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.

The Sword and the Claw (Kiliç Aslan; Natuk Baytan, 1979)

King Solomon is killed by the usurper Antoine, and his fleeing wife dies giving birth to his son. The baby, who like all males of his line has a birthmark in the shape of a scimitar and a lion's head, is raised by lions himself, while Antoine's wife, who slept with Solomon shortly after her forced marriage and before the king's death, gives birth to a boy herself, only to be placed in the dungeons for the rest of her life after insulting Antoine. Years later, Solomon's son has grown into a feral but heroic Lion Man (Cüneyt Arkin, best known in America for Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, aka Turkish Star Wars due to its unauthorized use of footage from the original film), who helps the peasants led by Rustam in their rebellion against Antoine and his son Aslan. Lion Man uses his hands like claws, slashing mercilessly at Antoine's soldiers. He also falls in love with Rustam's daughter Ida, while Aslan finds himself drawn to an exotic dancer. Soon, Lion Man and Aslan discover a connection that leads them to join forces against the cruel King Antoine.

Turkish exploitation cinema is pretty popular amongst grindhouse cinema aficionados, from the aforementioned Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam to the Kilink films (inspired by Italian fumetti photo-comics) to 3 Dev Adam, a knock-off film in which El Santo (not played by the real luchador) and a shieldless Captain America take on "the Spider," a sadistic crimeboss version of Spider-Man with eyebrows on his mask. Since 3 Dev Adam was the only other Turkish cult flick I've seen, I was pretty excited when AFGA (American Genre Film Archive) released The Sword and the Claw on Blu-ray last month. I can now say it was very much worth the wait. Set apparently during the time of the Byzantine empire, exactly when and where these events occur are never made fully clear. Some of Antoine's soldiers wear robes, others armor, and some of them have shields that seem to bear the letter "P" on them, for some reason (if there's any historical reference to that, readers can feel free to let me know). The acting feels awkward, and from the way the actors emote it probably would be even without the goofy dubbing, including the longest string of consecutive cries of "Bastard!" The actor playing Antoine hams it up something fierce too. I've heard delivered by a film character since Juan Piquer Simón's Pieces. Cüneyt Arkin (credited as Richard Arkin, incidentally, and more on that below) is a wooden leading man, spending most of the film with no dialogue before taking English lessons from Ida midway through the film, then not speaking again until the film's climax, in complete sentences, apparently having learned human language at a speed that Tarzan might envy, if Lord Greystoke were so petty. The fight scenes are pretty hilarious, with lots of characters jumping around (clearly a trampoline was used), and the gore is far from convincing. Lion Man's mother (whose husband is evidently not the King Solomon) apparently gives birth while fully clothed. The plot twist about Aslan's connection to Lion Man can be seen coming from pretty much the beginning of the film. The fact that Lion Man's family birthmark is an icon that looks exactly like two real things is a pretty goofy plot contrivance. Rustam's fellow rebels include a hairy dude named Hammerfist (of the Boston Hammerfists, perhaps?) and a bald guy who looks a little like Sid Haig in Spider Baby. The soundtrack often sounds more appropriate for the Bolshoi Ballet then a historical epic. When Lion Man acquires a pair of steel claws, it seems redundant, since his old hands worked pretty much like claws anyway. This movie was totally ridiculous, and that's why I loved it. Kudos to AFGA for introducing this Turkish delight to a new generation of American film buffs such as myself. Apparently, there's also a sequel, 1979's Lionman II: The Witchqueen, with a different director and cast. One can only hope AFGA will do that film at some point as well. Bonus features on the Blu-ray include trailers for other AFGA releases (such as Superargo and the Faceless Giants and Three Supermen in the West) and a bonus film, the 1978 South Korean martial arts flick Brawl Busters (whatta title!), which I'm sure I'll be watching and covering here at some point in the near-future.

Unfortunately, IMDB lists the full cast, but not who plays what character. The end credits don't help in that regard either. The fact that many of the actors have both non-Turkish sounding names and a lack of other credits on IMDB makes me think many of the actors used pseudonyms to make the film more palatable to English speaking audiences. Hopefully, someone will track down more info.