This is a peplum made during the heyday of the genre starring peplum regulars Gordon Mitchell and Chelo Alonso, and directed by Antonio Leonviola.
The plot has Queen Capys of Sadok sending her army to wipe out a neighboring village and murder King Agisandro, while also seeking to capture his only son to feed to the cyclops which lives in a cave on a nearby rocky island. The plan goes awry when a mortally wounded soldier escapes with the toddler and carries him to muscleman hero Maciste. After seeing to the tot's safety by leaving him with a shepherd, Maciste heads to Sadok to set things right. On the way he accidentally meets Capys, who he does not know, and saves her life. She falls for him at first sight.
The revenge motivation for Capys is that she is a descendant of Circe while Agisandro is a descendant of Ulysses, and the new cyclops a descendant of the old cyclops.
Director Leonviola took his peplum out of the rut by giving the usual wicked queen of these movies more complex motives than normal. Capys is utterly evil but is supposedly under a curse from which she desperately seeks to escape. This aspect was confusing to me. Several times she mentions she is a prisoner of an ancient curse, but at other times she seems willing to simply walk away from the curse and run off with Maciste. Whether Capys is on the up and up about her feelings for Maciste or cynically manipulating him remains in doubt until the end.
Gordon Mitchell hit his career breakout as Maciste, oddly called Atlas in the American title. He is stiff, and hard-faced for the kindly and naive Maciste, but does okay. He would later find his metier as a villain in all sorts of Euro genres. The sexy Chelo Alonso is Capys. Famed as a dancer, she does not dance in this movie, but has her best role as the conflicted villain.
Vera Silenti has little to do but scream as Agisandro's widow and the imperiled toddler's mother. Dante DiPaolo gives a good slimy turn as Capy's main henchman. The muscular Paul Wynter is another henchman.
This peplum provides what fans should enjoy. A sexy wicked queen. Despicable henchmen. A muscular hero doing all sorts of feats of strength, including killing a lion with his bare hands. A wrestling match between musclemen. A monster with solid make-up in the cyclops, played by a circus giant and photographed to look even taller. A final brutal showdown fight between the cyclops and the hero. A creepy lair for the cyclops. And of course slightly clumsy dancing girls.
This movie is obviously budget, but done with enough verve to be of solid interest to peplum fans.
The plot has Queen Capys of Sadok sending her army to wipe out a neighboring village and murder King Agisandro, while also seeking to capture his only son to feed to the cyclops which lives in a cave on a nearby rocky island. The plan goes awry when a mortally wounded soldier escapes with the toddler and carries him to muscleman hero Maciste. After seeing to the tot's safety by leaving him with a shepherd, Maciste heads to Sadok to set things right. On the way he accidentally meets Capys, who he does not know, and saves her life. She falls for him at first sight.
The revenge motivation for Capys is that she is a descendant of Circe while Agisandro is a descendant of Ulysses, and the new cyclops a descendant of the old cyclops.
Director Leonviola took his peplum out of the rut by giving the usual wicked queen of these movies more complex motives than normal. Capys is utterly evil but is supposedly under a curse from which she desperately seeks to escape. This aspect was confusing to me. Several times she mentions she is a prisoner of an ancient curse, but at other times she seems willing to simply walk away from the curse and run off with Maciste. Whether Capys is on the up and up about her feelings for Maciste or cynically manipulating him remains in doubt until the end.
Gordon Mitchell hit his career breakout as Maciste, oddly called Atlas in the American title. He is stiff, and hard-faced for the kindly and naive Maciste, but does okay. He would later find his metier as a villain in all sorts of Euro genres. The sexy Chelo Alonso is Capys. Famed as a dancer, she does not dance in this movie, but has her best role as the conflicted villain.
Vera Silenti has little to do but scream as Agisandro's widow and the imperiled toddler's mother. Dante DiPaolo gives a good slimy turn as Capy's main henchman. The muscular Paul Wynter is another henchman.
This peplum provides what fans should enjoy. A sexy wicked queen. Despicable henchmen. A muscular hero doing all sorts of feats of strength, including killing a lion with his bare hands. A wrestling match between musclemen. A monster with solid make-up in the cyclops, played by a circus giant and photographed to look even taller. A final brutal showdown fight between the cyclops and the hero. A creepy lair for the cyclops. And of course slightly clumsy dancing girls.
This movie is obviously budget, but done with enough verve to be of solid interest to peplum fans.