neopol313
Pardon my confusion, but I sat down to what this Spaghetti Epic, or Sword and Sandal as they prefer to be called, which was called Atlas In The Land Of The Cyclops, I didn't understand why Atlas was being addressed as Maciste.This was nothing remarkable and not my taste at all, as the well and I mean well-worn story of a Greek hero saving the day and in this case, putting a baby upon his rightful throne. This was part of a huge series of films,. following Maciste, here played by Gordon Mitchell, credited here as Mitchell Gordon. Unfortunately, there was very little to recommended it if you're not already a hardened fan of the genre.The sound dubbing was typical, with one particular moment standing out, as two characters are talking with the baby in the scene, and the baby's crying sounding like another baby had turned up during the recording session and had inadvertently supplied the echoy dub.Personally, I find these films to be hard to watch or enjoy but there is certainly and audience for them. But do I feel that this genre is falling in to the abyss, not only of obscurity but most likely into oblivion. The print quality was appalling, leading me to believe that since these films have fallen out of copyright, that the negatives are but faded, decayed or outright destroyed.This was a 2.35:1 widescreen print in its day I would bet that nobody has seen that print in 40 years and are likely to NEVER see it. The colour was almost gone, faded to the negative's native browns and the sound mix, only mono in the original instance, was also mushy. Granted this was a very cheap DVD, with a 1.33:1 print, clearly, based on the title, the U.S. TV print and no doubt, a 16mm one at that.The Spaghetti Epics where always a cheap Italian alternative to Hollywood's Roman Epics, but with little demand and limited financial return for the genre, I can see the negatives disintegrating and these movies being lost forever. Is that a bad thing? YES: even though I may never willing watch one again, it is a crying shame that the art of these films may lost forever. NO film should be lost, as no book should be either, but unless remastering technology becomes cheap enough and the demand for what could be regarded as cult classics, as horror films such as Dawn Of The Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are, then I see little hope.
bkoganbing
Atlas Against The Cyclops finds Gordon Mitchell as Maciste battling the evil one eyed creature who together with the daughter of Circe is taking vengeance against the descendants of Ulysses. If you'll remember your classical Greek tales, Ulysses freed himself from Circe and blinded the Cyclops. Now their descendants are wreaking what they consider just desserts to the Ulysses family.It might have gone all right for them except that Circe's evil granddaughter queen of Circe falls big time for Maciste and all those muscles. She forgets her mission with one look at the big guy.There was a black body builder named Paul Wynter who was appearing in these peplums at the time and truth be told he was far better built than Gordon Mitchell. Why she was bothering with Maciste when she had Wynter's character Mumba in the palace is beyond me.Still Maciste performs all the deeds required of him and even rides a horse into the sunset like a good cowboy hero would.Nothing special here though.
Woodyanders
Brave and kind he-man Maciste (a winningly sincere portrayal by the brawny and cheerful Gordon Mitchell) must save both Queen Penope (fetching Vira Silenti) and her infant son from the evil clutches of the ruthless and wicked Queen Capys (a perfectly nasty turn by ravishing brunette stunner Chelo Alonso). Director Antonio Leonviola relates the eventful story at a steady pace, maintains a serious tone throughout, and stages the thrilling action scenes with a reasonable amount of vigor (stirring highlights include Maciste wrestling a lion, a fierce rough'n'tumble fight with one of Capys' hulking goons, and the tense and gripping climactic battle between Maciste and an impressively grotesque and monstrous 18-foot-tall cyclops). The cast all give admirably earnest performances, with especially nice contributions from Giotto Tempestini as helpful shepherd Aronio and Massimo Righi as the noble Efros. Carlo Innocenzi's robust, rousing score does the trick. Riccardo Pallottini's expansive widescreen cinematography offers several striking shots of the lovely verdant countryside. The campy dialogue adds plenty of extra unintentional humor to the mix while the bevy of lovely ladies supply lots of yummy eye candy (Alonso in particular is an absolute smoking hot fox!). A fun romp.
TheVid
Chelo Alonso is once again on hand in another cheesy muscleman movie. Sadly, she doesn't get to perform one of her seductive dance numbers in this one, an unforgiveable omission if there ever was one. As for the rest of the film, it's mostly Gordon Mitchell's show as he's asked to display his rugged physique in virtually every scene. Fun kitsch, even though Chelo was wasted.
