Sixties Italian Sword n' Sandal movies

[Esperanto Lives]

The trouble with a lot of professional wrestlers and bodybuilders is, they always have great bodies, but few are very handsome or charismatic. That's why Italian Gladiator movies are fun: they have very good looking, heroic muscle guys that really do look like Greek gods.

Steve Reeves is obviously the most famous, but for my money, Gordon Scott was the best Tarzan of all. It's such a shame Gordon Scott died last year; he didn't go to heaven, he went somewhere much, much better. Ditto for Reg Park.

Some of the most unintentionally hilarious are the redubbed movies featuring Italian cinema staple Maciste. They always have one scene where the camera does this insane close-up on our beefcake, oiled up hero's muscles as he strains against some charmingly overenginneered, torturous deathtrap, like a pair of elephants pulling against two closing steaks.

The most spectacular feats are in SON OF SAMSON with the hunky Mark Forest, where he helps build the pyramids, one oiled up slave torso at a time.

My all-time hilarious favorite is SON OF HERCULES AGAINST THE MOLE MEN. All these Maciste movies are pretty much alike: the villain is usually some woman that looks like your Mom when she was young and hot, with Amy Winehouse-level campy eye makeup.

There's also HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS, which is about as historically accurate as ABRAHAM LINCOLN AGAINST THE MONGOLS.

Best of all, most of these movies are now public domain, so you can get them in giant sets.

Amazon.com: Warriors 50 Movie Pack Collection: Movies & TV: Gordon...
This one has over 50 Spaghetti muscleman movies. I recommend it. Also, thanks to Retromedia, they also just made available bizarre little movies like THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS, which has Gordon Mitchell, a muscleman with a hunky face like a craggy cowboy actor.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! That's my pulse.

[Shadow69]

not surprised that you posted about this, my friend, after the conversations we have had.

those Italian sword and sandal had some pretty buff men in them and some incredibly wacky and far fetched storylines.

Hercules vs Zorro may have to be the most out there.

but if you want a great example of the genre, see if you can find Hercules Returns -an Australian comedy that redubs the old film Hercules vs Samson and turns it into a massively funny film.

[V.R.Goh]

That gives me an idea for one of my stories. Thanks for bringing up those sword n' sandal movies. They make great inspiration

[tpumper]

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/hercules.html

Above is a great website with a listing of the men who played Hercules and such in these "sword and sandal" movies....

you can also search for beefcake and find a great listing of other well toned actors....

[Esperanto Lives]

It's worth noting a lot of these guys, like Reg Lewis, Mickey Hargitay, and Gordon Mitchell showed up in Mae West's reviews, some of the first bodybuilder stories ever. She lived out the sexpot dream of being surrounded by a harem of loinclad-wearing bodybuilders, presumably fanning her and bringing her drinks with umbrellas in them.

My all-time favorite peplum star was Mark Forest...he seemed to be the only one of the muscleboys to have anything like a sense of humor.



There was also hunky Paul Wynter, who appeared in SONS OF HERCULES AGAINST THE MOLE MEN as Maciste's sidekick:





One of the weirder of the Maciste movies implied that Maciste magically forms from the earth and stone itself wherever he is needed. This is patently false, because if so, he would have appeared in my apartment after my last relationship ended.



Well, not to pimp out my own stuff but ARMS OF STEEL was pretty much a Sword n' Sandal movie with some growth/body switch thrown in:

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7602

I've yet to be able to find any of the silent-film era Maciste adventures, but apparently they're much darker: Maciste is a Carthaginian slave longing to be reunited with his Roman master. The scene where Maciste pushed a wheel for ten years supposedly was the inspiration

But the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 spoof of HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN was the first episode of that I ever saw.



Anyway, the movies are good watching for relaxation. Just pour yourself a glass of wine and watch the muscle guys.

[tarmangani]

I agree with Esperanto, Gordon Scott was one of the better Tarzans. I remember seeing him in "Tarzan's Fight for Life" and it was unforgetable. Toward the end of the film, Tarzan is captured by a warring tribe of natives. After being knocked unconscious, the apeman is tied to a yoke across his shoulders. This showed how huge Gordon's arms and chest really were. After parading their muscular captive through the village by a rope around his neck, the tribesmen imprison Tarzan in a hut. Positioning him between two poles, the yoke was hooked over two high placed pegs in the dwelling's supports. With his feet barely touching the ground, Tarzan's body is on full display. Hanging from the yoke, you could see the superb developement of Gordon's arms, chest, abs and legs. A great specimen of male muscle. I've been impressed by other actors such as Lex Barker, Mike Henry and Miles O'Keefe as they've prowled the jungles clad in only a loincloth. However, the strongest cinema image I have of the apeman is Gordon Scott held bound and captive with his physique on exhibition like no other Tarzan before or since.

[Esperanto Lives]

Originally Posted by tarmangani

I agree with Esperanto, Gordon Scott was one of the better Tarzans. I remember seeing him in "Tarzan's Fight for Life" and it was unforgetable. Toward the end of the film, Tarzan is captured by a warring tribe of natives. After being knocked unconscious, the apeman is tied to a yoke across his shoulders. This showed how huge Gordon's arms and chest really were. After parading their muscular captive through the village by a rope around his neck, the tribesmen imprison Tarzan in a hut. Positioning him between two poles, the yoke was hooked over two high placed pegs in the dwelling's supports. With his feet barely touching the ground, Tarzan's body is on full display. Hanging from the yoke, you could see the superb developement of Gordon's arms, chest, abs and legs. A great specimen of male muscle. I've been impressed by other actors such as Lex Barker, Mike Henry and Miles O'Keefe as they've prowled the jungles clad in only a loincloth. However, the strongest cinema image I have of the apeman is Gordon Scott held bound and captive with his physique on exhibition like no other Tarzan before or since.

What always amazed me about Gordon Scott's physique is how top-heavy he seems to be. His waist is small, but his shoulders and chest are so very wide; he must have a very different center of gravity to balance all that! It's like his torso is cone shaped.

I've argued that TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE is the best of all the Tarzan movies. Scott's Tarzan was articulate and a little on the crazy side of things.

Ron Ely was the handsomest Tarzan, I think. It's funny: my Dad used to tell me he watched Star Trek on opening night...but NOT for Trek! It premiered the same night as the Ron Ely show and he stuck around to see the space show. Of the two, he expected Tarzan to be the one that stuck around.

Oddly enough, both shows had the beautiful Nichelle Nichols. If Tarzan ever got a third season, I get a feeling Tarzan'd have beaten Trek to the punch for that first televised interracial kiss. Nichelle was hot for Ron Ely's bod like he was made of white mocha. And can you blame her?

[tarmangani]

I agree with you Esperanto. "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" and "Tarzan The Magnificent" were better scripts and were closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs' original concept of the apeman. Still, for visual impact I'll stick by my comments about "Tarzan's Fight for Life". Having seen Ron Ely's Tarzan thanks to syndicated re-runs, he is impressive. Yet his predecessor Mike Henry was a better specimen of muscularity. I still remember the impact Henry made after being fully clothed for the first twenty minutes of his first film and then emerging from a hut in a loincloth briefer than ever worn before. Instead of trying to make Tarzan into James Bond, the producers should have taken advantage of the make-up technology of "Planet of the Apes" that came out about the same time. Some of ERB's Opar storylines could have been explored. Imagine Henry's classicly powerful physique pitted against the half man/half simian inhabitants of a civilization that never "evolved". More than once the stories have Tarzan taken captive as a sacrificial victim. Imagine Mike Henry, who's body has been likened to those sculpted by Michaelangelo, chained to a blood stained altar and straining to break free while under the dagger of the cruel and beautiful high priestess, La.