Never heard of this film this morning (or March 2017, when I typed up this review), discovered while doing research in work by accident, honest, found it on YouTube, watched it. The wonders of the modern world never cease to amaze me. This is a Hercules film made by Italian master Mario Bava, starring Christoper Lee! It's good before you even start watching it. Bava is very clever when it comes to cinematography, so you get loads of trick camera shots, great use of colour, amazing sets, and the guy knows that no one comes to these films for acting or political subtext. We want to see Herc smash things up, dammit!Herc and his best mate Thesus return to Italian to find Christopher Lee in charge and Herc's missus out of her head, muttering and not noticing Herc is standing in front of her. Lee's all sympathetic even though he was keeping her in a coffin while murdering people he'd hired to kill Herc (by impaling them on about 20 spikes). Herc figures somehow that he has to go to Hades to retrieve Pluto's stone to help his missus, but to get to hell he'll need to get the golden apple of the Aiedes, and to get that he'll need to get a special boat off of someone else! Bava luckily just piles on the crazy special effects until we just roll with the film instead of trying to figure out what's going on.Herc gets his ship, gets to the Aiedes, makes a massive slingshot and gets his golden apple! Mean while his mates are being attacked by a huge monster made out of stone but that just gives Herc the chance to throw the monster through a wall, exposing the entrance to Hades!Oh, after some trials, Herc gets his stone, but his mate Thesus has fallen in love with Pluto's daughter Persephone, which leads to all sorts of misery for everyone. So Herc's got crazy Christopher Lee trying to sacrifice his missus, the God Pluto hating on everyone, his mate Thesus trying to cut him up, and worst of all, a bunch of flying zombie ghouls after him. That last one came out of nowhere but was most welcome as it gave Herc the chance to throw huge rocks around the place.600,000 times better than any other Hercules/Maciste film I've watched from the sixties (but nowhere near the insanity of the two Lou Ferringo eighties Hercules film), this one benefits largely from having a true expert behind the camera, and another, lesser expert by the name of Joe D'Amato backing him up. Joe of course will go on to forge his own legacy in film with the great self-gut munching classic Anthropophagus and the classic post-apocalyptic film Endgame (plus endless porn films).Two things: Christopher Lee gets burned to a crisp by the sun, just like the last film I watched him in, and after a rather bloody murder involving the slashing of a girl's neck, Lee's face is revealed in the resulting pool of blood EXACTLY like David Hemming's face is reflected in the blood of the killer at the end of Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso. Coincidence?

Not being a big fan of other Hercules films from the '60s I had seen, I wasn't excited to watch this one. But I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The reasons for why it is good can be attributed to director Mario Bava, who takes a flimsy story and brings it to life with rich visuals and an otherworldly atmosphere. Reg Park has muscles on top of muscles, which is pretty much all that's required of him for the part of Hercules. As others have pointed out, Christopher Lee is dubbed and that is pretty much criminal. However, Lee still has enough screen presence to do more with a look than lesser mortals could with two hours of dialogue. It's quite easily the best Hercules movie I've ever seen. I do like the camp value of the Ferrigno movies from the '80s but I don't think they are good for anything other than laughs. This film is a stylish and fun piece of entertainment for people who enjoy escapist fantasy movies. If your rear is sans stick, you should be able to find something to like about this.

Hercules in the Haunted World (1961) *** (out of 4) In order to save his love, Hercules (Reg Park) must travel to Hell and bring back a magical stone but even after returning he has another bad guy to face (played by Christopher Lee). When this was released to DVD several years ago, many came out of the woods to say how great this movie was and what magic it created. Well, the praise is overrated but there's no doubt director Bava could do miracles with small budgets. This is the first Hercules movie I've seen so I have nothing to compare it to but it's not too hard to believe that this is perhaps the best one made. The biggest problem with the film is its story, which is rather bland and at times there are large holes where not too much is going on. What does work is the brilliant work by Bava who creates a terrific looking world. The atmosphere is very rich and beautiful to look out and there are plenty of great scenes including the dead rising at the end to stop Hercules. Another great moment, and the highlight for me, is when Hercules must battle a rock monster. Park is pretty good in his role but I was bored by the supporting cast and that includes Lee who just comes off bland and not too much fun.

Definitely one of the better Hercules films with British born bodybuilder Reg Park (the man who trained Arnold Schwarzenegger) a better Hercules than most. Another thing that puts this one above most of the rest is the presence of British villain Christopher Lee, who's about three inches taller than Reg Park.In this one Hercules literally goes to Hell so that he can retrieve a magical rock thing that will save his girlfriend. From there he battles the usual assortment of monsters against a backdrop of atmospheric sets. This one's good for Halloween or any dark, misty night by the fireplace.