WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Hercules (1983) 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.520 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.480 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick and Rob. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.160 I am so excited for the movie you picked today 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.000 because it is our very first Weird House Cinema leather 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.760 diaper barbarian movie. Uh that I can't believe it's taken 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.839 us this long to do one, because the LDBM is 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.040 a almost perfect subgenre, well suited to two. I think 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.960 our sort of knowledge bases and and tastes and and 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.879 one of my favorite things about the leather diaper movies 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.440 of the eighties is yes, they you know, they have 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.600 a basis in the sort of Conan thing. You'll have 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.160 a strong guy with muscles wearing a loincloth. He carries 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.440 a sword or an axe, or maybe he just wrestles 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.320 or something. But what I love about the movies like 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.480 this from the eighties is that they so will often 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.600 start mixing genres in a in a bizarre, haphazard, almost 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.520 blindfolded way. So the pinnacle of this, I think I've 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.720 mentioned on the show before is a movie called Your 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:16.080 Hunter from the Future, in which a Conan type guy 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.480 muscle dude in leather diaper uh does battle at the 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.280 end of the movie with Darth Vader. But this one 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.560 we're going to be talking about today is in fact 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:29.920 a Hercules movie where Hercules fights robots. Yes, this is 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:35.240 um okay, so it's definitely a sword in Sandals muscleman movie. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.119 But it is also very spacey in a way that 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.240 that doesn't quite uh, it doesn't go so far as 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.160 to say this is science fiction Hercules. Um it. It's 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.080 still grounded in some sort of mythic sensibilities and in 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.400 an idea that we're we're in antiquity, but everything is 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.200 also just totally Oh I was thinking of it. It's like, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.120 what if Hercules in stories of Hercules were just totally 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.240 Italian space disco, but without the Italian space disco music, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.359 but just that sense of like glittering, sparkling cosmos and 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:16.000 sweat and uh yeah it's in sexuality and and so forth. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.280 That's that's what this movie feels like. It also has 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.120 that Italian disco sci fi sense of it's a movie 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.600 where they don't even try to hide the strings and 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.840 the special effects shots, so you'll see, like, you know, 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.240 there's the jar from which all creation emerges when it 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.760 explodes in space. And so they have a special effects 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.080 shot where there's a jar floating in the starfield and 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.520 then it blows up, but then you see pieces of 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.080 it are just dangling from strings and they leave it 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.240 in the shot, and yeah, I high five for that. Yeah. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.960 The the effects in this film are ambitious but often imperfect, 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.160 but in a way that has a real charm to it. 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.680 You know. Um, I won't say that many of the 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.799 effects in this movie look great, but I did enjoy them. Yes, 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.120 they're very enjoyable there, and they're often different from like 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.880 you go into a film like this and you expect, uh, 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.720 you know, special effects that don't quite knock it out 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.880 of the park. But but this one, it goes in 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.160 some directions you don't really expect. There's a lot of 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:23.560 sort of transparencies and a lot of things sparkling and 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.520 sort of exploding with electronic synth that you you're not 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.160 expecting to explode like that. It's uh, it's a lot 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.239 of fun. Oh but there's another thing we haven't even 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:37.800 mentioned yet. So so this is Hercules three, starring lou 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.960 Ferrigno as Hercules. Uh, you might know from from playing 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:43.960 the Hulk on the old TV show, though I never 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.400 saw him in that. I think I know him mainly 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.360 from the movie Pumping Iron, which is a documentary in 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.440 which he just plays himself at a like the you know, 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.440 the weightlifting competitions, and in that he's sort of the 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.600 underdog character and he's squaring off against Darnald Schwarzenegger and 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:05.280 they're both pumping and explaining why they pump better. And uh. 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.800 But anyway, so this is Hercules starting loufer Rigno. But 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.200 this is also a Canon Films picture. This is a 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.400 Golden Globus movie. Uh. And so whenever you see the 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.760 Cannon Films logos, certain things that suggests something about the 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.600 flavors that are going to follow. You know. Canon Films 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.839 is famous for in this period in the eighties, making 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.000 movie after movie that are in the genre that I 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.599 would call poster. First, you have a poster before you 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.800 have a script. And the poster is almost always a 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.599 guy with a machine gun and then some other things 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:44.080 in the background, right right, Yeah, there's often a very 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.960 very macho feel, a very just just all things eighties. Uh. 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.560 Wound up in again a Cannon film, and I can't 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.440 remember if we've actually covered a cannon film on here before. Um, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.640 but I'm sure if this is the first, it won't 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.400 be the last. Oh surely not. Oh but okay, so, yes, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:06.200 hercules three cannon films. It is at its heart, Yes, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.000 it is a muscle guy movie, absolutely a shining jewel 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.800 and the long cinematic tradition of muscle man movies. The 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.200 basic principle of these films is, of course, you usually 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.719 have just a a bare chested muscleman hero who must 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.159 battle evil and save the day, generally with just his 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.000 brute strength. Um. The flavor is generally mythic, you know, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.040 sword and sandal, comic book stuff. Uh. You know, sometimes 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.880 it goes in more of a sci fi direction. For example, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.960 uh movies we have covered on Weirdolt Cinema, Hands of 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.719 Steel and Arena. Those are both, to a certain extent 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.520 muscle man movies we both have, especially Hands of Steel. 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.080 But but for the most part we're dealing with stuff 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:48.880 that's more more sword and sandals, sort of strongman uh shenanigans. 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.320 You cast a bodybuilder and then you just watch the 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.320 movie come to life around that. Zeke right, Um, I 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.280 do agree that that is the heart of it is 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.200 like a character who must use their brute string in 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.359 order to defeat the villain. So they're swinging a sword, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.400 or they're wrestling, or they're wielding a hammer. You know, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.120 it's the barbarian type, the Hercules type. But there was 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.000 a strange phenomenon in the eighties. I'm sure you'll know 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.720 immediately what I'm talking about, where the Muscleman movie and 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.240 the guy with the machine gun on the poster movie 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.400 sort of merged. A great example of this is Commando 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.919 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, where the premise of the movie is 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.080 that the hero is a man who shoots guns at 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.080 the bad guys, but they also just get a bodybuilder 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.400 to play him. So the main characteristic of the hero 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.400 is that he is, you know, eight hundred pounds of 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:41.240 stiff beef, but he also just like you know, uses guns. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.320 Yeah yeah. And it's important to to note the sort 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.360 of bodybuilder turned actor thing, the the sort of non 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.040 actor that's brought into play the character in these roles. Um. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.599 I feel like it is really vital to the whole 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.960 recipe for success here. Like you you don't want uh, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.159 you know, too much of a as being in there, 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.719 no matter how muscular they are. You know. That's why 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:05.880 I just I could only be so interested in the 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.960 idea of the Rock playing Hercules, and the more recent 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.680 Hercules movie, The Rock is great. Dwayne Johnson is a 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:17.000 is a really really solid action star, and he's huge. 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.400 He's huger now than ever before physically. But I feel 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.320 like he's too good of an actor to play Hercules. 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.960 You know that that's kind of yeah, that's a good point. Um. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.400 I think you could make a case that Arnold Schwarzenegger also, though, 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.800 has a lot of natural screen charisma. But one thing 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.960 about this movie, uh, that I like is that so 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.720 you got lufer Igno as Hercules, and he I don't 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.080 want to be mean, but he's not good. He's not 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.680 acting really in this and but he works in the 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.640 role because I think somehow, the worst the actor is like, 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.640 the less screen charisma they have, the easier it is 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.840 for them to come off like an underdog, even though 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.640 they are eight hundred pounds of hard beef. So this guy, 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.400 you know, he's just a wall of muscle, and he 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.720 might look kind of like a bully beating up on 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.000 the bad guys, except that he's kind of awkward and 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.720 and doesn't say his lines in a very natural way, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.320 and that gets you on his side somehow. Yeah, you 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:15.520 don't want him to be too confident or you know, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.720 to have that confidence actually shine through in the performance. 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.800 So yeah, a lot of these don't mention a few examples. Yeah, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.800 a lot of these movies come about with a non 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.240 actor muscle man. It's you know, pulled out of generally 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.520 out of the bodybuilding world, and and is you know, 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.600 they strapped the rockets to him, and sometimes they assent 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.679 like Arnold as an example of that. Arnold, I guess 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.080 arguably gets better at acting as his career uh proceeds. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.880 But I was looking back at Michael Weldon's um in 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.319 the Psycontronic video and film Guides his right up for 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.640 the original Conan movie, and he referred he he kind 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.360 of pans it. He's kind of like, it's you know, 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.680 it's it's it's it's another Dino film. It's you know, 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.880 it's all excess. It's um, it's non actor Arnold Schwarzenegger 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.600 punching a camel. And that's the only memorable moment in 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.600 the film. I mean, it is hard to forget the 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.600 camels yeah, I mean, ultimately, ultimately I disagree with with 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.160 with Welton in this, but he was looking at it 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.000 like more or less around the time of the release too. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.000 But but another great thing about Hercules is that it 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.520 doesn't require the hero to do much acting. I mean, 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.640 Hercules doesn't really need to say a lot in this movie. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.240 Many of the scenes are him sort of being led 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.400 around by other characters and and instructed to do things, 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.600 and then he does them right, you know, usually brute 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.640 strength pretending to pick up a giant syrophone boulder, but 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.600 doing so in a way that really like shows off 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.480 the muscles and uh. And of course as a director 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.440 you have to make sure all those muscles are are 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.040 are lit and and oiled appropriately, so there's a real 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:56.000 art to it. What was the lotion budget for this movie? Yeah? Um. Now, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.920 if you're interested in a deeper dive into the history 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.679 of muscle than I have to recommend a book I 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.319 was looking at. I didn't get a chance to to 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:04.560 to pick it up and read it and do a 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.720 deeper dive. But it's titled Descended from Hercules, Biopolitics and 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.800 the Muscled Male Body on Screen by film scholar Robert 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:16.000 a Rushing, Um, this looks like a really interesting read 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.160 because I think it it looks like it gets into 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.240 a lot of the questions, not only the history of 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.760 these movies, but also what does it mean when you 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.080 take a body like this and you you you you 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.040 put it on the big screen and you make it 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.280 be like the center of like truth and justice and 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:37.880 you know, all admirable qualities in hypertrophy. Very tas Yeah, alright, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.720 So the muscleman movie eventually grows to include such films 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.680 as Conan the Barbarian Beast Master. H three hundred would 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.800 be a more recent muscleman movie. It's not centered so 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:52.160 much around one muscle man, but like all muscleman I guess, uh, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.320 and you might well guess that. Well, I guess all 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.679 of this began with the mythic Hercules, right, I mean 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.920 he's been a popular figure, uh you know since antiquity. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.560 I mean he was he was you know, a Roman sensation. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:07.079 He's the equivalent of the Greek Heracles. But the interesting thing, um, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:08.920 and this is something that the Rushing points out in 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.720 his book, of course, is that muscleman movies begin actually 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.680 with another figure, one that I'd never heard of. Until 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.480 I started reading Michael Weldon's psychatronic film Guides, and that's 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:24.640 um uh Machista this, um this, This is the original 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:29.960 Italian cinema muscle man. So a lot of the movies 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:34.319 that I've always thought of as Hercules movies were actually 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.120 uh Maschist or mashi ste movies that were like retitled 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:43.400 for American audiences with with Hercules or they give him 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.440 some other muscleman name like Sampson or something. Right, Yeah, 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.160 but Motista was the original. And apparently this just means 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.440 it's kind of like machiese mo, you know, so it 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.520 basically means the macho man. The film that apparently kicked 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.400 all of this off was nineteen fourteens Uh Ken Area. 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:05.000 This was directed by Giovanni Pastrone. This is an epic 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.040 set during the Second Punic War, based loosely on Gustav 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.840 Laberts eighteen sixty two novel Uh Salambo, which I've never read. 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.600 I have a beautiful paperback copy of it on myself 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.600 that I've never actually read it. Oh interesting, some nineteen fourteen. 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.559 This goes way back. This goes way back. This is like, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.880 this is legitimately one of the oldest and most popular 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:33.559 figures hero figures in cinematic history. So this wouldn't make 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.200 sense though, that muscle man movies would go back to 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.200 silent film times or even this far back. But you know, 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.320 back to a time when I mean in the early 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.000 days of film. A lot of what they were putting 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.960 on film was not like dialogue driven narratives, but it 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.640 was something that they thought would be interesting to look at. Yeah. Yeah, Now, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.440 this first film, though, um Caberria, was apparently a huge 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.040 hit and was also highly stylish. You look at you 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.000 can look up skills with this or even footage of it, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.640 I believe where you see like these epics sets. It 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.040 was a true sword and sandals epic that influenced a 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.240 number of different filmmakers of the silent era. It's regarded 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.200 as a Silent era classic. But it also had this 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.040 character who I don't even think it's like the central character, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.840 but he's the He's the huge muscular slave to the 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:22.319 Roman spy of Fulvious who is on a spying mission 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.920 to Carthage. I believe in this film, and uh, and 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.440 people really connected with this here, like who is this 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.720 big muscular guy. He's the breakout character. He's the Boba 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.120 fette of this movie. It's like I want, I want 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.120 to know more about Mashi Stay. I want the muscle guy, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.319 so Maschi Stay in. This was played by um um 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:45.679 Barto Lomeo Pagano who lived eighteen seventy eight through ninety seven. 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.360 Um he was a stevedore who was like discovered, Like 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.320 they see him and they're like that guy that is 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.040 our our machis day. Uh. They hauled him in and 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.640 they cast him in the role, and he goes on 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.480 to play Machies Stay almost exclusively for the rest of 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.760 his career. All told, we're talking thirty films in which 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.760 he plays ms she Stay out of a thirty two 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:10.400 film filmography over the course of fourteen years, I believe. So. Also, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.240 when this guy hits it big, no previous acting experience, right, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.080 no previous acting experience, and and he just started like 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.440 he stuck with what works here, I'm seeing a trend 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.440 of like nearly a century now. Yeah. So uh, Pagano 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:30.240 becomes get those muscles in front of the camera. So 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.600 Pagano he becomes an international film starck. These ma She 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.479 Stay films are a big hit, though they're often retitled 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.080 in foreign markets. So the character becomes known, at least 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:46.440 for subsequent films as Hercules or Samson, you know, the 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.360 the biblical character or the other Biblical character that you 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.000 might think of when you think of intense physical strength Goliath. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.920 That's a strange choice because wasn't Goliath the villain of 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.000 the story in the Bible that he was the philistine 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.960 and soldier who David had to defeat. Even though David 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.880 was smaller, he beat him by using his wits by like, 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.000 I mean weakness. It's only one of the you know, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.240 the most famous um like Old Testament stories, right, I mean, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:17.360 it's always makes for a great great illustrations and works 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.680 of art, cinematic treatments. George Eastman played Goliath and one 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:26.080 adaptation we might remember huh, but so but it didn't matter, like, 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.920 oh yeah, Goliath, he's our hero now, yeah, yeah. I 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.800 mean when a character is that muscular, I guess, and 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.360 that's strong, how can he be anything other than the 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.280 hero of a picture. By the way, this also reminds 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.200 me of how in so many of the Al Santo 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:44.080 movies were were relabeled as Samson for foreign markets. So 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:45.760 just I don't know a strong name, I don't know 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.120 if they just won't want to get people in there. Now, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.360 the character machis Day would live on long after Pagano retired, 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.000 appearing throughout the sixties and even the seventies. I think 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.040 he shows up in some Jeff Franco movies. But Machistay 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.080 w basically just going to fight various villains and monsters. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.320 He doesn't need to be part of a more epic plot. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.640 He's just here to do good and fight evil. He 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.200 travels to the underworld. Like I think, there's basically a 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.840 much he Stay Inferno movie. I don't know how much 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:18.520 um of of Dante's original text is actually involved there 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.200 and in that, but but he he apparently goes to 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.560 the inferno. But he's often played in subsequent films by 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.960 bodybuilders turned actors. Now as far as the muscleman movie 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.280 Timeline goes. I could be wrong about this, but I 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.520 remember having an impression that these got huge in Italy 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.560 and then subsequently around the world and like the sixties. 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.160 Am I right about that? Yes, And that's where we 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.160 actually see the first Hercules movies where it's not just 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.960 a retitle at Hercules, but let's make a movie about Hercules. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.000 Um So you have you have an actor who had 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.040 also played Muchi's stay, Mark Forrest take on the role 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.800 in nineteen sixties Revenge of Hercules, and this was an 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.320 Italian film. And after that, more and more herk movies 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.479 get made, including oh, this one is attractive given all 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:09.040 that we've talked about. Nineteen sixty four's Hercules, sampson Um 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.600 Machista and Ursus the Invincibles. So you get like four 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.200 different strong men all teaming up to battle evil. And 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.240 that one and this was sixty four. It is the 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:24.040 Expendables of nineteen sixty four. Yeah, And of course from 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.919 then on we have various actors up, generally like very 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.719 very often bodybuilders turned actors playing the role Alan Steele, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.920 Steve Reeves already mentioned, Mark Forrest, uh and various others. 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.200 You know, Brian Thompson would go on that would would 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.000 plaim at least once. This is of course, the big 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.399 muscular dude who was one of the Punks and Terminator 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.959 and also played Shao Khan in the second Mortal Kombat movie. 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:54.120 Um oh, that one was good. You get you get 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.880 Kevin Sorbo of course playing him on screen. You get 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.560 the rock taking a shot at it, and also it 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.600 should be should be noted Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh yeah, so 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.800 this was an interesting coincidence we were pointing out. So 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.280 in this movie, Hercules is played by Luferigno, and I'm 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.760 right in saying this is his first movie. This was 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.280 Luferrigno's first feature film, I believe. So, yes he had 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.600 of course, he had done Hulk already, so he'd done 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.199 Hulk in various TV appearances. But this was this was 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.720 the rocket that was going to propel Luferignou into the 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:28.359 cinematic stratosphere. And also Arnold Schwarzenegger's first screen role was 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.159 playing Hercules in the nineteen seventy movie called Hercules in 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.120 New York, which I have seen but I remember almost 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.120 nothing about except that it was almost unwatchable boring. Did 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:43.280 have Robert England in it? Am I remembering that? Correct? That? 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.560 If so, I've forgotten about that. I watched this in 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.720 college and I remember it being like hard to hear 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.000 what anybody was saying in it. But yeah, but oh, 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.800 but the premises, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a muscle guy and 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.280 he's Hercules, and the gods send him down to New 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.280 York for some reason. So he's just running around in 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.200 modern New York at the Fish out of Water, Fish 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.199 out of Time, Shenanigan's inside. I'm sure. Yeah, all right, Well, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.480 shall we go ahead and hear the trailer for Hercules. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.720 From the depths of Space comes the Strongest Man on 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:30.680 Earth in the super adventure Odyssey, Hercules. The Incredible Loon 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:39.200 for Rigno is Hercules in the battle with unearthly teachers. Hercules, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:45.960 the superhuman human with the strength of an army, Hercules 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:54.480 facing love and the bewitching forces of evil. The Incredible 0:19:54.680 --> 0:20:00.520 Moon for Rigno is Hercules. Go Lion Globus production from 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.240 the Kinnon Group. This is a pretty good trailer. I 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.399 have to admit, I don't think I actually watched it, 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:08.920 so I don't know what you just heard. We'll take 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.480 my word for this one. This one is Zeus approved. Well, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.760 if it's the Zeus in this movie, I don't know 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:15.680 if it's going to be that hard to get approved. 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.000 Because this is a kind of a kind of groovy, 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.080 hands off Zeus who who may be about to take 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.520 a nap? Yeah, yeah, this is a this is a 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:36.080 snoozer of a Zeus. All right, let's start at the 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.600 top with this one. Uh. The writer director on this 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:45.080 one is Luigi Cotzi, writer and director still making films today, 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.879 Italian director, probably best known for this film and also 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:53.000 it's sequel, as well as his frequent work with Dario Argento. 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.600 I did not know this movie had a sequel. Is 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.480 lufer Igno also in it? Yes? And I was reading 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:01.600 like mixed counts on whether he was like sort of 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.440 tricked into doing a sequel, Like they were filming stuff 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.040 for another film and they're like, let's make it a 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.919 sequel sequel. I'm not sure. I can imagine them just 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:13.720 repurposing his shots from this movie and and making a 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.520 sequel around them, because a lot of the scenes with 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.280 Louferigno in this movie primarily feature Luferigno doing reaction shots 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.600 rather than talking. Uh so you so it's another character 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.600 talking and then him just making a blank face into 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.879 the camera. Yeah. So I'm saying you could use that 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.520 with pretty much anything. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. He looks at something, 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:39.239 he reacts, he runs down a tunnel, and then he 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.000 lifts something. Um now, uh, let's talk a little bit 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.399 more about Cozy here. His first film was the nineteen 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.960 six nine low budget adaptation of Frederick Paul's novella The 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.680 Tunnel Under the World, which apparently got Dario Argento's attention, 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.600 and he subsequently worked with our Gento on Four Flies 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.719 on Gray Velvet, earning a story credit. He also has 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:05.439 a story credit on Argentos three action comedy The Five Days. 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.080 He goes on to direct his own Jalo film with 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:14.080 ninety five The Killer Must Kill Again. But then from 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.480 there he really goes on to cement his place in 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:21.040 cinematic history, writing and directing such epic Italian B movies 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.560 as of course this, uh, but also nineteen seventy nine 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.439 Star Crash in nineteen eighties contamination. Oh, I did not 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:31.320 make the connection to Star Crash, but that makes so 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:36.680 much sense. This movie has extremely powerful Star Crash flavor, 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.359 just waves of Star Crash aroma wafting off of it. 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:42.879 Even in the scenes where they talk about raise, I 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.479 was repeatedly reminded of Star Crash. Uh. You know, there 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.439 were at least like five dialogue moments that were that 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.640 were akin to uh, you know, nothing can stop these 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.440 deadly rays. These deadly rays will be your death. Yeah, 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.480 there's a lot of shared DNA between this film and 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:04.320 Star crash Um Now Coacy also worked in various other 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:07.520 roles on other Argento projects, so you just seems to 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.679 be a frequent collaborator and helper uh to Argento. But 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.880 he was also second assistant director on the notorious klas 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.159 Kinski Nosferatu sequel. So this is the sort of unofficial 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:23.639