Monday, March 5, 2018

Maciste in Hell (Maciste all'inferno; Guido Brignone, 1925)


The forces of Hell, led by the Lieutenant, Barbariccia (Franz Sala), come to Earth in human form to spread chaos. Barbariccia tries to tempt the superhumanly strong Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) with wealth and power, but the virtuous hero will have no truck with the Devil. Soon after, Maciste confronts Prince George (Domenico Serra), demanding he take responsibility for the child he has fathered by Maciste's cousin Rosabel (Polaire). Unfortunately, Barbariccia kidnaps the baby, and tells Rosabel he is dead. Cursing God, she almost falls prey to the demon, but a friendly priest intervenes. Meanwhile, Maciste finds the baby and takes it to safety, reuniting him with his mother in the process. Soon the demons return to Hell, but not before dragging Maciste along with them...

The strongman Maciste is one of the longest-running characters in Italian cinema, debuting in the 1914 film Cabiria, the first of 27 silent films. In the 1960s, with Steve Reeves' Hercules a huge success, Italian filmmakers revived Maciste for a series of "sword and sandal" flicks. Since Maciste was not a well-known character outside of Italy, the dubbed versions often changed the name "Maciste" to other heroes of myth and legend. For instance, Maciste e la regina de Samar became Hercules Against the Moon Men. One interesting aspect of both incarnations of Maciste is that he appears in many disparate locales and centuries, as shown by the title of Zorro contro Maciste, a cinematic crossover with Johnston McCulley's swashbuckling hero. This leads to the inescapable conclusion the strongman is immortal. If so, perhaps Rosabel is actually his descendant rather than his cousin. That being said, this film is somewhat confusing in chronological terms. The montage of wonders Barbariccia offers Maciste includes shots of skyscrapers, yet Prince George's retainers wear powdered wigs and ruffled shirts. Despite this, the film's atmosphere is great. Hell is eerie, and the goatlike makeup on the actors playing demons is exceptional for the era. In human form, they resemble nothing less than stereotypical silent movie villains - think Snidely Whiplash. (Fans of exploitation cinema may recognize some of the Hell footage, as it was reused in Dwain Esper's 1934 sleaze masterpiece Maniac to symbolize the protagonist's madness, as well as footage from Benjamin Christensen's Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages and Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen: Siegfried). There are some cool special effects for the time: a demon's head inflates, while another places a head atop his neck. Franz Sala is more husky than muscular, but he makes a good hero. There is a slightly cringeworthy sexist line regarding the women of Hell's attempts to seduce Maciste, "Even in Hell, women are fickle!" I know this movie is pre-Gloria Steinem, but still... The script is fairly literary, including quotes from Longfellow and Dante. I've seen a couple of the 1960s Maciste films before, but this was the first of the original series I've seen, and I definitely want to check out more now.

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