The evil queen Capys (Chelo Alonso) sends soldiers to sack a rival city and commands them to assassinate the members of the royal family. The king is slain, and Queen Penope (Vira Silente) is enslaved, but a dutiful aid manages to make sure their infant son escapes the city. He then comes under the care of Maciste (Gordon Mitchell, billed as Mitchell Gordon, in his first starring role), and NOT Atlas, as advertised. Maciste then pawns the kid off on a buddy so he can go and rescue Penope. Naturally, Capys gets the hots for Maciste, who is more concerned about saving Penope than making time with an evil queen.
Maciste is kind of like the budget Hercules, and he performs more feats of strength than you can shake a stick at in this flick. In addition to the ever-reliable bending prison bars and throwing boulders, he fights a lion, prevents a cave-in, lifts a fallen ox cart, carries a giant vase, and does battle with the humongous cyclops. Too bad it feels like it takes forever until the final showdown.
Overall, Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops is an OK sword and sandal adventure. After a good start, the film sort of dawdles once the action switches over to Capys’s palace. Still, we get a good vestal virgin dance number out of it, so it’s not all bad.
Mitchell acts like a dolt for most of the running time, but I guess that’s sort of his shtick so that people will underestimate him. It’s Alonso who steals the movie as the sultry Capys, but the biggest name in the cast is actually the baby. He’s billed as “Baby Fabio”, and in case you’re wondering… yes, it’s THAT Fabio (!) making his screen debut! He wouldn’t appear in a movie again until 1990 when he played an angel in Exorcist 3. By that time, he was already famous for appearing on several Harlequin romance covers. I wonder if he got the inspiration for his physique from Gordon Mitchell in this flick.
AKA: Maciste vs. the Cyclops. AKA: Monster from the Unknown World. AKA: Atlas Against the Cyclops.
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