Hercules vs a sea... monster?

There is supposed to be a sea monster in the fun peplum Hercules, Samson and Ulysses.  Since most of us fans only ever saw it in a pan and scan form (wow, I do not miss those days at all) it was awfully hard to tell just what the heck Herc was battling back then.  It's the main reason our heroes all get together, but it was quite a mystery for a long time.

Until now, when you can see a beautiful widescreen print from Warner Archives and the behemoth turns out to be a large seal.  Or a sea lion, it's still hard to tell from the brief glimpses we get.  But it's so not worth the whole venture out on to a stormy ocean to stop this beast that is killing fishermen.  We don't even get a clue as to it's real size, since you never see it interact with our heroes.  This really doesn't bother me, since I'm quite sure it was edited in after the actors shot their footage, but the poor animal sure can't live up to it's own billing.

Still, it works to get Herc and Ulysses to Israel where one of the greatest battles ever filmed occurs.  More on that, later.