I just saw this one yesterday (on one of those big, cheap DVD sets from "Mill Creek" - thank heaven for that company), and I have nearly the opposite opinion of Bryce David (though maybe for pretty flimsy reasons). One thing about this one is that it broke a few "Peplum" clichés. First (unless I missed something), the "sidekick" character (think Ulysses in "Hercules Unchained") had a much smaller role in this one, which is fine with me, since I don't always care much for that stock character. Also, it was just a little surprising to see the Hercules character riding off with the heroine at the end (having the opposite thing happen seems like almost as much of a Peplum tradition as a tradition of earlier westerns). And, I think the actress Liuba Bodina (an actress I know from nothing else, at least by name) knew how to play the "evil queen" role just right. One unusual thing about Kirk Morris is that he always seems to have a "sensitive" look about him, which almost clashes with the general idea of these films. What's more odd about that is that, judging by this one and "Conqueror of Atlantis," his Peplum characters are some of the more ruthless ones, even breaking a (sort of) rule in these films, by having the hero get rid of the femme fatale character pretty directly (usually that happens some other way).
Review of Il trionfo di Maciste
