Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon (1964) User Reviews

"I have heard tales of this legendary hero..."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 27 May 2006]

I knew that Peter Lupus had made a number of Hercules movies, but hadn't seen any until coming across this flick in the fifty movie DVD pack from Mill Creek/Treeline Entertainment under their Sc-Fi collection. His role in the TV series 'Mission Impossible' only hinted at his size, but not the impressive physique he reveals here as the Greek strong man. There's also some hint of his acting ability shown as well, but let's face it, he wasn't surrounded by Shakespearean actors here.

Hercules' mission, which he's chosen to accept, is to rescue the Queen of Hellenes from her captors, the three sovereigns of Babylon. King Phaleg of Assyria has the same thing on his mind, but his motive is to unite his country with Hellenes to form an even more powerful state. You know the Babylonian trio will fall apart at some point, as lone sister Taneal would like nothing better than to rule singlehandedly without the interference of her brothers Salman Osar and Azzur.

Taneal offers viewers an early insight into how Babylon will fall when she reveals the existence of an ancient wheel underneath the city that's chained to strategic pillars and walls. When it's time for Hercules to spin the old wheel of fortune, the city of Babylon comes crashing down, but didn't he make it look just a little too easy?

Lupus, going by the name of Rock Stevens for this film, seemed to symbolize the adage, 'walk softly but carry a big stick'. Some of his scenes wielding that huge billy club looked almost comic in execution. It also seemed to me that it might have had a boomerang quality to it as well. Check out the first time Hercules throws the club in the direction of a Babylonian rider in an early scene. Herc is positioned behind the man on horseback, but when the club knocks the rider from his horse, it's shown hitting him from the front! If you ask me, I'd say THAT was 'Mission Impossible'!

Formula Herc-flick Had Potential

[mstomaso · 3/10 · 25 June 2008]

Domenico Paolello, an Italian director most well known for films in the genre of Hercules (huge classical folk hero versus miscellaneous hordes of evil-doers), directed this fairly typical Hercules film from the mid-1960s. Paolello often worked with American body-builder Rock Stevens during this time, and Stevens was cast as Hercules for this film. Stevens would later sharpen his acting abilities and develop a charismatic and much more memorable character on the popular Mission Impossible TV show (Willie Armitage). At this point in his career, however, Rock was really just another Hercules - albeit one of the most impressively ripped and tall. Like most of the leading men used for this series, he expends little effort acting, and does a lot of flexing, tossing, punching, lifting, etc.

The plot is a bit more complex than the usual beautiful treacherous woman/mysterious powerful empire/classical times Hercules story. Set in the Middle East, the Queen of Helene has been captured by the tyrannous Babylonian council of three. Herc, whose relationship with his queen seems a bit more devoted than the average Greek's, comes to the rescue and quickly becomes a pawn in a vast, confusing, game of thrones. The plot, which is more sophisticated than the average Herc-flick, had some potential, but execution was a bit underwhelming.

Though epic and formulaic, Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon does not present the standard level of grand action Hercules films typically engender. Stevens' best moments are his few fight scenes - where he can use his remarkable physical presence to the greatest advantage - but these are relatively few and far between. Though the Middle Eastern scenery is adequate, the sets and costumes are not nearly as impressive or detailed as many of the other Herculean adventures. Finally, the film's pace is inconsistent. Just as it threatens to lull you to sleep, a crucial fact is presented or the plot takes a big twist.

Recommended only for Hercules fans.

Mission: Imbroglio

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 28 February 2010]

"Peter Lupus of 'Mission: Impossible' fame stars as the legendary Hercules. He is on a mission to rescue the beautiful Queen of the Hellenes, who has been kidnapped and enslaved by the ruler of Babylon," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. Yes, three thousand years ago in the city of Babylon, popular TV series supporting player Peter Lupus (as "Rock Stevens") had a career in muscle-man movies from Italy. This one, translated literally by American International Pictures as "Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon", is ponderous to a fault. Beautifully shaped Helga Line is the highlight.

*** Ercole contro i tiranni di Babilonia (12/25/64) Domenico Paolella ~ Peter Lupus, Helga Line, Mario Petri, Livio Lorenzon

Saturday matinée

[winner55 · 4/10 · 2 August 2008]

Okay sword & sandal epic. Lupus isn't really that bad; this film portrays the strong man as smarter than usual, which is a plus.

The hero of the film is really the Biblical Samson (the slaves are quite obviously Hebrew, the promised land obvious Isreal). God knows why they bothered to reference Hercules on release - maybe they were afraid of being accused of blasphemy for making a cheap B-movie about the Old Testament hero.

As noted by others, the best scenes in the film are actually borrowed from other films. But the action sequences filmed for this movie itself are pretty much par for the course, but nothing special.

Dull in spots, but not without its occasional flashes of Saturday matinée fun.

I Thought That Guy Looked Familiar

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 18 April 2006]

So it was Peter Lupus from Mission Impossible. There is nothing much to recommend this film. It has a silly plot with Hercules attempting to rescue a Babylonian queen who has been enslaved with many others. There is an evil queen. There is a potential suitor for the queen who brings all kinds of gifts and money to the triumvirate which is in control. There is a ridiculous wheel which, when turned, will destroy an entire city. Only one guy can turn it (hint hint). There are some good actions scenes and the print isn't too bad. One thing that was concerting for me were the sound effects. When someone was hit with a club, it made the sound of one of those plastic whiffle ball bats. I'm sure they were made out of plastic, but couldn't they have disguised the sounds a bit better. I have to admit I fast forwarded through the riding and walking scenes which cut out about 15 minutes of the movie.

"There's a limit to the power of resistance."

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 9 August 2009]

When the King of Babylon died, he left the throne to his three children to rule the land equally. But, and it should come as no surprise, they all have designs on running things for themselves – making for lots of treachery and backstabbing. Their kingdom also needs a steady supply of slaves. But one of their newest slaves just happens to be the Queen of the Hellenes. Hercules gets the signal and jumps into action to rescue the Queen before her true identity can be discovered. Along the way, he'll do what he can to free the rest of the slaves and bring an end to the tyranny of Babylon.

As far as peplums go, Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon is on the down side of average. The two biggest problems are the lack of a memorable, big moment and Peter Lupus as Hercules. Most all sword and sandal movies worth their salt have one big memorable moment – it might be a fight scene against a Cyclops or a battle against a mechanical giant or it might be the destruction of an army – but there's usually a moment or scene that stands out. That's not the case with Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon. The closest you'll find here is probably the scene where Hercules turns the big wheel to bring down the walls of Babylon. But it's so ridiculous that it's hardly THE moment. I mean what city is constructed on top of a giant wheel that can be turned to bring about its destruction. It's the equivalent of building a modern city on top of an atomic bomb. It's just stupid! Besides the lack of a big moment, the rest of the screenplay is pretty dull. I'll admit that some of the scenes with the siblings scheming against each other were pretty good, but that's about it. Overall, not a lot of interesting things to hang your hat on.

As for Lupus, he makes for one very dull Hercules. He's got the body for it – tanned to perfection with the ever present sheen of oil – but like the screenplay, he's also dull. The man just didn't have the command or screen presence to pull of being the lead in a movie like this. It doesn't help matters that his version of Hercules insists on carrying a very large club that obviously weighs no more than five pounds. And the sound it makes when he goes into battle – bong, bong, bong. When I was little, I had a game called Bing, Bang, Bong. You arranged these small drum like trampolines just so and bounced a metal ball from one to the other. That's what Hercules club sounds like in Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon – a metal ball hitting a rubber trampoline. For some reason, I doubt that's what it would sound like if someone were to hit you in the skull with a huge club. (I do realize that it's a tricky thing to criticize anything related to sound in a low-budget Italin movie from the 1960s that's been dubbed. But in this case, I can't help myself.)

I've listed the negatives, so what about the positives? I can sum-up the film's biggest highlight with two words – Helga Line. She is the lone (and very beautiful) bright spot. Though I must admit that some of her outfits probably weren't right for Babylon in 1,000 B.C., but still, she looked good. She also has the best part in the plot. Her scheming is by far more interesting that that of either of her two brothers. But as much as I enjoyed seeing Ms. Line, by herself she can't save the movie. I usually enjoy even bad peplums, however, in the case of Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon, a 4/10 seems about right.

He Wields A Mighty Club

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 2 January 2011]

Peter Lupus who later was a regular on Mission Impossible takes his turn as Hercules in Hercules And The Tyrants Of Babylon. His mission in this peplum is to save the Queen of the Hellenes.

The two middle eastern empires of the time have raided and sacked Greece and one of them has carried off the Queen of the Hellenes. Problem is that Babylon doesn't know that they have her, but the Assyrian king sure does. When the Assyrian king visits the three sharing Babylonian monarchs and wishes to buy all their captive women slaves, they smell something up.

In the meantime Hercules is on his mission to save her from whomever. To aid Lupus in his quest, he's got himself one mighty club, the stick which looks like a big and thick tree branch can give a mighty whack when Hercules wields it.

As peplum pictures go, this one's a bit above the norm.

Seemed to Lose Its Sense of Direction Towards the End

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 23 September 2014]

This movie takes place about 3000 years ago with a man named, "Salman Osar" (Livio Lorenzon), his brother "Azzur" (Tullio Altamura) and their sister, "Taneal" (Helga Line) jointly ruling the Babylonian Empire. Although the affairs of state are being effectively managed by mutual consent, the fact is that all three desire sole authority and each of them secretly scheme against the other two. This intrigue soon becomes even more heated when a Babylonian raiding party sent to obtain slaves unknowingly captures "Asparia" (Anna Maria Pollani), the Queen of the Hellenes. Soon both the Assyrian "King Phaleg" (Mario Petri) and "Hercules" (Peter Lupus) set out for Babylon to release her from Babylonian captivity. While King Phaleg seeks to force her to marry him in order to extend his empire, Hercules only wants to reunite her with her subjects. Now, as far as the overall movie is concerned, although I thought it started off pretty good it seemed to lose its sense of direction towards the end. In any case, Peter Lupus managed to portray Hercules reasonably well and both Helga Line and Anna Maria Pollani certainly added to the scenery. But other than that I really didn't see anything that remarkable about this movie. Accordingly, I rate this movie as just slightly below average.

Give me those old time Sunday movies...

[slurpygloop · 7/10 · 16 March 2003]

Ah! Another rainy day,Sunday Sword and Sandal affair..these movies always bring back such joy and regarded youth...if you don't dig "bad" flicks or just plain goofy ones,this isn't yer cup of meat.On the other hand,this isn't too retched-Peter Lupus as the man in charge,a decent plot,the usual foolishness= a good way to waste a Sunday afternoon...what happened to those days,anyhoo...??

SLOW DULL AND BORING

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 16 April 2004]

I love Hercules movies, but this one is a snoozer. Maybe it needs commercials and beer (if only I drank).

The plot has Hercules wandering the desert looking for his Queen who has been taken as a slave by the evil people of Babylon. The Babylonians don't know they have the queen so she wanders around in the desert with other slaves. There is talk of a man who can single handedly wipe out army's , Hercules, and chatter about getting more power, but it's all talk and no action.

Into this comes the Assyrian king who is making a power play for both the Babylonian throne and what ever throne the slave girl Queen has, for give me I was dozing.

There's a few really badly staged fights and way way way too much talk.

SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING

Then the movie slips in to the realm of hysterically stupid----

The who city of Babylon is built so that if one wheel is turned the whole thing collapse on itself. Guess what happens? Its hidden under the city and looks incredibly dumb and Hercules spins it in order to cover the escape.

There is a brilliant calvary charge that looks great but leads to a slave /Assyrian battle that ends almost as soon as it starts when the king is killed (they only had so much film)

Eventually after wandering in the desert the now freed slaves, Queen and Hercules, come over a rise to the promised land, music swells and the camera reveals and even more barren desert. The End.

END SPOILER ALERT

Avoid this movie unless you've never been bored and wanting to truly do everything before you die.

Peter Lupus as Hercules in Babylon circa 1000 b.c.; an entertaining peplum

[django-1 · 8/10 · 7 September 2003]

Peter Lupus (aka Rock Stevens) stars as Hercules in this colorful Italian sword-and-sandal opus, one of four Lupus made in Italy in

1964-65, before rocketing to stardom in the Mission Impossible TV show. We don't really think of any particular manner of dress in Babylon-- at least I don't!--so the costumers came up with some outlandish fashions here, and the art design is also creative! The scenes of intrigue in the palace are dramatically well-done and feature peplum/swashbuckler regular Livio Lorenzon as the ruler of Babylon, dealing with both his queen, the King of Assyria, and Hercules, who has come to reclaim the Queen of the Hellenes, taken as a Babylonian slave. In some scenes in the film Hercules has a over-large club that he both swings at people and throws! It lends a comic-book flavor to those sequences that is not really in keeping with the serious nature of the rest of the film. Lupus has a powerful physique and is one of the best actors in the peplum genre--all four of his Italian films are worth watching and are distinctly different from each other. Domenico Paolella directed three of Lupus' four peplums and also worked with such Amercians as Guy Madison, Lex Barker, Ed Fury, Don Megowan, Richard Harrison, Mark Forest, Ken Clark, John Ericson and John Ireland. Whether a peplum, a pirate film, a spy film, or a western, he seemed to be able to put together a fast-moving and entertaining feature. Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon is recommended to any serious peplum fan. The VHS copy I watched, while a pan-and-scan TV print, is crisp and clear and colorful.

Peter Lupus and Helga Liné make this one interesting

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 16 February 2014]

The Queen of the Hellenes has been taken by the Babylonians as a slave. Troubles is, they don't realise they have her but the Assyrian king does. He visits the three rulers - two brothers and a sister - and attempts to buy all their female slaves. Suspicions are soon aroused. Meanwhile, the mighty Hercules sets out to rescue the captured Queen.

In this instalment of Italian Hercules series, we have the added interest factor in having Peter Lupus in the main role. Going under the name Rock Stevens here, he would go onto significant television fame as Willy Armitage in Mission: Impossible and later as Norberg in Police Squad! But it was in these early peplums that he got an early break. They're not the most demanding of movies for an actor and mainly require a ripped torso which Lupus most certainly possessed. In this one, he comically sports a silly over-sized club that was less Hercules and more Fred Flintstone.

As is often the case in Italian Hercules films there is an evil queen as well as a good girl who the hero must rescue. And also, as seemed to be mostly the way, it's the evil queen who is the best character in the movie. In this entry it is the extremely alluring Helga Liné who takes up this particular mantle as Taneal the scheming sister in the Babylonian hierarchy. Aside from her, it's more or less business as usual sword and sandal style, although the production values did seem a little better than normal. The story-line is pretty predictable though and nothing is really there to surprise us. When it's announced half-way through that there is a large wheel in the catacombs of the city that, when turned by a hundred men, will bring the city cashing down, it's not a giant stretch guessing what's going to happen later on.

It's Desperation Time!

[Chance2000esl · 2/10 · 22 March 2009]

If you are going to watch this movie, or read this review you must be pretty desperate. So why am I writing it? As a spoiler.

Compared with other Hercules films, this one has almost nothing going on, except for the fact that Peter Lupus (credited as 'Mark Stevens') of 'Mission Impossible' and 'Police Squad' the TV show, is Hercules. What an upper body!

It's basically infighting and intrigue between kings and a queen, none of whom are very interesting or distinctive acting wise. The film makers have loaded it up with tedious dialogue ("No contractions allowed!"), stilted stiff acting (the actors mostly stand around like statues), a pompous music track with bombast substituting for dramatic interaction between characters, and a a final chain pulling scene that seems to go on forever.

The best part is seeing over a thousand soldiers on horseback, but that scene may have been taken from another film.

This is really bottom of the barrel. I'll give it a 2, just for Peter Lupus.

Hercules Saves Babylon

[Rainey-Dawn · 2/10 · 22 January 2017]

Instead of Goliath saving Babylon from evil rulers - it is Hercules that saves the people from an evil, nasty, wicked sorceress.

Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) and this film are about the same, compatible with the strongman saving the population of Babylon from evil that is in power.

Nothing overly special about this film. Standard sword and sandal flick with different actors and a little different story that centers around our heroic strongman saving a mass of people. It's an okay enough peplum that I can relax to and watch the mind-numbing action and cool costumes while getting ready to fall asleep.

2/10

In spite of the Greek setting, this is basically just an "Aida" rip-off.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 February 2023]

An evil pair of brother and sister rulers conquer the Hellenes, enslave the people and try to discover which one of the women slaves is actually the Greek Queen of the Hellenes. Hercules (Rock Stevens, or Peter Lupus, or whatever you want to call him, becomes involved and is determined to protect the hidden Queen no matter what. There's also a secret involving the city underneath the ground, and that is the one way in which he can bring the wicked Interlopers down. The evil queen apparently has some sorceress powers, but they are barely seen, unless you count the laughable overacting of both actors.

Apparently the wheel which can bring the city down is there in case of conquest, and only Hercules knows its location. Muscular Lupus/Stevens is quite the sight to behold, and his physical presence is definitely impressive even if the performance isn't. There are some interesting sets utilized in dramatizing this story, yet it is often slow and frequently extremely silly. There are definite laughs unintentionally over how some of the supporting characters look. Definitely worth a view, but like most Gladiator movies of the Peplum era, it's not worth revisiting.

Half-Decent, Half-Dull

[jethrojohn · 5/10 · 9 October 2022]

Peter Lupus (the original Mission Impossible TV show) is Hercules here in an attempt to make another Steve Reeves.

Unfortunately, the filmmakers didn't take the biggest lesson from the Reeves Hercules, and that is to keep it moving.

Reeves' Hercules films are quite cheap and the acting is under-par, but there is always something happening. He stops runaway carriages, battles lions, and go after shape-shifters. It's a fun, fast-moving, silly adventure that you can enjoy.

Here we have long periods of talking and badly done political discussions. Periods that pass without Hercules even being on-screen.

Why they felt the need to have so much boring talk going on is beyond me. The plot is simple. Queen is kidnapped, everyone wants queen.

But we keep cutting to the rulers of Babylon chatting amongst themselves and half-heartedly scheming.

Worse still, it takes Hercules himself 50 minutes of the movie to even GET to Babylon, and in that time he has two fights. One where he chucks rocks at people and another fairly decent battle scene. But this adds up to less than 10 minutes of actual action.

The action, sets, and costumes look decent for this kind of thing. There just needs to be more of it.

As it is, this movie commits the cardinal sin of low budget films - it's very boring in places. Basically, whenever Hercules is on-screen it's fine. But for the rest of it, not so much.

And since Herc is only there for about 30 minutes in the WHOLE film, you can see what the issue is.

Push, pull, throw, crush, fight!

[Aegelis · 4/10 · 16 June 2021]

Hercules is a quasi-hero here, overall does the 'good' thing though it's always important to remember that civilians can often be collateral damage when collapsing buildings and empires. I guess finesse isn't a Herculean trait. Along with the strongman sorts of acts, there was a fair bit of fighting to be had as well. Some political intrigue brought about mild interest into how all this was going to unravel.

Plot became very contrived, predictable, and absurd, but am fairly sure this wasn't the point of the movie. Acting was very much lacking by most, especially those who had a lot of screen time. I'm alright with hokey effects, but there's got to be some points of redemption somewhere.

More of the son of Zeus

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 7 November 2023]

Asparia (Anna-Maria Polani) is the Queen of the Hellenes, and has been captured by the Babylonians. Somehow, she has hidden her royalty and is living as a common slave in Babylon. Hercules (Rock Stevens, who is really Peter Lupus, who played Flex Martian in Muscle Beach Party, Goliath in Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus and Superman in a series of Air Force commercials, a job he lost when he posed fully nude in Playgirl) is on his way to save her.

King Phaleg of Assyria (Mario Petri) comes to Babylon hoping to marry Asparia and unite their kingdoms. That's stopped by the rulers of the country, Taneal (Helga Line), Salmanassar (Livio Lorenzon) and Azzur (Tullio Altamura). Hercules saves him and continues to Babylon.

When he gets there, the brothers are fighting over who gets to marry Asparia while Taneal destroys her own nation to get its riches. Brother kills brother, King Phaleg shows his true colors and Hercules does what he does best.

This was directed by Domenico Paolella, who directed his first movie, Gli ultimi della strada, in 1940 and wrote his last, Power and Lovers, in 1994. He also wrote the story with Luciano Martino.

The problem I have with this is that Helga Line, as a murderous maniac, is so much more attractive than Polani. If I had the power of Hercules, I know that my decisions would not be as godly.

"Your beauty is only equalled by my wisdom"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 17 November 2023]

The mighty Hercules goes to Babylon to rescue Esperia Queen of the Hellenes and finds her before killing the King of Assyria and pulling down the city. He does the latter by using a big screw in an underground cavern attached to many metal chains which when rotated affect the foundations of the city. Babylon crumbles somehow. It sounds silly and it is but the mechanism itself looks great. The whole film looks good in 'Eastmancolor' and the sets and costumes are quite acceptable. Peter Lupus (aka Rock Stevens) looks the part of Hercules and is in fine fighting form. The film also benefits from the dazzling Helga Liné as Taneal, one of the treacherous rulers of Babylon. Not the best of peplums but entertaining nevertheless.

There is an 'I'm Spartacus' scene which actually works well. I was moved.

Another Hercules

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 11 August 2019]

Quite a few actors portrayed Hercules in all the Sword and Sandals movies. Lupus is on the case in this one and he has a mighty weapon. Which may make you wonder if Hercules would even need that I reckon, but then again, there is no reason to question anything in these movies.

Oiled bodies and some fight scenes included this is another one of thoes and will either entertain you, because you are into the movies or not. Costumes are nicely chosen and the sets were also fine. Of course most is being reused, which is more than ok

Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 4 February 2024]

Queen Asparia of Hellenes has been captured by the Babylonians but has managed to keep her identity secret until King Phaleg arrives offering to buy all the slaves in order to find her and marry her for himself but when the three tyrannical rulers of Babylon discover his plan they to decide to try and find her but Hercules however has heard that she is been held against her will and travels to Babylon to free her.

Peter Lupus (of Mission: Impossible fame) plays Hercules, wielding a giant club and tossing boulders at the dreaded slave owners of the twin cities of Babylon and Nineva. Unfortunately, Hercules only turns up every now and then to save the weak from the evil Babylonians. The villains (Livio Lorenzon, Tullio Altamura, Helga Line and Mario Petri are power mad and willing to stab each other in the back) and the slaves get more screen time, but still it's a fairly entertaining viewing, though on occasion scattered with slow spots. The beautiful Helga Line, some good action and the villainy keeps thing brewing. Ends with the city of Babylon collapsing, thanks to Hercules turning a wheel. Good sequence.

Helga Liné!

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 13 February 2022]

This is a dull and routine Italian peplum, but it does offer some top-notch eye-candy for both sexes: the aptly named Rock Stevens looks spectacular - certainly one of the most Herculean Hercules of the screen. He has muscles on his muscles, and he towers over the rest of the cast. Helga Liné is astonishingly, almost superhumanly beutiful; her close-ups, of which there are plenty, are breathtaking. The action, what little there is of it, is poorly staged, though the climactic collapse of Babylon is fairly well-done. ** out of 4.

Rockin' Babylon to its foundations

[Chase_Witherspoon · 6/10 · 5 May 2012]

After the King of Abyssinia (Petri) is double-crossed by the three rulers of Babylon (Line, Lorenzon, Altamura), he enlists the aid of the mighty Hercules (Lupus, billed as 'Rock Stevens') to overthrow Babylon and capture a Queen (Polani) hiding amongst serfs in the city, to be his bride. Polani also happens to be Hercules' girlfriend, leading to further treachery as Petri seeks to rub out Hercules once the Queen has been delivered to safety.

Lupus is a more affable Hercules than most, a likable hulk who went on to co-star in the "Mission: Impossible" TV series in the late sixties. But my favourite part of this Herc episode is the appearance of German bombshell Helga Line. She's something special, and has a sizable role as the seductive and scheming sister, seeking to take the throne of Babylon that she reluctantly shares with her two brothers through an elaborate plan involving a massive underground winch system primed to literally tear the city apart.

All the elements are present with fierce battles, glorious colourful costumes and sets, heroism and tragedy, inane dialogue ("look our king is dead, let's surrender") and the usual array of villains and conspiracies to entertain fans of the genre. In terms of highlights, don't miss the scene in which Hercules is invited to fight with pretenders to his mantle and discovers that the fight has been fixed in his opponents' favour - pity the fool.

Batter Up!...

[azathothpwiggins · 15 June 2021]

HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON stars Peter Lupus (aka: Rock Stevens) as the terminally-shirtless muscle mound of the title.

It seems that the Babylonians are having trouble acquiring more slaves, as Hercules keeps tossing ten-ton tater tots of stone at their soldiers. He also uses his trusty tree to swat them like the bugs they are! This ticks off the wicked trio of King Assur (Tullio Altamura), his brother, Salmanassur (Livio Lorenzon), and their sister, Taneal (Helga Line).

Oh no!

The queen of a rival nation has been enslaved by these Babylonian baddies! Have no fear! Herc is on his way! Joining up with a third nation, H-Man uses his 500-lb. Club to bop Babylonians like bipedal golf balls!

Can Hercules save the queen, free the slaves, and avoid his own demise? Well, let's just say that he's the well-oiled bowling ball, and his foes are the puny pins!

Of course, there must be a "test of strength", involving other muscular types. This time, everyone gets a big club. The sound of their impact is like pumpkins being smacked by wiffle bats full of pudding!

Oh no, again!

After reducing his opponents to jelly, Hercules stumbles upon the Babylonians' "doomsday device"!

Prepare the drinks, sit your scrawny selves down, and behold the go-rilla-sized wonder that is Hercules!...

Average for this genre

[Wizard-8 · 4 December 2016]

"Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon" was picked up by American- International Pictures for a stateside release. However, A.I.P. decided to release the movie directly to television instead of giving it a theatrical release. When A.I.P. did that, it usually meant they didn't have confidence that the movie in question would do well in theaters, and they were probably right in this case. The movie is not awful by any means - it has some spectacle, from some good production values. And the movie moves from scene to scene fairly briskly. On the other hand, the Hercules in this particular movie doesn't always come off so well. In the first 30% or so of the movie, he only makes two brief appearances. And there is sometimes a goofy vibe to him, such as with the gigantic club he likes to carry around with him. Another problem is that while the movie moves from scene to scene briskly, it soon becomes apparent that there isn't a terrible amount of plot; there are instead a lot of characters equally trying to make their presence known. And a few more action sequences would have helped. If you really like sword and sandal movies, this movie is acceptable, but in no way is it likely to make converts to the genre.