Hercules Unchained [Ercole e la regina di Lidia] **½ (1959, Steve Reeves, Sylva Koscina, Sylvia Lopez, Primo Carnera) – Classic Movie Review 923

Co-writer/director Pietro Francisci’s inevitable 1959 sequel to his and Italy’s 1957 international blockbuster hit Hercules brings muscleman Steve Reeves back with Sylva Koscina’s Iole, now the bride of Hercules, to fight the wicked Queen Omphale of Lydia (Sylvia Lopez), the giant Antaeus (boxing star Primo Carnera) and a few assorted tigers.

Unfortunately, on the way to negotiating peace between two brothers contesting the throne of Thebes, Hercules drinks from a magic spring, becomes an amnesiac and is seduced by evil Queen Omphale in her pleasure gardens. Young Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini), son of Laertes, tries to help him regain his memory, but it all gets tense in Thebes and his new wife Iole is soon in mortal danger.

Simple, dated, escapist action adventure fantasy entertainment it may be, but it’s still quite good fun, and well produced and photographed (by cinematogapher/director cult name Mario Bava), with many of the personnel of the movie before.

Ennio de Concini is co-writer, from the screen story by Francisci, basing it Sophocles’s story. Original title: Ercole e la Regina di Lidia.

Reeves made 16 such pictures over the next decade, including The Giant of Marathon and Goliath and the Barbarians. He died in May 2000, aged 74.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 923

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