Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules was part of a series of Italian musclemen movies that were repackaged and redubbed by Avco Embassy Pictures who sold them directly to American TV as “Sons of Hercules” adventures. This one stars Mark Forest as Maciste. You might remember him from The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules in which he also played the same character.
As far as the Sons of Hercules go, Maciste is probably the best of them. When most guys go fishing, they’re lucky if they catch a tuna. This guy reels in a whale in the opening scene.
This time out, Maciste battles a race of albino warriors who live underground called Mole Men who get killed whenever they go out into the sun. They sneak to the surface at night and kidnap villagers who are used as slaves in their underground lair. Maciste rescues Bangor (Paul Wynter) from their clutches, then decides to get recaptured so he can save the villagers. Naturally, the evil queen (Moira Orfei) who lords over the Mole Men falls for Maciste.
Forest is solid in the lead. He’s nothing special or anything, but he gets the job done. Orfei is a feast for the eyes though. She is a busty beauty who makes for an ideal evil queen who dresses like a Vegas showgirl after a three-day bender. Wynter also does a fine job as his sidekick Bangor. Speaking of which, as always in these movies, the “Sons of Hercules” theme song is a real banger.
The highlight of the silliness comes when Maciste battles an ape man in a cage match for the hand of the queen in marriage. The monster is equal parts awful and awesome as it resembles Trog on steroids. Another good scene comes when the queen hooks Maciste to a contraption that looks like a cross between a torture rack and a home gym and makes him lift weights until he croaks (which of course, he doesn’t).
Mole Men Against the Sons of Hercules works in fits and starts, but the weak finale kind of prevents it from garnering a *** rating. Still, it remains mildly amusing for fans of this sort of stuff. One thing of note is the dubbing pronounces our hero’s name as more of “Majest-is” rather than the traditional “My-cheesesteak”, which probably won’t matter to the casual viewer. For folks like me who’ve seen at least a half dozen or so of these things, it’ll feel strange.
AKA: Maciste and the Night Queen. AKA: The Strongest Man in the World. AKA: Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules.
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