Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Maciste, Son of Hercules is at it again. This time he is fighting his lamest foes yet - The Mole Men. The Mole Men must live underground and not to be caught above ground because if they go out the sunlight will kill them. They are pale with white long (wigs) hair, look like humans.Someone somewhere must have been making a killing off these films... money that is. Italy pumped out several of these in just a few years time, 7 years (1958 to 1965) before the spaghetti westerns took over. Apparently the it didn't matter the story or foes or how well it was filmed, the audiences must have just wanted to look at muscle men on screen doing whatever at that time.Awful movie, one of the worst peplum of the time era.1/10

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.

Once again our Italian friends come up with sheer nonsense!,people from underground who are obviously painted white with wigs that seem to have been rescued from a blaxploitation film, the usual bad photography is evident as in most sword and sandal epics, our hero the very handsome and athletic Mark Forest battles gamely against all the odds while no doubt having one eye on his bank account to provide him with an opera singing school, something he still does to this day,if anything he was one of the best muscle men but never really got any decent films to work on in the genre although most were made almost back to back in a production line way you would think at least one or two might have had attention holding qualities.

No of course not but they could be related. This is as bad as the people who make fun of the Sword and Sandal films think they are, but its also a hell of a lot more interesting than many better films. This film is very silly, we have white mole men with afros, a black actor who acts like he's a character out of a racist 1930's film, people falling off horses when Maciste just runs towards them...This film has a jaw dropping quality to make one wonder if the film makers knew what a turkey they were producing when they made it. Even if they didn't I'm kinda glad I did since it a laugh out loud gem.