Eastern music (Phrygian mode?) is played. Argoles is captured and presented to Queen Etel who states she will have him torn apart by elephants and her warriors will “eat of his flesh” to gain his power. Whoever tears out his heart will become her commanding general. Argoles is chained between two elephants as the stadium onlookers cheer for him to be torn apart. Telca watches, horrified, as the queen’s slave; Barbar watches in in stolen guard outfit. Argoles prays to the God of the Sun and breaks his chains, both freeing himself and letting the elephants free to stampede (Maciste-moment). Argoles stops one of the elephants just before the queen is trampled and she grant him the “highest honors” and asks him to be her king.
While Argoles rests, Melissa (the daughter of the queen) visits and tells him that the queen is an evil influence and cannot be trusted. After she leaves, a mysterious figure places a bowl of incense in a corner of the room which eventually knocks him out. While the queen waits for him in her room, two slaves whisper that Telca is destined to be sacrificed so that the queen can take her eyes and gain their beauty. The slaves leave and while Queen Etel is alone, Melissa enters and kills her. When the queen is discovered, Melissa says that Telca did it in order to drink her blood and gain her beauty. She declares herself queen.
Babar finds Argoles passed out, wakes him, and they rush off to find the king and the others of the village who were enslaved. He frees them by bending the prison bars (Maciste-moment). He and the king go to Telca’s cell but she had already be taken away to be sacrificed by the queen. Melissa hears of the escape and sends guards after them. Babar sends them in the opposite direction of Argoles and eventually traps them in fire ring.
Argoles, Barbar, and Tedeo fight through soldiers and open the barriers that will eventually flood the city with lava. Barbar frees the other Demulus(-ian) slaves and they rush to the throne room to battle the guards. During the fight, the evil, vaguely Mongolian KebaolKing Tedeo is killed by while trying to free his daughter. The lava enters the throne room but Melissa refuses to leave, believing the amulet will protect her despite Argoles’s warning that–as the witch foreshadowed–it only works one time. She perishes, Argoles and Barbar lead the freed slaves to freedom, and the underground city collapses and is in destroyed by lava.
Outside, closeup of Argoles and Telca radiant and gazing into the distance.