HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)
aka MACISTE E LA REGINA DI SAMAR
Article 1965 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date:8-1-2006
Posting Date: 12-29-2006
Directed by Giacomo Gentilomo
Featuring Sergio Ciani, Jany Clair, Anna Maria Polani

Hercules (aka Maciste) decides to help the oppressed populace of Samar do battle with an evil queen, who is sacrificing her subjects to some evil visitors from outer space.

Given Maciste’s well-established penchant for time travel, it should be no surprise to find out that he does battle with moon men at least once in his long career. However, despite the premise, this one has a surprise in store; it actually does take place in ancient times, where a man running around in a loincloth didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, that means the story relies pretty heavily on the tried-and-tested sword-and-sandal cliches, and there’s few surprises in the way the story unfolds. Still, this one is really heavy on the fantastic content, what with moon men, rock monsters, sacrifices and a long-toothed gorilla creature to round out the proceedings. This one moves at a pretty good pace; it jumps from one crisis to another with amazing speed, but it grinds to a halt at the oddest of times; about ten minutes before the movie ends, the movie gets mired in a sandstorm sequence that practically brings the story to a standstill. I think they were trying to build up suspense, but it just makes the action nearly indecipherable, and it doesn’t get back on track until the last three minutes of the movie. All in all, this is a fairly standard sword-and-sandal outing.