Friday, July 9, 2010

it means "from the rock"

Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops is a pretty decent peplum, which was shown on TV a lot in the 70s.  it's now available just about everywhere on PD collections or singly.
Maciste is properly pumped

however, when viewed in it's original aspect ratio, as some kind fan provided here (along with the English dub) it's a much better viewing experience than with the pan and scan 16mm version that is floating about.

like I mentioned, it's one of the better peplum movies out there, some nice action sequences and some great scenery.  our hero, Maciste, played by Gordon Mitchell, is not the best actor (he improved in The Giant of Metropolis), but he looks the part.  the "bad" queen, Capys (Chelo Alonso) gets a better role and one feels sorry for her early on in the movie.
super scary!

the cyclops in this movie is also pretty good, and there's some inventive use of trick photography showing Maciste and the man monster in the same shot (I think I child is used). we all know what's gonna happen to the beast, it always does with a cyclops.  Ulysses paved the way for that to happen!

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