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8/10
An amusingly schlocky hoot
20 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
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.
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