2/10
Hercules in New York was a pretty bad movie though the actual Schwarzenegger's voice-dubbed version was the most interesting of the two
1 July 2011
With today the day Maria Shriver officially files for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger (serves him right too since he betrayed her by cheating on her with the maid and had a baby with her, to boot!), I thought I'd watch the former Governator's first movie that he made way back in 1969-Hercules in New York. I saw two versions: the first that I watched on Hulu had no music score and Arnold's voice was badly dubbed by another though compared to his real one, you could hear each word clearly and the second one I saw on YouTube which had his accented voice not always easy to understand (which made his confused mix-up on "bucks" and "dough" with "bucs" and "doe" not as funny) though it had a good Greek-like score. The rating for the first version is above while the other take gets a 4 from me. Arnold is credited as Arnold Strong since, I guess, his co-star happens to be Arnold Stang. Stang is such a one-of-a-kind presence that he brightens most scenes he's in. The only other player I recognized was James Karen who I knew from Poltergeist as well from a guest spot on "The Golden Girls". By the way, when Stang died in December '09, I couldn't help but think of his other roles like the voice of Herman the mouse in those Herman and Katnip cartoons, his role as Frank Sinatra's friend in The Man with the Golden Arm, and his recent roles in "The Cosby Show" and Dennis the Menace. Oh, and while I knew one player couldn't be John Candy since this guy was much older but Abe Holiday on that dock sure looked like him. So on that note, Hercules in New York is interesting for the early role of Mr. Schwarzenegger, not to mention his thick accent, and not much else though one can't completely hate a movie where Hercules fights an obviously bear-suited man. P.S. It was disappointing to hear that dubbed actor again instead of Arnold on the radio at the end of the second version especially since it was much softer this time around.
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