User reviews

For nothing else, CAPTIVE WOMEN is worth checking out because it's the Reg Park-starring Herc film that preceded the epochal HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD directed by Mario Bava -- which still remains, hands down, the best of the Italian Herc movies ever made. CAPTIVE WOMEN is extremely well produced -- excellent production design and visual FX by Hercules standards -- and that's both its big plus and its big minus. The Retromedia DVD is very, very good -- in 2.35 Cinemascope, nice transfer -- and it's terrific to see a Hercules film given this kind of loving treatment. BUT -- it does point out some of the shortcomings of CAPTIVE WOMEN. Which are, mainly, that not a helluva lot happens. Herc goes sailing, a buddy goes overboard ... and he winds up in Atlantis, where the Evil Queen (note: Queens are almost always evil, and extremely smokin' hot, in Herc movies) gives him a magic potion designed to make him fall in love with her. Second note: magic potions figure prominently in a LOT of Hercules films, and they're almost always administered by smokin' hot Evil Queens trying to get Herc to fall in love with them. That's what we love about these films. Anyhow ... great production values but a bit, well, stiff somehow.

Vittorio Cottafavi's Hercules and the Captive Women recycles the standard Hercules plot structure. If you have seen any of its predecessors or descendants, you have seen something very much like this film. However, in this case, the entire army of evil-doers Herc must confront are immortals from Atlantis who have been secretly infiltrating Greek politics. Most of the action takes place on Atlantis after Herc, his son, and a couple of friends wash up there.

Hercules is played by Reg Park, a very beefy non-actor built like a comic book superhero. Park seems to spend the first 1/3rd of the film lounging about, and most of the second 2/3rds flexing and fighting. His occasional lines are clearly spoken, but without a great deal of enthusiasm. Most of the acting is OK. No real highlights in the cast, though.

The action sequences are fairly entertaining, but don't compare favorably to the special-effects saturated fight scenes of today. Like many Hercules films, Captive Women features lavish costumes and sets.The costumes are up to the series above-average standards and a few of the Atlantean sets are really nice. The script is on par with most of the series, which is to say that it is not very good.

Recommended for Hercules fans only.

...why Atlantis disappeared! Although Hercules often calls upon his Father ,Zeus -note that his son never invokes his granddad-,this is as far from Greek mythology as it can be.

"The famous Four" best describes the plot: Hercules ,his son,Androcles (a Roman slave handed over to lions then granted an imperial pardon ,what is he doing here?) and a dwarf feel that Grece is in jeopardy.This is the beginning of an "epic" story which includes a rubber monster,a wicked queen (Antinea of course ,see one of the numerous versions of Pierre Benoit's " L'Atlantide" ),the ancestors of the clones (unless it predates Hitler's Aryan supermen),the perils of atomic radiations (?) The first scene is an interminable free-for-all in which Hercules,who is quietly enjoying his meal ,does not interfere ("help us dad!"screams his son) .Some not-so-bad scenes show a strange Androcles wandering in the queen's palace .

It's rather silly,but it's entertaining if you do not ask too much.

"Hercules returns just in time to save a gorgeous damsel in distress from the clutches of a wicked monster. The grateful beauty takes him to her home in Atlantis. Hercules must intervene again to save her from her murderous mother and some unfriendly inhabitants. Hercules, his son, and the maiden escape before the city and its population are destroyed," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Dubbed "Hercules and the Captive Women" from the original Italian, this one features Reg Park's debut as one of the exported "sword and sandal" strongmen. Don't watch for the numerous scenes involving Hercules rescuing "Captive Women" because there are none. Instead, you get to see him save one captive, or rather, less than half of her. There are some nicely dressed scenes, though.

*** Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide (8/19/61) Vittorio Cottafavi ~ Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni, Luciano Marin

Reg Park was a champion British bodybuilder from Leeds known for his size. He prefigured the bigger man who dominated the sport when it gained in popularity, especially Arnold Schwarzenegger, who considered Park a friend and mentor. He was a natural choice to play Hercules and, I think, the second-best at it after Steve Reeves. He just has to stand there to look imposing, but he had a natural athlete's grace, an easy charm, and looked good with a beard.

Originally titled "Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide" (Hercules at the Conquest of Atlantis) the American title doesn't make much sense because there is only one captive woman and she is freed by Hercules, then recaptured and freed by Hercules's son. That, however, is only the tip of the stop-making-sense iceberg, even though the film tries to build a half-baked political backdrop for the story (the early scenes could have inspired "The Phantom Menace," except that this is more entertaining). The Atlantis story the film concocts is not one that has any basis in any mythology I'm familiar with, but it involves an evil queen Antinea (Fay Spain) who plots to take over the world and destroy Greece with her army of super-soldiers, who's capabilities she badly overestimates. Naturally, she falls for Hercules, which is one of the many Peplum tropes the filmmakers squeeze in: the comic-relief sidekick, played by little person Salvatore Furnari; the dancing girls; the monsters and animals Hercules has to dispatch. This time, the film gets that out of the way with the character of demi-god Proteus, who can shape shift, so Hercules takes on a serpent (man in hilarious rubber suit), snake, lion and bird of prey in rapid succession. There is a surprising amount of armchair philosophizing, with Hercules insisting he couldn't do what he does if the gods didn't approve but otherwise being quite the skeptic. He tells Queen Antinea he likes his nature to be natural, as opposed to augmented by magic, and she basically tells him to check his privilege. Overall, this is very silly but very watchable and enjoyable, even if it is slow to get going. See also the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version.

Then again why would you anger him? Bad people will be bad people and Hercules (or the idea of him) will defend the good every chance he gets. So in his essence the Sword and Sandals movies got it right I would argue, even if historical accuracy was never a goal.

You get quite crazy scenes, where Hercules shows off his strength and you may wonder if you could call him a superhero (I reckon yes). Muscles and other oiled parts of the body included.

I'm probably just so used to seeing movies shown on MST3K being awful that I found this to not be that bad. It probably helps that it actually does get good near the end with all the explosions and stuff. The special effects get better. I still wouldn't recommend it of course. This was the time when most movies were in color. You can kind of see how gaudy it looks. It's not as bad as some other movies, but still pales in comparison to even older movies like the 1940 "The Thief Of Baghdad". I guess the atmosphere wasn't bad.

Of course, I haven't been following the Hercules films in this series that much, so I didn't really care what was going on. I thought Atlantis was supposed to be underwater? What's the deal with that? A lot of the acting is pretty corny too. I guess this series as a whole wasn't as awful as most. It starts so abruptly. There's just all this action out of nowhere. Well, at least there was something going on at the beginning. **

Passable Peplum thanks to robust Reg Park and expert filmmaker Vittorio Cottafavi . Mythological epic with a magnificent he-man as is Reg Park and set in Greece and Turkey . The Greek council of the 30 (formed by a nice Italian cast such as Ivo Garrani , Enrico Maria Salerno , Ettore Manni and the notorious Gian Maria Volonte , previous his Fistful of dollars) assigns Heracles (Reg Park) a dangerous mission to go to Orient country to investigate a terrible enemy foreseen by the augur (Nando Tamberlani) . Heroic Hercules along with his son (Luciano Marin) , Androclo, Re Di Tebe (Ettore Manni) and a midget battle the seductive powers of the wicked Queen of Atlantis named Antinea (Fay Spain) . Strong yet sleepy Hercules discovers that the Queen of Atlantis is plotting to take over the world with superhuman warriors . The bouncing Maciste helps the Atlantis citizens and reunites an army of rebels to take on the queen headquarter . But Maciste is captured , locked and become a slave . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the Atlantis townsfolk from villain Queen Antinea . Then Maciste becomes inextricably involved in a war between rebels under his command against an army of automat . Along the way Maciste or Hercules or Goliath frees slaves , moves rocks , fights weird creatures and nasty masked hoodlums .

Italian/French co-production with haunting scenarios , wonderful outdoors and functional production design , including a city similarly designed to mythical Atlantis . Lavishly-produced , sometimes tongue-in-cheek , plenty of action and results to be pretty entertaining . This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , battles , luxurious landscapes and a love story between Hercules' son and a princess . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . Breathtaking scenes when Maciste moves a giant rock , thrown from a cliff , and overwhelming final with surprising and spectacular scenes , including the explosive spotlight when ground shaking , volcano erupts and the town blows its top . In the picture turns up Peplum ordinaries as Ivo Garrani as Re Di Megalia , Mimmo Palmara as Astor, Il Gran Visir , Mario Petri as Zenith, Prete Di Urano and veteran Nando Tamberlani as Tiberiades , the soothsayer. Reg Park is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying to save his son of numerous odds and taking on the mythical Queen Antinea from Pierre Benoit novel . Reg Park himself became something of a cult personality in the Italian epic genre . Reg was a personal fitness trainer in South Africa . His friend and protégé Arnold Schwarzenegger considered Park to be the best of the "peplum" heroes. Reg Park who played the mythic Maciste in a few movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules , Goliath , Samson or Aron for U.S. viewing . Bouncing and strong Reg was the third American actor bodybuilder , after Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott, to be recruited by Italian producers to star in Peplum films . Reg Park played reserve team football for Leeds United before turning to body-building in 1946 . He finished Mr Universe runner-up to future film rival Steve Reeves in 1950 , then won the title outright in 1951, 1958 and 1965. After marrying South African-born Mareon Isaacs in Johannesburg in 1952, the Parks moved permanently to South Africa . Reg used the amount of money he made acting as hero and gladiator films in Italy to fitness . As the muscle-man Reg Park left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the gymnasium in South Africa where Reg ran a chain of fitness studios . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , Brad Harris , Alan Steel , Rock Stevens , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune acting absurdly as muscle mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . Reg only starred 5 Peplum such as : La Sfida Dei Giganti , 1964 Ursus, terror of the Kirguisos , 1961 Ercole Al Centro della terra Hercules , 1961 The conquest of the Atlántida and ¨Maciste in King Solomon's Mines" - USA (TV title) or "Samson in King Solomon's Mines" which , handily for Park, was filmed on location in South Africa .

Interesting screenplay by Sandro Continenza and Ennio De Concini , a prolific writer/director who wrote a lot of Spaghetti , Gialli and Peplum . This spectacular Sword and Sandal movie displays a colorful and glowing cinematography by Carlo Carlini , filmed on location and Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Gino Marinuzzi and Armando Trovajoli . The motion picture was professionally directed by Vittorio Cottafavi who also wrote many tales of this kind ,as he continued to realize and write films in similar style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . He began his professional career in the film industry as clapper boy . After progressing to write motion picture screenplays and working as assistant director under Alessandro Blasetti and Vittorio De Sica, he became a director in his own right in 1943. Many of his films have been "sword-and sandal" epics, dealing with mythological subjects involving the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt such as "The Warrior and the Slave Girl" , "Amazons of Rome¨ , "Goliath and the Dragon" , Messalina¨ and "Cleopatra's Legion" . From the mid-60's, Cottafavi concentrated exclusively on directing TV series and mini-series, under contract to RAI . Rating : Acceptable muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti , thanks to Reg Park and by Peplum specialist as is the director Vittorio Cottafavi . Rating : 6,5/10 , Well worth watching and better than average Sword and Sandals movie .

I always hated this movie when ever I saw it on TV. It was badly dubbed and rightly made fun of by Mystery Science 3000. Then I mistakenly picked up the film in its full Italian version with subtitles and was shocked that the film is so much better in its full form. It wasn't until the infamous Uranus line that I realized what I was watching. Granted its not Oscar material, but as far as Hercules films goes the uncut version of this film is so much better, fifteen minutes really do make the difference.

This is definitely a better movie than a lot of other Italian Hercules productions out there. Not that the quality of this movie is being exceptionally high though. It still is a movie that brings some nice entertainment, no matter how ridicules the movie often gets.

This was the first time that British Reg Park took on the Hercules role. Park was a multiple time Mr. Universe champion, just like Steve Reeves, who had played the character of Hercules in previous movie productions. His physique of course definitely helped him getting these sort of roles. His career also ended pretty soon after he started to age, like often happens to these types of 'actors'.

Like all these sort of Italian swords and sandals productions, it's a very cheap and often laughable looking movie, even though the movie is also being grand to look at with its enormous and colorful sets. The movie does use some silly early effects, though you just can not accuse this movie of not being creative. It just doesn't always works in the movie its own advantage.

I of course couldn't care less about the story of the movie and all that seemed to matter was that the movie. All that seems to matter for this movie is that it's being entertaining. The movie does really bring some silly fun, also long as you of course don't except a movie with class or of a very high quality.

A better movie than most other Italian Hercules productions and also certainly way better than its current reputation and rating.

6/10

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My favorite scene in this movie is the one where Herc first meets evil queen and failed Hollywood starlet Fay Spain, and she shows that she's the one with the real courage. As she sits on her throne, totally regal and a devoted servant of Uranus, a fly lands on her shoulder and crawls into her armpit. My second favorite scene is the one where she tries to drug him. Herc staggers about for a while, then plops on the floor like a beached whale. The evil Atlanteans leave the room. Herc then performs his most impressive feat of the movie: he spits out the drugged wine in a thin arc stream like a fountain. Wish I could do that -- it'd be a great party trick.

Here's another Reg Park Hercules movie on a par with Mario Bava's superb earlier film HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD. Director Cottafavi lacks Bava's visual flair, but serves up enough kitsch atmosphere and set pieces to keep things fun. Park's lunky presence and lunkheaded demeanor make him the perfect foil for the elegantly stiff Fay Spain, as the obligatory beautiful-but-evil empress of Atlantis. Cheesy monsters, a dwarf, bouffant hairdos and some deliberately-dumb, dubbed dialogue all combine to make this top-notch kitsch for peplum afficionados. And, let us repeat, "all hail Uranus!".

... Here's the reason: they couldn't take the embarrassment of being mentioned in this god-awful movie and simply decided to sink the whole continent to the bottom of the ocean! There you go, another historical mystery solved! Now, this is a bad bad bad BAD film! Easily the worst Italian "Hercules" movie I've seen thus far and it's not really encouraging me to check out the 900 other ones that I have yet to see. The first half hour is an entire waste of time because it only features Hercules (played by Reg Park this time) talking about how happy he is with his family. People from his entourage keep mentioning a peril that threatens the whole of Greece, yet they never reveal what this peril actually involves. Then they go on a conquest and wash ashore Atlantis and you STILL don't know what the bloody peril is! The group becomes separated from each other and Hercules saves a girl from a monster that successively transforms into a lion, a winged creature and an iguana with a cheesy snout. Was this the peril? Apparently not. Our hero in mini-skirt escorts the girl back to her home where he thinks she's safe, but she's not! For you see, it's her own mother – the queen of Atlantis – that constantly plots to kill the girl for the good of the nation. Is anyone still following? Because this is as much summarizing as I can do, as I completely lost interest in the plot from this point. "Hercules and the Captive Women" is a boring movie, with an intolerably slow pacing and terrible dialogs that nearly make your ears hurt. Hercules' sidekicks (his son and a midget) are some of the most irritating supportive characters I've ever seen and Reg Park himself isn't very impressive either. What really destroys the movie, though, is that the writers attempted to blend humor into it. Humor is good, but only if it's at least a little funny. The only funny thing about this movie is its ineptness.

At least I sort of understood this Hercules movie's direction. He has been asked to help, and, doggone it, he does. There is a revolution going on and once again there's an evil queen. This time she's dealing with an impending catastrophe caused by the aligning of planets or some such thing. They say "Uranus" an awful lot. It's hard not to giggle. This one has an amnesiac named Androcles (isn't he the guy that pulled the thorn from the lion's paw). Then there's Hylas. He's Herc's son in this one. In mythology, he's the great muscle man's teenage lover (those Greeks in those days; you gotta love 'em). One thing you can count on. They throw names of characters around and they have nothing to do with any previous myth. This does have a few intriguing twists and turns, including the alliances against the evil queen. Every time she has a chance to be nice, she just can't do it. Some guy crawls about twenty miles to report the results of a battle. When she hears what he went through, she has him executed for his incompetence in battle. The queen is really quite nice looking and has a liquid she tries on Herc, but in one of the great scenes, he spits it in the air like an overinflated orca. There's also a group of men who have lived lives of deformity who are given hope by the great hero. Of course, they all end up dead, but at least they no longer had bumps on their noses and people didn't throw dead chickens at them (you have to see it; I can't explain). Until I bought this collection, it had been about 30 years since I saw one of these films. There's not much to recommend them.

Some rumors about a distant land with terrible weapons of mass destruction arouse all the kings of the various Grecian city states. Hercules sets sail with a woman whom he rescued from the sea who confirms them and brings her back home.

British body builder Reg Park is the legendary Hercules in this film and he brings the young maiden back to Atlantis where her mother the evil queen rules her domain with some interesting brain washing techniques developed years ahead of time. In order to keep Atlantis's population growing they also abduct women from faraway places, hence the title Hercules And The Captive Women.

Fay Spain plays the Queen of Atlantis and she looks like she would rather be somewhere else, but to cover it up, chews enough scenery for about three sets. No giving this story away, you all know what happened to Atlantis.

Once again Hercules is back to do what he does in nearly every movie! This time Hercules is played by Reg Park, who just is not quite as good in the role as Steve Reeves was. He looks okay, but something about him is just off. This is the fifth film in the series following Hercules, Hercules Unchained, Goliath and the Dragon and Hercules vs the Hydra. The two films before this one featured two other guys in the role of Hercules; however, Reg Park would make one more Hercules film besides this one. There are a whole lot of Hercules films that were released during this time and there would be several more films after this one as well. I only saw the first and second film before this one so I do now that the first and second film do follow each other; however, I am not sure how this one follows the previous two films. Hercules has a son at this point, but due to the very confusing way this film opened up I literally did not realize it was his son until the thing was nearly over when they were helping people out of the pit. Of course, the fact the opening of this movie was so confusing may point out that it did follow the previous film and that one would of had to seen it to understand what the heck is going on! Hercules Unchained was a bit confusing too, until I watched the original Hercules film.

The story is very cluttered, especially at the beginning. All I know is that there is a brawl in a bar and Hercules and his buddies go riding and there is something with the sun before they are in a throne room where a man who is king or something declares that he is going to try and thwart some sort of threat against Greece. Hercules trashes his throne and then they are off on an adventure where Hercules ends up on a piece of driftwood before fighting a monster that turns into several monsters and saves a girl who takes him to Atlantis where he is drinking with another evil queen. Thankfully, he seems to have learned his lesson and does not drink the tainted wine and he has to save the people from a rock that a leper guy lectures Hercules about before being vaporized and there is kind of a volcanic finish as Hercules does not get a really cool battle to end this one.

This made for a good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, though watching this Hercules films, they all kind of do things the same way. They riffed three true Hercules films during the shows initial run as they did this one and the first two Hercules films. They also riffed Hercules Against the Moon Men, but that was not a true Hercules film, believe it or not. It was part of a series called the Maciste series, though my guess is kind of an Italian version of Hercules. There were 17 or so Hercules films and several more of the Maciste films and there were others that featured a large muscular guy that was a Hercules type hero. Suffice to say, there was a whole lot of Hercules type films back in the day! They made for some good material for the gang of MST3K.

So, this film was just not quite as good as the first two films. Both of those films seemed a bit better quality than this one. Reg Park just did not seem as good in the role of Hercules as Reeves did, but not placing the blame squarely on his broad shoulders. No, the plot was kind of a mess, but as I said that may be due to the fact one needs to watch this series of film in the order presented. Still, a lot of what they were doing in Atlantis was perplexing and it had nothing to do with the strange opening that may or may not have required additional viewing. Also, if you are going to have Hercules in your film, he should figure more in the end of the film rather than just moving a rock or two. He should be involved in a battle, in this film the best battle of the flick was when he fought Proteus at nearly the beginning of the film.

The first time I saw this movie I was about 10. Then I liked it very much. It had everything I liked: ancient scenarios, a hero, a beautiful woman and an impossible adventure. When I saw the movie some years later I realised that after all it was not that big. The plot I liked so much 10 years ago seems quite childish now and the movie has that sort of lingering sensation which takes away most of the fun. Still I cannot say that I don't like it any longer - it reminds me of an age gone by and it is still capable of giving an hour and a half's time of fun, even though the viewer will not remember it for long. Watch out for some scenes taken from "Sodoma e Gomorra"!

Before James Bond.

Before Indiana Jones.

There was the Hercules series.

Or at least the series starring Reg Park. These Hercules films were big, colorful, full of action and fun. They are also shockingly maligned, just by looking at the IMDb rating for HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, which is a joke.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN wasn't your average low-budget Sword & Sandal flick. It was shot in Technirama (expensive 70mm) and the look of it, in the widescreen version, is remarkable to say the least: big colorful sets, big cast, big action. The details, in some scenes, is stunning.

The whole production reminds me of old serials where our hero encounters one pitfall after another. HATCW is like the missing link that bridges the gap between old serials of the 1930s/1940s and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. And like James Bond films (DR NO was made a year after this), this Hercules movie is replete with vast cavernous sets which dwarf the cast and are set on the side of spectacle.

CAPTIVE WOMEN has many highlights. My favorite part is when Hercules saves Iseme, daughter of Queen Antinea, from the clutches of Proteus. Psychedelia circa 1961, or psychedelia before psychedelia was in! The surreal look is great and precedes all other films made in the 1960s, including BARBARELLA or even Fellini films, like SATYRICON. In fact, HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN looks like an action film if it had been directed by Fellini. It doesn't shy away from combining odd imagery along with comic book action.

The cast is perfect. Steve Reeves was (and still is) the definitive Hercules but beefy Reg Park fits the bill here. Park is happy just to be an action hero as opposed to Reeves who wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. Fay Spain makes a memorable evil Queen. Laura Efrikian is beautiful as Iseme. Ettore Manni, a familiar face in Peplums and a pretty good actor, lends excellent support as Hercules' best friend, Androcles.

The film itself is not perfect. The story is a tad thin and the stock footage at the end is obviously just footage of an erupting volcano, and it definitely lacks a distinctive score to give the film that extra special character but even so, these things didn't diminish the fun I had while watching it.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN is the kind of movie I'll be watching again and again. It just rocks!

I am not sure why this particular Hercules movie was retitled "Hercules and the Captive Women", when my recollection is that there is only one woman who is held captive in the entire movie. Anyway, I feel I should admit that though I love Italian genre cinema normally, these sword and sandal movies I generally find to be easily dismissed, including this particular one. Reg Park does make an okay Hercules, and there are some solid production values here and there. But the script is both messy and a real slog to sit through at times. There's far too much talk and not enough action. And the movie seems to be moving from one plot point to another in an almost random fashion - there's very little connecting one plot turn to another. The writers should have had a very clear vision from start to finish before they started typing on their typewriters. If you do decide to watch this movie despite my warning, search hard for a good print, because the public domain prints out there are so rough-looking at times that some scenes are next to impossible to make out.