Hercules

Heralding a decade of Italian-made sword-and-sandal films, Hercules -- as it's been known in the United States since its 1959 release -- draws most of its plot from the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Hercules, the half-immortal son of Jupiter (or Zeus) rescues Iole, the daughter of Pelias, ...more

In 1959, Steve Reeves became an international screen star with this film, which had been shot in Italy two years earlier under the title The Labors of Hercules. Bought by producer Joseph E. Levine (who had previously brought the Japanese film Gojira into the United States successfully as Godzilla), retitled and redubbed, and then promoted with a bigger budget than it had cost to shoot the movie, Hercules became a box-office smash in the United States and set the standard for a decade of ...more