Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

unbrokenmetal In the opening scene, Maciste captures a giant whale and pulls it ashore. Normal people would settle for a trout, but that's superheroes for you! Before he can have his modest breakfast, he watches some people hunted and killed by riders with white capes. These mysterious strangers are the Mole Men who disappear at the beginning of daytime, only to return at night for slave raids. They cannot stand the light, it is even a method of execution for them to expose the condemned to sunshine. Maciste lets them capture him on purpose, so he can find out where their hiding-spot is. The Mole Men have a mine underground, where slaves have to work on a mill. Maciste intends to free the slaves and put an end to the terror of the Mole Men. But they are prepared and make plans to kill Maciste in many interesting, but complicated ways...Funny little flick with a truly bizarre story. John Garko, later a successful western movie star, appears as an ambitious young Mole Man who wants to marry the queen (Moira Orfei), while Mark Forest stars as Maciste, Son of Hercules.

Woodyanders The brave and mighty Maciste (brawny hunk Mark Forest) ventures underground into the kingdom of the Mole Men who capture humans and use them as slaves. The evil, yet beautiful Queen Alismoyab (gorgeously voluptuous brunette Moira Orfei) falls hard for Maciste. Naturally, Maciste rebuffs the Queen's advances and instead tries to free the slaves with the help of loyal companion Bangor (the equally muscular Paul Wynter). Boy, does this often uproariously terrible clunker possess all the right wrong stuff to rate highly as a real four-star stinkeroonie: we've got ham-fisted (mis)direction by Antonio Leonviola, erratic stop'n'go pacing, the mole men are played by a bunch of guys sporting pasty make-up and tacky white wigs, an utterly ridiculous Western-style theme song ballad, laughably cruddy dubbing, hopelessly stiff acting (special kudos here to Raffaella Carra as fair maiden Princess Saliura and Enrico Glori as wicked henchman Kahab), a bombastic score by Armando Trovajoli, clumsily staged action scenes, a cornball stentorian narrator, murky cinematography by Alvaro Mancori, and, of course, the inevitable last reel slave revolt. The picture earns bonus points for its inspired oddball touches: Maciste mixes it up with both a savage gorilla (some dude in an obvious ratty ape suit) and a bunch of ferocious lions, one unfortunate mole fellow disintegrates after being exposed to the sun's lethal rays, a godawful huge and deadly wheel contraption that the slaves are forced to push under threat of death, and Maciste being forced to hold up enormous slabs of stone that could crush his friends if he drops them. Moreover, Forest and Wynter make for a genuinely engaging beefcake duo. Entertainingly cheesy rubbish.

Maciste_Brother I have to say that MOLE MEN VS THE SON OF HERCULES is cheesy, the pacing is uneven (there are some really dull spots), the acting is nonexistent and the story doesn't make a lick of sense. Now that I got that out of the way, I have to add that if you're a fan of Peplums or a fan of bizarre movies, you must see this one! There are 4 or 5 unforgettable scenes or elements in it that are amazing and it's the reason why I've rated this 7 out of 10.The story concerns Maciste who gets involved with the mole men, a civilization which lives under the surface of the earth because the rays from the sun are deadly to them. One night, still on the surface of the earth, Maciste saves Bangor from the clutches of mole men. The two beefy men become friends and eventually decide to confront the underground enemy by letting themselves be kidnapped by them so they can be grouped with the slave population of the mole men and start up an uprising from within. The enslaved people are forced to work at a bizarre contraption that powers the whole underground civilization, which is ruled by an evil but beautiful queen. Maciste and Bangor are made to work at the MASSIVE wheel thing but eventually their presence causes a revolt and the whole underground civilization falls apart.Suffice it to say, the story is total nonsense, certainly in the way it is presented. It begs more questions than answers. But who really watches these films for the logical stories, hmm? Like I said before, there are many highlights amidst the cheese. The first highlight is the teaming of Mark Forest and Paul Wynter. They make an impressive beefy duo. The second highlight is that bizarre wheel contraption, which has to be seen to be believed. It's actually quite impressive and yet funny (in an engineering kind of sense). Who came up with this design? The third highlight is an incredible feat of strength Maciste, Bangor and another friend of the two have to endure: layers upon layers of heavy slabs are piled on Maciste's shoulders while both of his beefy fiends are sprawled on their backs next to him, with swords just above the two and about to stab them with each additional slab, as Maciste cannot keep the slabs up much longer. Will Maciste kill his friends? Will he then be crushed by the slabs? The whole thing is jaw-dropping. Again, who came up with this incredible torture idea that would be right at home in HOSTEL? The fourth highlight occurs when Maciste is put on a conveyor belt (yes, a conveyor belt) by an enemy who wants him to be crushed by a rock grinder. Seeing Maciste holding/pushing against the rock grinder, directly forcing the slaves to work harder at the wheel, is too much for words.And the fifth highlight, and it's a dozy, is seeing one of the mole man put to death with the rays of the sun. Though not gory or violent in any way, this scene would even make some viewers of today uncomfortable nevermind audiences in 1961 when this film was released: we see a near naked man, spread eagled, writhing and moaning loudly as he becomes exposed to the sun. Uniquely over-the-top! Remarkably, the film still has other highlights, like Maciste killing four mole men with one spear (!) or when Maciste and Bangor bring down the whole underground civilization with the big wheel, or when the Queen discovers she can live in the sun, or the additional torture scenes with Maciste and Bangor.Unfortunately, there are also some awful scenes such as when Maciste fights an unconvincing gorilla/monster or the many night scenes which are clearly shot in the daytime. And the look of the mole men is not really effective or imaginative in any way, shape or form.Anyway, MOLE MEN VS THE SON OF HERCULES will never be mistaken as great art but even so, I would love to see this film and those scenes on the big screen. I'm sure those amazing scenes would be even more impressive.

dvox Son of Hercules vs. sun-sensitive subterranean Sicilians in this anti-"Beach Blanket Bingo" bunko beneath the bowels of Italy! The most "dramatic" scene depicts a guard (punished for allowing the hero to escape) stripped, strapped to a slab, and subjected to sunlight (which causes him to disintegrate). The viewer realizes that it is NOT the words to the 1966 hit "Sunny" ("Sunny, thank you for the sunshine you gave...") the tortured titan is singing as he screams "No! No! Not the sun! Aieee!!" This flick never should have seen the light of day. I say "No! No! Not "Mole Men Vs. The Son of Hercules"! Aieee!!"