First of all, am I the only one who thought that the grey chin spinach they pasted on Vadis' face made him look way too much like Abraham Lincoln? I found it extremely distracting. Vadis is a handsome guy, with a nicely sculpted physique, although he does seem preoccupied and glum in most of his scenes.( Or maybe that's the beard.) But the beard absolutely pulls the focus from where it should be - his eyes and cheekbones - and makes his mouth and jaw fade away. Bad costuming choice. Second, the plot is your standard drunkard's walk/generic peplum , where things happen just because the writers didn't really know what to do next, because it had all been done to death. The dialog follows suit, although how much is this is the fault of the dubbing is hard to say. The stunts and fight scenes are staged fairly well, and are the real reason to watch the film.(Assuming you want to watch it at all) The acting is...serviceable. No one stinks on ice or anything, or looks as if they are reading from a teleprompter or cue cards. And the blocking and stage business works as well as you might expect.I assume the actor playing the comic relief has built a career doing this kind of thing. He's not funny at all (at least not that way he's dubbed), but he's mildly likable at least. There's no way a movie like this could go without comic relief, so they might as well use this guy. Doesn't mean I have to like it, or him. In short, this is another Hercules (or Argoles) movie. If that's how you want to fill your leisure viewing, well, here ya go. For what it's worth, it's not the worst one in the genre (that would be "The Loves Of Hercules" with a wildly miscast Mickey Hargetay), but not even as good as "Hercules vs the Moon Men.".

Since there were more Peplum extravaganzas than the U.S. market could absorb, television got into the act with a syndicated series called "The Sons of Hercules," which were 14 Italian Peplum not released theatrically in the U.S. that were re-dubbed as a loose series of 28 episodes with a catchy theme. "Hercules the Invincible" (Italian title: "Ercole l'invincibile") became "Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness," starring big Dan Vadis as the hero renamed Argoles, who was supposed to be one of the sons of Hercules. This is the only version I've seen, so I can't really comment on the Italian original, but based on the material as presented, I can't imagine it was any good. This is one of the worst in the Hercules series, even though it packs in plenty of action. Unfortunately, it is almost all uninspired, unimaginative and very cheap-looking, with lots of running about and lots of dead spots. This has one of the worst fights with a lion in any Peplum film -- director Alvaro Manori either didn't know how it was done, or didn't care to make it look vaguely realistic or threatening. None of the considerable number of action sequences build any suspense, nor are they staged and filmed in a way that offers any tension or excitement. Even the obligatory dance number is anemic, consisting mostly of women rolling around on the floor. The look of the film, and the set designs, are equally as unimpressive.The one thing this has going for it is large number of feats-of- strength opportunities for our hero (whatever you want to call him), and Vadis makes the most them, with the camera ogling and caressing his muscles. The biggest problem for Vadis is that he's sporting an extremely unflattering beard. This was his first of two times as Hercules. Perhaps someone thought that the best Hercules's -- Steve Reeves and Reg Park -- have beards, so Vadis should too. It was a colossal mistake in judgment. Despite the scruffy rug on his face, Vadis cuts an imposing figure as the legendary strongman. There's only one other moderately intriguing character in the whole movie, Maria Fiore as a conniving courtesan so desperate to become queen of the land Hercules invades that, once she achieves her goal she barely notices her kingdom falling down around her. But that's not enough to save this below-par entry in a genre that was rapidly becoming played out.

Hercules (Dan Vadis, who also played the role in "The Triumph of Hercules") saves a beautiful princess and, as a reward, he is offered her hand in marriage (which is great for both of them given that they're both nice people) but is also asked to help the royal family against their enemies. Next thing you know Herc is up to his neck in trouble rescuing his fiancé's entire people from an evil subterranean empire. An okay entry in the sword & sandal genre with some decent atmosphere (and some stock footage from the first Steve Reeves Hercules film), Dan Vadis is perhaps the film's greatest asset in addition to the beautiful women. Some may not like him for not being Steve Reeves or Reg Park, but the very nimble and agile lightning bruiser Vadis brings a Burt Lancaster level of energy to what would have otherwise been some fairly generic fight scenes, and he looks quite larger than life battling his way through an army of henchmen. And while he may have had to kill a lion (which looks pretty good since it really is Vadis wrestling the lion) he is nice enough to save a bear that got in his way. Weirdly enough, when the film came out in America it was re-dubbed as "Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness" with Herc being changed to Argolese, son of the Herc. An unusual choice to say the least.

Hercules the Invincible finds Dan Vadis cast as the demigod son of Zeus who saves the life of a princess by slaying a couple of lions. Her father is ever so grateful, but asks him if he could do just one more little job for him, slay a dragon and yank out a back tooth which is said to be charmed. Hercules takes the contract and the dragon is summarily dispatched.But while the dragon is being slain, some nasty dudes carry off the king, the daughter, and all other able bodied folks as slaves for their queen who lives inside a hollow volcanic mountain with her subjects. All they leave behind is John Simons who then becomes Hercules's companion.Simons is about as useful to Hercules as Pancho was to the Cisco Kid. But the reason he was left behind is he's hardly a valiant types. The men of the kingdom eat the hearts of the valiant in the belief it will increase their courage. This guy will put it in the negative.The rest of the film is concerned with the rescue with Hercules battling a bear, two elephants, and the volcano itself. He proves to be quite invincible. Simons provides some nice comic relief for the audience. The big guy is stoic throughout Simons's cowardly goofiness.Peplum fans should like this one.