This peplum adventure has a below average plot which threatens to sink the whole film at points - many actions that the characters take are nonsensical and the film doesn't know whether it wants to be a muscleman epic, a war epic or a simple revenge or love story. Instead, it mixes all these elements together into one big whole with, it has to be said, not entirely successful results. Which is a shame, as the battle sequences which eventually occur at the end of the film are some of the most vivid I've seen in a peplum film.
Confusion arises right at the beginning of the film when you realise that Gordon Scott's name isn't actually Hercules - here he plays Glauco, a king's son. So in fact the title is just an American cash-in on the popular Hercules series. Secondly, the title makes the Moloch sound like some terrible monster or fiend, when in fact he turns out to be the son of a queen who was born with terribly distorted features (revealed in the amusing showdown) and who is forced to wear a bull-head mask which makes him look like a minotaur. He also lives in a cave and amuses himself by firing arrows into chained female victims.
The first hour of the film is quite slow, with the typical court intrigue and lots of secret meetings (which amusingly take place in broad daylight, with the authorities not even noticing). Glauco disguises himself as a slave to win the queen's favour, which he does, but he's eventually found out and thrown in prison anyway - so what was the point, really? His escape from the doorless prison - climbing up the walls with his hands and feet - is a clever one, but most of the action in this film occurs in the final twenty minutes and comes as too little, too late.
Up until then, there are at least a few items of interest to keep things going and the plot moving along. A gladiatorial combat has nothing on GLADIATOR (not surprising, considering the budget), but I did like the fact that the hero's weapons had been treated to shatter on impact. There is the expected romance with a beautiful woman (Alessandra Panaro is the alluring one) and a number of good people die in vain. Gordon Scott's hero is an unusually wooden one, and the actor lacks the natural charm which he brought to his TARZAN films. Even the bad guys aren't defined clearly, and seen only in a few scenes; nobody's character is developed in this film. Although I did like the joke that one of the "good" characters is called Pasifae! On the plus side, the print is one of the best I've seen (I viewed it on an NTSC Sinister Cinema tape), giving the film colour and definition which make it more enjoyable to watch than a typically washed-out, bleached print which seems to be the norm for this long-forgotten movies. Secondly, the battle scenes at the end of the film are fine, packed with bloodless violence, and seem quite epic in nature. Thirdly, the film's finale is a great and unexpected one. A coven of witches turn up and cause lots of natural disasters like floors collapsing, lightning, fires etc to kill off a load of extras. These disappear (?) and Scott turns up to fight a prolonged fight with the Moloch, which has to be one of the best choreographed fights that I've seen in a film like this - it's excellently staged. However, these parts cannot compensate for the film's disjointed feel as a whole, and HERCULES VS THE MOLOCH isn't one of the genre's best.
Confusion arises right at the beginning of the film when you realise that Gordon Scott's name isn't actually Hercules - here he plays Glauco, a king's son. So in fact the title is just an American cash-in on the popular Hercules series. Secondly, the title makes the Moloch sound like some terrible monster or fiend, when in fact he turns out to be the son of a queen who was born with terribly distorted features (revealed in the amusing showdown) and who is forced to wear a bull-head mask which makes him look like a minotaur. He also lives in a cave and amuses himself by firing arrows into chained female victims.
The first hour of the film is quite slow, with the typical court intrigue and lots of secret meetings (which amusingly take place in broad daylight, with the authorities not even noticing). Glauco disguises himself as a slave to win the queen's favour, which he does, but he's eventually found out and thrown in prison anyway - so what was the point, really? His escape from the doorless prison - climbing up the walls with his hands and feet - is a clever one, but most of the action in this film occurs in the final twenty minutes and comes as too little, too late.
Up until then, there are at least a few items of interest to keep things going and the plot moving along. A gladiatorial combat has nothing on GLADIATOR (not surprising, considering the budget), but I did like the fact that the hero's weapons had been treated to shatter on impact. There is the expected romance with a beautiful woman (Alessandra Panaro is the alluring one) and a number of good people die in vain. Gordon Scott's hero is an unusually wooden one, and the actor lacks the natural charm which he brought to his TARZAN films. Even the bad guys aren't defined clearly, and seen only in a few scenes; nobody's character is developed in this film. Although I did like the joke that one of the "good" characters is called Pasifae! On the plus side, the print is one of the best I've seen (I viewed it on an NTSC Sinister Cinema tape), giving the film colour and definition which make it more enjoyable to watch than a typically washed-out, bleached print which seems to be the norm for this long-forgotten movies. Secondly, the battle scenes at the end of the film are fine, packed with bloodless violence, and seem quite epic in nature. Thirdly, the film's finale is a great and unexpected one. A coven of witches turn up and cause lots of natural disasters like floors collapsing, lightning, fires etc to kill off a load of extras. These disappear (?) and Scott turns up to fight a prolonged fight with the Moloch, which has to be one of the best choreographed fights that I've seen in a film like this - it's excellently staged. However, these parts cannot compensate for the film's disjointed feel as a whole, and HERCULES VS THE MOLOCH isn't one of the genre's best.
