Hercules and the Captive Women is an Italian sword-and-sandals adventure starring Reg Park as the titular strong man. This escapade finds the mythical hunk landing on the shores of Atlantis and setting its captive people free. Along the way, he’ll battle all kinds of monsters and evil doers. Also known, more aptly, as Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis, this entry is directed by genre veteran Vittorio Cottafavi and co-stars Fay Spain and Ettore Manni.
Buy Hercules and the Captive Women from MovieZyngThe city states of Greece are being plagued by mysterious, disruptive events that force its rulers to act. As the kings dicker, Theban king Androcles (Manni) decides to assemble an army and take to the sea in search of this unknown foe. His plans are altered as no one will accompany the king on this fool’s errand. So Androcles colludes with Hercules son Hylas to kidnap him and set sail with a small band of collected scoundrels and cast offs.
Things get wacky after the crew mutinies and are left on a desert island. Out to sea again, the weather turns wild, sending our heroes crashing onto an unknown land. Hercules, now alone, finds a captive girl chained to a rock being kept by a shapeshifting entity that he must vanquish to set her free. Once this is accomplished, he discovers the lass is a princess from none other than the fabled Atlantis, whose coast he has crashed upon. To the city itself Herc must venture, not only to save his pals, who have also landed there and are now captives of the evil queen of Atlantis (Spain), who is devoted to a displaced god. Now Hercules must thwart her nefarious plans and destroy the cult of Uranus in the process.
Hercules and the Captive Women, though woefully mistitled, is a decent low-grade sword and sandals romp that would lead star Reg Park to assume the role twice more. From the title, one would expect more scantily clad Atlantean ladies. Alas, it’s a mixed bag of genders that are set free by old Herc. The plot has more holes than a sieve and the special effects consist of stuffed/taxidermy animals, visible wires on flying attack birds, guys in monster lizard suits, blonds wigs, and eye make up. Those elements aside, the sets and miniatures are fairly well done for this sort of affair: the Corinthian style helmets are cool looking and the locations are eye-catching. The dialogue, though not bad overall, gets funnier the more Uranus is used and one can’t help but laugh while thinking of all the jokes and puns the name lends itself to.
Buy Hercules and the Captive Women from AmazonHercules and the Captive Women is small-budget Saturday-matinee fare at its best and for 95 minutes, I was enthralled by the exploits of Park in the lead role. Thanks be to Zeus that the good people at Film Masters have restored this epic in HD for the free world to enjoy…without fear of Uranus.
