Starring Alan Steel, Jany Clair, Anna Maria Polani, Nando Tamberlani, Delia D'Alberti
Directed by Giacomo Gentilomo
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Hercules journeys to a kingdom to help the people stand up to evil aliens who force the regular sacrifice of their children, and soon discovers the kingdom's queen is in league with the aliens.
Although not technically a Hercules film, this Italian-Franco co-production originally starred Steel (aka Sergio Ciani) as the Italian hero Maciste, but per Wikipedia, the hero was renamed to the more familiar Hercules for the U.S. release. It still fits in within the numerous familiar sword-and-sandal efforts that were popular releases in the 1960s, but stands out a bit due to its fantasy creatures, including an ape-like beast, giant men of stone, and the mysterious masked moon men. I'll admit a number of these sword-and-sandal efforts are sometimes difficult to sit through, but I felt less so watching this entry, and there's a most welcome fast paced sequence early on where Hercules goes through a series of deadly exciting challenges one after another. Unfortunately the film stages the action in the remainder of the film much more sparsely, but the final confrontation between Hercules and the giants of stone is still entertaining.
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