FIRE MONSTERS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1962)
aka Maciste contro i mostri
Article 2971 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-26-2009
Posting Date: 10-2-2009
Directed by Guido Malatesta
Featuring Reg Lewis, Margaret Lee, Luciano Marin
Country: Italy

The son of Hercules named Maxus comes to the aid of a primitive tribe of sun worshipers who are beset by evil moon worshipers.

Cool! Who wouldn’t want to see one of the sons of Hercules take on the dreaded fire monsters? What a great idea for a sword-and-sandal movie! But wait a second – where are the swords? Where are the sandals? It looks more like one of those club-and-loincloth movies to me! So what’s one of the sons of Hercules (and I know he’s one of them because he said so) doing in the prehistoric era, a time which predates Hercules? I was guessing that the son of Hercules here (named Maxus) must have borrowed Maciste’s tardis, but a quick look at the original Italian title of this one indicates that this Maxus personality is just a sham; this is the time-travelling Maciste himself.

Well, this is all secondary, of course – what we’re really waiting for is seeing this guy take on those fire monsters! So let’s see – he takes on a sea monster who doesn’t seem to have much of anything to do with fire. He battles hordes of cavemen who wear underwear underneath their loincloths (and believe me, you’ll be glad that they did), but I can’t really call these guys fire monsters. He looks at a slurpasaur for a few seconds, but we don’t hang around long enough to see if he breathes fire or anything, and they never fight anyway. He battles a prehistoric creature in a cave who has big teeth but seems noticeably lacking in fire. And then he… well, that’s about it really. If the truth be told, there are no fire monsters in this movie. I’m beginning to think someone just made up the title.

Oh, and there’s no evil queen, either, for those who are keeping score on such things.